[beldecca]

Somehow stumbled across the CHENBRO ES34169-BK-120 case and thought again of making a home server (especially with two laptop crashes in as many months

)

In a small footprint (10.24" x 5.5" x 10.24") it manages to get:

• ITX motherboard
• 120W power (enough for a server surely)
• 1x 2.5" drive bay for OS
• 4x 3.5" hot swap bays for data
• 1x slim OD bay

Newegg Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811123154
at $130 it seems reasonable. Does anyone know of a better, smaller form factor case that can hold this number of drives for a home server?

 

[ComGuards]

What are you going to do with this "server"? Windows Home Server?

 

[beldecca]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComGuards What are you going to do with this "server"? Windows Home Server?

Yeh, sorry, it's in the header, but I was looking at windows home server (or maybe a linux build of some sort).

 

[lilraver018]

It is an ok, only thing good is small and has hot swapable trays. But being a windows home server. You wont hotswap that much so kind of pointless. I just grabbed a case i had around the house and did some decent cable management.

Doesnt come with the motherboard , at least that is what it appears to me. So 130 bucks for a case and hot swap trays. ill pass. you can get the same if you bought a cheap case and a 4-3 hotswap bay.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816212010

 

[beldecca]

Nope, no motherboard incl. Also a bit of a challenge to find an ITX board with 5+ sata ports. Found some server atom-based ones but they are about $150.

It's the small form factor (with 3-5 drives total) that I was really looking for.
I know you can find ultra cheap towers, but they can be clunky in a home or small office (also looking at building one for my church) situation.

 

[the_beast]

By the time you factor in the cost of a mITX mobo, cpu, RAM & a WHS licence, a MediaSmart prebuilt from HP or similar makes more sense if you want a small server with hotswap bays.

 

[beldecca]

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_beast By the time you factor in the cost of a mITX mobo, cpu, RAM & a WHS licence, a MediaSmart prebuilt from HP or similar makes more sense if you want a small server with hotswap bays.

This is probably true.

I think I was looking at an excuse to make another computer (hey a house needs 5 right?)