Buy Rosewill 3U Server Chassis Rackmount Case, 4X 3.5 Bays, ATX
Compatible, 2X 80mm Fans, 2X USB 3.0, Silver/Black - RSV-Z3100U:
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Review: very very solid...minimal clearances though. Fans are
decent. - I replaced all of the internal fans with Noctua 80mm,
and tbh...the sound difference isn't that minimal. I ended up
reusing the stock fans in different parts of the case. I did two
desktop conversions with these cases, and each worked out
although the clearance between the onboard sata ports and the fan
housing was so short, I had to remove that housing the get insert
the sata cables (and I had to use differing directional angular
connections (one up, one down) to fit one of the boards in. I
managed to fit 8 drives (6 hdd, 2 sdd) in the drive bay area, but
the gap between the drive bays and the motherboard enclosure is a
bit small...fortunately, I installed a sas card with thin sata
cabling (otherwise, they wouldn't have fit). Clearance between
the drives and the fan enclosure is also a few mm too
small...cabling coming out of the drives bends sharply against
the fan grills (they're ultra thin too), and I ended up breaking
one of them (finding out after reassembly...sigh). Being gentle
helps there. The one real gripe though, is that the psu
compartment is too small for all of the psus I have. I got it to
fit, but had to take out the mounting bracket as the psu length
is an inch or so too long, so it's just wedged in there. The
rails come out of the psu and run right into one of the 4
(optional) 80 mm fans, so I could only power the drives and fans
off of the two rails that were far enough to the right to avoid
that fan. You will definitely need fan grills on all internal
fans. The 80mm space in the rear doesn't have mounting
wholes...do I used HVAC tape. It might sound janky, but its
stable. Zip ties area your friend as well at keeping cabling in
order. I also ended up getting a Noctua low profile cooler to
replace the typical monster sized desktop ones. I had to bend it
a bit to get it to clear the ram, and still fit inside the 2U
enclosure. Had to remove the ram heat sync's as well, but that
Noctua was so large it covered the ram as well, so...I suppose
that's a little bit of a positive side effect. Note to self:
never throw away low profile card brackets...the generic ones I
ended up using don't really fit the cards. In total, it was worth
the conversion, although with a 10G and SAS card installed.
Drives are the same temperatures as they were in the desktop case
(29c-35c) even under continuous load. It took a lot of hours
though to get things in and fitting...taking things apart when
they dont fit and re-routing cables. The second time around
though had a much more clean looking result. I don't use
rails...my rack has three shelves in place as-is, so they're just
stacked (bolted, with spaces on the back side for the same
clearance I would have gotten with rails) I think I will go for a
3U or 4U next time just for better clearances for cabling, and
more GPU options (which I didn't have for these conversions).
Review: Great for what it is. Minor quibbles... - This is a nice,
simple, rack mounted server chassis. I was able to get my
Micro-ATX Motherboard into it without issue. Removing and
reinstalling the drive trays is mostly simple. Some screws have
slotted access so you will need a magnetic screwdriver to get
these out if you add drives. Buttons work well as do the
indicator lights. Fits an ATX Power supply. Room for 4 internal
drives and an exterior DVD drive or removable drive. I will be
adding an enclosure that supports a slim DVD drive and 2
removable 2.5 drives. Can also fit a low profile riser card for
additional SATA ports or M.2 slots. A slim Noctua CPU fan fits
but breathing room for the fan is limited. My biggest issue is it
didn't fit into my 17.7" deep networking rack as hoped. There is
space in front of the mounting rails that push this case to close
to the back of the enclosure. It would be perfect if the depth
was 12-13".
