Thanks to your NAS post, my new hardware hobby project has become building one out of recycled components that I'm finding for auction. I'm attempting lower requirements by using an AMD Phenom X4 and seeing how it performs for exclusively pushing data over the network.
Only issue is finding places to store drives, best I've found is to get a used or stripped down gaming case that has a decent amount of 3.5 inch bays. Otherwise it costs a decent amount to find external cases or case mods that take advantage of any leftover space. (Often cases will be an additional $20 USD for shipping)
I have looked into Xyratrex and Dell Compellent options as well, they don't seem worth it especially when sellers keep listing the drive cages and case separately. Cheapest is 3D printing but I Don't Trust The Temperature Ratings Of ABS Or Most Other Cheaper Plastic.
Glad my post has inspired some hardware reuse!
Phenom X4s are oooooold, that's old enough that I'd want to be checking SIMD sets they support and what the likelihood of support for them being dropped in the next 3-5 years is. Obviously stuff that old is on the worse end of efficiency curve, but I can see the case for "I want to use something that is otherwise going into the trash."
Like I said in the post, you can be very jank about storing drives if you wish. Literally stacking them up with thick O rings to act as spacers and some basic vibration dampening is a potential option. Though if you stack them 3-4 high and need to replace a drive in the middle... yeah that will suck lol.
Lots of sellers will sell them with cages, or just straight up full of drives. It's mostly an issue of finding one you can reasonably do local pickup for, since shipping will tend to cost as much as the rest of the shelf if not more.
Again, at least in the US. Availability elsewhere is usually worse, unfortunately.
I don't know what 3d printing plastics are rated to, but your drives shouldn't be any hotter than 45c worst case (unless you have cooling issues), and I'd be kind of surprised if anything melted that low ? But I don't know shit about 3d printing.
Phenom X4s aren't that old, they came out when I started college, that's not th-
I'm being informed that is almost 20 years ago
fuck
