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  • Recommendation for a server case!

    I am going to build a dual PIII graphic workstation/file server with IDE or SCSI Raid HD system. I need a top quality case with plenty of room for expansion and ease of installation and has plenty of cooling. Anyone own or has experience with any of these cases below?

    Antec KS-011BX

    Enlight EN-8960

    Supermicro SC801-AX

    InWin IW-Q2000


    From what I found from the Internet, the Enlight looks the coolest and has the best cooling (11 fans), the Antec has the most drive bays(18). Any recommedation is appreciated...

    btw, company is paying for it so money is not an important issue.

    [This message has been edited by Sir Hitech (edited 02 November 1999).]

  • #2
    Well...
    I can speak _VERY_ highly of Antec. I have the Antec KS-188, and its the most ass kicking workstation case i've ever used. Its a huge 24", 300w power supply (and not some paper power supply, as a lot of cheap ones are), has 5 5 1/4" external bays, and 7 3 1/2" internal bays. One fan mount on the bottom, and two up top. Doesn't sound like much, but my case temperature varies between 26 celsius and 32 celsius, depending on how hot my room is that day. VERY impressive. This actually improved the stability of my OC'd P3.
    However, i'd imagine you'd be more interested in its quality of construction and such. The KS-188 was really top notch, no rough edges, a _great_ pullout motherboard tray (actually takes the cards with it too!), solid design, and the hard drive cages are removable.
    I was very pleased.
    I _almost_ Bought an Inwin Q500 case though, since that was highly reviewed as well.
    Supermicro and Enlight both go without saying as being trly excellent cases.
    Despite my good experiences with the Antec ks-188 (which comes from their value line, believe it or not), i'd have to say the Enlight would be your best bet. I've yet to hear a complaint about it, and with RAID, cooling is a must.

    ------------------
    P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor

    P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor, Antec KS-188 24" Tower, 6 year old Honeywell-SUH 101key Keyboard, Logitech Trackman Marble+

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    • #3
      Check out the new Addtronics Server Case the WTX also the 7896A and 7890A are great server cases as well.
      www.addtronics.com/

      Paul
      "Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself"

      Comment


      • #4
        I have an ElanVital S30 server case. It's the nicest case I've ever seen. Design and build quality are absolutely unmatched in every way. They also have 3 larger models (S50, S70, and S100) Be warned, they are hard to find and expensive, but they are far and away the nicest cases you can buy.

        The website's rather slow (2nd earthquake?) but check it out here

        ------------------
        Kind Regards,

        KvH


        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks guys for the recommendations. All the cases recommended are all very high quality. I guess I am not going to do wrong with any of these server cases. I think I just draw a straw from the hat.. More servers and workstations are going to be built next month so I can play with a few different cases. Thanks again ... MURC rules!

          Comment


          • #6
            I use an Addtronics Full Tower personally. I HIGHLY recommend Addtronics cases. They are heavy, because they use a very high quality think steel, but are VERY well made.

            The power supplies are very good, too. I have had up to 13 fans, a peltier cooled PIII, ASUS board, and every slot filled on the board w/ 2 HDD's and 2 CD-ROM's in, and have never had power supply problems. And that is with the 250 W supply. Imagine how well the 300 W will do!

            That and since there is so much extra room in the cases they are easy to modify. Go here to see one of the coolest, and very practical, mods I have ever seen to a case:

            http://2cooltek.hypermart.net/7896.html

            Jammrock
            “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
            –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

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            • #7
              Alright Jammrock,

              Another Addtronics fan.

              Here's some pics of my Addtronics 7896A case


              Had to add the Darth Mahl logo for that personal touch

              Paul
              "Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself"

              Comment


              • #8
                ALBPM,

                Addtronics rules! I have made a few mods to mine, but lack the digital camera and web space to post pics. Anyway, I have it insulated with Dynamat to cut down the noise produced by the 9 fans sitting inside of it. It helps out a lot, trust me.

                Then I cut a hole in the back of the case where the top 5.25" internal drive bay is. I added a 3Dcool.com Twin turbo 5.25" bay fan to act as a blow hole for the heat. Very affective cooling system.

                Jammrock

                ------------------
                PIII 450@something higher, 256 MB RAM, 35 GB on 2 WD Expert drives, Abit Hot Rod UDMA 66 controller, CL 6x DVD, G400 32 MB DH, SB Live! w/ Digital I/O, LinkSys Etherfast 10/100, DSI 56k modem, Addtronics 6896A Case w/ a crap load of fans and Dynmat noise dampening in it, MAG DX715T monitor.

                Hi, my name is Jammrock. I'm a computer phreak and an EverSmack addict.
                “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
                –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

                Comment


                • #9
                  Hey, Jammrock:

                  I am not sure about cutting holes in the server case. After all, it's going be company property.. Plus I failed my woodworking and mechenical shop classes during high school... O_o ~~~

                  My company suprised me by deciding on a 8 HD SCSI Raid 10(stripping + mirroring) set up plus cd drive, cd writer, zip drive, jazz drive, floppy drive, and tape backup (14 drive bays minimum). The Antec KS-011BX can house that many drives plus 400 W x 2 Redundant Hot Swap PS for around $500. According to their site, it only has three fans. I am not quite sure that's enough to cool all the drives. I heard that ElanVital has a server case that can house 22 drives. I could never get to their site to find out more info because their connection crawls. What I like are the big square cases Compaq and HP use for their departmantal servers <IMG SRC="http://tlh.fdt.net/~ymc/proliant3000.jpg" border=0 >


                  I wonder which case maker does the OEM for them. It would be nice to work on one of those.

                  [This message has been edited by Sir Hitech (edited 05 November 1999).]

                  [This message has been edited by Sir Hitech (edited 05 November 1999).]

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I know. ElanVital has the ultimate server case in the S100. I don't know why they can't fix their site.. here's a pic of the thing (or 2)





                    I got my S30 from Truecomp in California (Truecomp@yahoo.com) Good luck!

                    ------------------
                    Kind Regards,

                    KvH


                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I wish I knew who made my case. It started out as AT with a redundant 300W PS. It's now ATX (thanks Dremel!) and has a 350W Server PS with 224w combinded 3.3v and 5v rating. It is huge! Nine 5 1/4" drive bays in front! Plenty of room for cooling. Four 90mm fans, two 80mm, and two 60mm on Lil Mofo h/s for dual Celeron. Here are some pics.











                      ------------------
                      ABIT BP6, 192MB PC100 RAM, dual 366 Celerons oc'd to 550MHz, 3DFXCool GlobalWin FEP32 'Lil Mofo' h/s fans. Marvel G200 PCI, Canopus Pure3DII, 3COM 905B NIC, Buslogic FlashPoint LW Ultra-Wide SCSI, SB16 ISA. Segate Medalist PRO 9.1 GB UW SCSI 7200RPM, Maxtor 20.4GB ATA66 7200RPM 2MB Cache, 8GB tape b/u, IDE 32x CDROM, SCSI 4xwrite/8xread Panasonic CD writer, 4 more various 2GB SCSI drives.
                      Tyan Thunder K7, 768MB Registered DDR ECC, 2xMP2200+, Radeon 9700 Pro, Adaptec 2940U2B Ultra2 SCSI, TB Santa Cruz, Pyro 1394DV. RAID 0 stripe set on hacked Promise UltraTX2 with dual WD 120MB SE drives. HP DVD200i DVD+RW drive.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Jeepman:
                        It looks like an Antec KS-011 case(AT). Does it has 10 31/2 drive bays inside? I was looking into the KS-011BX with 400Watt RPS. I see you have added additional fans to the case. It made me think twice about the cooling capacity of this case. Imaging the heat generated by filling up the bays with 10k rpm SCSI drives. The Elan Vital S-100 server case is a beauty. Showed the pictures to my Network Administrator and he immediately started to drool. For those who are interested at getting cubic server cases, try <a href="http://www.esc-ca.com/cases/index.html" target=_top>http://www.esc-ca.com/cases/index.html"</a>. Those Yeong Yang caes are also quite nice.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Sir Hitech,

                          Yes, it DID have room for 10 drives besides the front bays. I took out the six drive bay, and that is where the two 90mm crossflow fans reside. I do have two drives populating the two cages up top near the old power switch.

                          I love this case, it cost my work $400 US in 1996, and I bought it for $100US in 1998. I am on my third mobo in it. I was able to get a ATX ps from a dual PII server, so I have plenty of juice.

                          Thanks for the identity!
                          Tyan Thunder K7, 768MB Registered DDR ECC, 2xMP2200+, Radeon 9700 Pro, Adaptec 2940U2B Ultra2 SCSI, TB Santa Cruz, Pyro 1394DV. RAID 0 stripe set on hacked Promise UltraTX2 with dual WD 120MB SE drives. HP DVD200i DVD+RW drive.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Sir Hitech,

                            I finally got the antec page to load. It is cool seeing the case "up close." The KS11B case is very similar. It looks like they sacrified one of the 5 1/4" front bays to mount the 90mm fans vertical.

                            That is a good idea because the way my case is, they are horizontal, and the right fan is pretty much wasted. It brings in cool air, but without the added fans, it really wouldn't do any good. Luckilly, all my drives fit in the front bays, and the upper cages so I was able to add the crossflow fans!
                            Tyan Thunder K7, 768MB Registered DDR ECC, 2xMP2200+, Radeon 9700 Pro, Adaptec 2940U2B Ultra2 SCSI, TB Santa Cruz, Pyro 1394DV. RAID 0 stripe set on hacked Promise UltraTX2 with dual WD 120MB SE drives. HP DVD200i DVD+RW drive.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Well, Sir Hitech? Which one did you decide on? Did you find anything special out there? Any good deals?

                              ------------------
                              Kind Regards,

                              KvH

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