92 replies to this topic

[jcollison]

Jim,
Just a thought. If you get a very small case to pair with the drobo, there is no turning back. If you get a case that has room for at least a few internal drives, at least you can still have a server if the Drobo gives out or you get in the mood to put that raid card to use, you will not be stuck with a case or system you cannot do much with. Just a thought.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811112227


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811112265

So nice of you to be looking out for me Mike! I like these two cases as well...but I am looking for smaller. Thanks for the links

As a side note...it could be come my next HTPC if the whole Drobo thing doesn't work out...

Hey Jim,

to go with the Drobo, consider this case: http://www.apextechu...cts.asp?pID=179

Apex is built much like a Shuttle case, which I use for my current HTPC. It could be an option. That size at about half the height would be better.

[Joe_Miner]

Jim:

Have you considered the Shuttle SH67H3 with Sandy Bridge? Put a i3-2120 w/16GB RAM in there and a couple of 2TB Blacks [SATA 6] in it with your Drobo on top and I think it would be pretty nice system.

[ikon]

I'm always surprised when people recommend Shuttle. I've never been very impressed with them. They always seemed overpriced, built kinda flimsy, and ran pretty hot. I must be missing something.

[jcollison]

Jim:

Have you considered the Shuttle SH67H3 with Sandy Bridge? Put a i3-2120 w/16GB RAM in there and a couple of 2TB Blacks [SATA 6] in it with your Drobo on top and I think it would be pretty nice system.

John, one of the things I didn't make very clear is that I want to only have one OS drive in the box. The rest of the drives will be in the drobo. So room for more storage in the case is not necessary. OS drive only. Hope that helps

I'm always surprised when people recommend Shuttle. I've never been very impressed with them. They always seemed overpriced, built kinda flimsy, and ran pretty hot. I must be missing something.

I use a shuttle case with and Atom D525 chip and 4GB RAM for my HTPC and it works great. When I had two 3.5 drives in the case the drives did run very hot. Replaced them with two 2.5 drives and it runs right as rain!

[Joe_Miner]

John, one of the things I didn't make very clear is that I want to only have one OS drive in the box. The rest of the drives will be in the drobo. So room for more storage in the case is not necessary. OS drive only. Hope that helps
....

This opens up some inteesting possibilities! One drive necessary and if able to drop down to 2.5 drive we are looking at a very small package indeed.

[ikon]

I use a shuttle case with and Atom D525 chip and 4GB RAM for my HTPC and it works great. When I had two 3.5 drives in the case the drives did run very hot. Replaced them with two 2.5 drives and it runs right as rain!

That would certainly make a difference. I have never used a 2.5" drive other than in a laptop, so you can see why I found the Shuttle cases too hot (admittedly, a good part of it is because I'm a fanatic about HDD temps; I want them between 30C & 35C; the Shuttle just wouldn't do that).

[jmwills]

What sort of CPU cooler can you use with that Shuttle case? A standard Intel cooler supplied with the chip?

[Joe_Miner]

OK, here’s another possibility! The APEVIA X-FIT-100 Black and fill it out with a Mini-ITX with a USB 3.0 and a i3 sandy bridge plus RAM (16GB(?)) and a 2.5 drive. There's room for a BD drive (future HTPC repurpose).

[Joe_Miner]

What sort of CPU cooler can you use with that Shuttle case? A standard Intel cooler supplied with the chip?

The factory specs show a Shuttle supplied heat sink -- I believe also talked about in the comments at new egg or n the Manf's web site.

Edited by Joe_Miner, 14 October 2011 - 10:42 PM.

[jcollison]

What sort of CPU cooler can you use with that Shuttle case? A standard Intel cooler supplied with the chip?

Yep. for my 525 just the standard stock cooler

[jmwills]

Thanks

[jam3ohio]

Jim

Pricey at $519, but the Drobo would look good on top of it...

http://usingwindowsh...with-discounts/

Jim

[Joe_Miner]

Jim

Pricey at $519, but the Drobo would look good on top of it...

http://usingwindowsh...with-discounts/

Jim

It does look nice!

[ikon]

OK, here’s another possibility! The APEVIA X-FIT-100 Black and fill it out with a Mini-ITX with a USB 3.0 and a i3 sandy bridge plus RAM (16GB(?)) and a 2.5 drive. There's room for a BD drive (future HTPC repurpose).

Looks like it comes with a PSU. Not to rain on your parade, but I would be concerned about a $50 case that comes with a PSU. I wonder how easy it would be to get a name-brand PSU to replace - it looks a bit custom.
.

Edited by ikon, 15 October 2011 - 10:36 AM.

[no-control]

Thinking inside the box why not just procure a dead drobo and use it for the case build a PC in it and you're done. Pretty sure a Drobo will match the Drobo.

Thinking outside the box you could also look into using something like Xi3 and mount it inside a small enclosure or just set it on top of the Drobo.

[TommySharp]

Hey Jim, I've been contemplating this exact thing for a while now... Just not with a drobo....

I have an Acer Revo R3610 which doesn't have USB 3.0 but it does have eSata. Atom N330 so not a transcoding beast but I'm interested to see how well it runs WHS 2011. I recently picked up a 5 bay raid enclosure with eSata and USB 3.0 so am itching to try this out.....

There are plenty of options out there for extremely small computers but they do tend to be quite expensive. The acer was pretty cheap though and uses only about 25W ....

I did see this one crop up which made me go "Oooooo"...

http://www.tranquilpcshop.co.uk/imono/
http://usingwindowsh...with-discounts/


Regards,

Tommy

[jcollison]

Thinking inside the box why not just procure a dead drobo and use it for the case build a PC in it and you're done. Pretty sure a Drobo will match the Drobo. Thinking outside the box you could also look into using something like Xi3 and mount it inside a small enclosure or just set it on top of the Drobo.

Love the idea of the Xi3.

[pcdoc]

OK, try this one. Abit bigger but it is on sales and a very attractive case.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811112222

[jcollison]

I started a post to keep track of it all over at the average guy. http://theaverageguy...1-with-drobo-s/

[jcollison]

Here is the front runner.
Zotac ZBOXNANO-AD10-U AMD Hudson M1 1 x 204Pin AMD Radeon HD 6310 Mini / Booksize Barebone System


Out of Stock at the moment. Something like this would be awesome!