Tower case that holds 16 internal 3.5 inch bays?

Kirika

Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
710
Is there a tower case that actually holds 16 internal 3.5 inch drives plus still has some room for some ssds? Currently have 16 spinners in a 24 bay supermicro case and getting fairly tired of how loud it is can hear it when I open the basement door and is annoying during ping pong and pool sessions. Esxi 6.7 just went eol so looking at upgrade options.
 
The Fractal Design Define 7 XL should hold up to 18 you just have to add the appropriate drive trays. The ones I bought were "Fractal Design FD-A-TRAY-001 HDD Drive Tray Kit - Type-B for Define 7 Series and Compatible Fractal Design Cases - Black".

From Fractal's site - "Mount up to 18 HDD/SSDs plus five SSDs in the Storage Layout"
 
I have 8 HDDs in my Define 7 XL and I'm using less than half of the available space for drives. So it should work. I also have a 420mm radiator, which is nice for being quiet.

Sorry for the weird angle, my tower is behind one of my monitors and can't really move, but you can kinda see where most of my hard drives are in this picture, as well as clearance with an RTX 3080 and the tubes for my radiator.
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That gap in hard drives before the 3080 is actually where I have an extra 140mm fan on the radiator for a (tiny) bit of Push/Pull, but mostly to just ensure the graphics card gets a bit more fresh air that isn't going through my HDDs.
That is a slim 120mm fan below the graphics card that is another exhaust. Honestly, in my experience, that has been the absolute most beneficial way to cool down my GPU that i've seen, all the hot GPU air goes straight out the back of the case.
There are also two 140mm exhausts on the top - (Easily room for a second 280mm radiator there if needed) Which don't seem to be doing much since I switched from an air cooler to an AIO, but I have the space and the quiet fans so I might as well leave em.

wow I need to dust.
 
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can you change the fans or control the fans in the Super Micro to make it quieter?
I am using an old Yeong Yang YY-0221 cube that can hold 18 drives total using a pair of 5in3 front cages and double up the drives in the back and a pair of SSD's in the two 3.5" top front bays.
Bought this case around 18 years ago, sold it 10 years ago, it was sold and traded a few more times over the years.
Was at a friends house buying a dual Xeon workstation and he mentioned that he had acquired my old YY-0221 case. I said I wouldn't mind having it back, and few months later he gave it back me.
I moved my plex server into it along with a pair of new ICY Dock 5in3 drive bays.

IMG_1196.JPEG IMG_2222.JPEG

you could actually put a few SSD's on the mobo side if you wanted too,
IMG_1195.JPEG
 
Icecold TheSlySyl
Thank you that is exactly what I was looking for.
Bit pricey at $194 on new egg https://www.newegg.com/black-fracta...xyAm-VnuCBlDpPkEB5YaAr_WEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
how many Fractal Design FD-A-TRAY-001 HDD Drive Tray Kit - Type-B at $17.99. do you need to put in 18 drives?
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...EiQeOOI9zMjWvj73dUiCade3tv7Wb0lIaAm-CEALw_wcB

Zepher
Thank you. I did replace the fans on the super micro when I got it years ago. Its still annoyingly loud. Couldn't resist the $350 or so for the dual opteron 24 bays. Didn't know how loud rack servers were. I think the deal thread actually was from hardforum. Years later I changed the motherboard twice and still haven't filled all the bays and the last batch of drives aren't even half full from 2020 when I put them in so thinking I want to move it to quieter tower and out of the basement. Doesn't look like the Yeong Yang YY-0221 is available any longer so looking at the Fractal. define 7. I actually have a really old double tower steel case so huge and heavy it has to have wheels that might work but don't really want to drill and tap holes and its huge and heavy. I had an Asus PC-DL dual 1.6 lv xeons over clocked to 3.2 ghz in it with like 12 drives then reused it for a supermicro dual core 2 duo> quad system. Just remembered I still had it when you mentioned your old case.
 
I bought 2 sets of the trays, which gave me enough trays for 12 (I think) hard drives + the default trays and all the other mounting options. As I'm only using 8 HDDs at the moment, I still have more trays and more space to put them if I want more in the future.
 
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