Selling Stackable 4 Bay 3.5" Hard Drive Racks

During my testing I encountered issues with cable management. Zip ties don’t cut it… they are just so ugly… So I’ve developed a solution that works with my other product:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234045066257

It will be really good if can also sell with it some connectivity for power and to Sata. At the moment I am using 5 bay enclosure which has its own power supply and usb3 connectivity.

I will look into making this a product in the future. Although, I’m not sure if USB 3 is preferred, SATA expansion cards, or HBAs with mini SAS cables…

I suspect from a universal standpoint, USB would be good for any system, including a Raspberry Pi.

one thing the OP seems to be forgetting is that HDDs need suspension or rubber mounting to avoid vibrations affecting the neighbouring drives. I would never use something self-3d-printed that doesn’t have some sort of shock or vibration absorber with my expensive drives and plots that I spent weeks plotting.

Maybe sell it to the HPOOL guys, this way netspace goes down a bit :slight_smile:

Thanks for the feedback. I thought about providing rubber dampers or washers and I even tested with a few in the 7 drive configuration. Overall, at full tilt for all the drives, I didn’t notice a large difference in vibration or noise.

Most modern drives, especially the high capacity ones you speak of, are built to a much higher spec than they used to be, and made to be used in many environments. Today’s drives are not those from 10 years ago. The real enemy here is heat, and even that is debatable. Seeing as how most modern drives are made to be in a rigid enclosure with many other drives, I don’t see an issue. Plus, those farming drives are not going to be doing a whole lot after filled with plots. Talk about a life full of minimal wear for those drives.

However, I may do a redesign to accommodate the full rubber grommets with the screw through them, to see if I can make a more premium version of my product, per your request.

Hotswap trays that bolt onto disks don’t come with, nor have space for, rubber washers. Perhaps they incidentally mechanically decouple disks somewhat, but looking at my hotswap bays I can’t see by very much, they lock into place and are pretty densely packed.

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I can understand, for you USB3 maybe difficult to add, but for me it was an much easier and neat option (no mess of SATA cables).

Can you please post a link to above cables in Amazon/Ebay? Where does the connection goes in the PC? Looks like some sort of USB style?

I think the main issue there is tons of AC>12v power cables. How are you handling those?

The metal connector at one end is an SFF-8088 connector, it typically plugs into a PCIe card that has that port, I’m not aware of any motherboards that have it directly.

This is (I was guessing) one of the intended uses of these external disk racks, and what I would use one for if I didn’t have my own approach - there are other connectors that could work e.g eSATA or some other SFF connectors (e.g. SFF-8614) that are properly meant to be external - but t.b.h any cable is external if you want it to be.

What can be similar cabling ption for https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JKH5VTL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

?

Giving this thread a bump. Have sold over 75 racks so far! Seems to be a popular product people are enjoying.

Also had a user send me a picture of his setup showing a stack of 7 hard drives.

Still available here:

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yes, that reduces vibration as well (a solid cage). A 3d-printed plastic enclosure doesn’t…

Just ordered one of these and a USB 80mm fan. Looking forward to setting it up.