2nd case for hard drives

[itschris]

Okay... I'm trying to get back to building my HTPC. With the worry about heat, is there any reason not to buy a 2nd case and just run a little longer cables to the case and keep the hard drives there?]

I have the Mozart case and they make a slimmer version that I could easily just stack atop the larger main case. Pros/Cons? I'm going to be running 2 2tb drives and maybe even a 3rd 500 gig for the operating system and some basic apps leaving the other two big ones solely for data.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Well, nothing is wrong, but as alternative and cleaner install you might want to consider this or similar external enclosure (maybe even cheaper? Some of these cases go for $60)
http://www.provantage.com/startech-s352u2rerc~7STR917P.htm

 

[itschris]

The only reason I'm thinking about a 2nd Mozart case was just purely asthetics. I think it would look good as well as help control heat. I figured next to the video card, the HD's are going to be the next biggest heat issue. Rather than just stuffing it all into one box, trying to figure out the best fan setup, I figure I'd be able to drastically reduce heat by putting them in the second case with their own fans.

I already have the bigger version of the case and this one is just the slimmer version. It's not cheap, but it would look really good stacked.
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Mozart-VC7001SNS-MicroATX-Desktop/dp/B000KZH5T4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273948867&sr=8-2

 

[its phillip]

As long as you have decent enough airflow in your case your drives will be fine. What size fans does your current case take?

 

[dalessandro12]

Just keep adequate airflow and you'll be fine. I am running several computers I built myself but my server has 3-1.5TB and 2-2.0TB drives (all WD Caviar Green drives) and it is cool and silent.

 

[Nemo128]

This looks like a job for NAS.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Thinking Outside The Box

With the worry about heat, is there any reason not to buy a 2nd case and just run a little longer cables to the case and keep the hard drives there?

Now that's what I call "thinking outside the box"!

You would also have to connect the molex power cable to the fan(s) in your 2nd case to COOL those 2 or 3 HDDs!

It seems reasonable.

But here is another idea - building a NAS. I don't know if it's a better idea, but it's another idea to think about.

I don't want to hijack this thread, so I think I'll just start a new thread on my simple NAS build.

NAS = Network Attached Storage

 

[dalessandro12]

I think your plan largely relies on what you are trying to achieve. Are you looking at setting up a RAID array, duplication or just massive storage? Are you keeping your ripped DVDs/Blu Rays at the original compression and file sizes or are you going to shrink the main movie and remove the menus and extras?

I did the latter, I stripped out all the extra stuff and ripped just the main movies of my DVDs and shrunk most of them to about 1.5GB (CGI/action flicks with a lot of special affects I either kept original size or shrunk to about 4GB). With this, I am able to save my DVD's to a 1.5TB Caviar Green drive, duplicate it to another Caviar Green 1.5TB drive and I don't have to worry about losing my hard work. Currently, I have about 500 DVD's set up like this - converted to AVI (Xvid) on my server that I stream to my HTPC in my family room.