solid 12 bay platform?

Hey all - I love my little n54l and am just wondering if there's a comparable option with more bays? Something solid in like an 8 or 12 bay form factor or something up around there? Just curious if anything has come across anything, not seeing anything larger scale jumping out at me with a couple of cursory searches of the archives here.

Hey all - I love my little n54l and am just wondering if there's a comparable option with more bays? Something solid in like an 8 or 12 bay form factor or something up around there? Just curious if anything has come across anything, not seeing anything larger scale jumping out at me with a couple of cursory searches of the archives here.

You can always just buy a case that will take more drives and transplant the Microserver innards into it.

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1081502

Lian Li PC-Q26 (10 bays 3,5" + 1 bay 2,5")

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-q26/

SilverStone DS380 (8 bays 3,5" + 4 bays 2,5")

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452

U-NAS NSC-800 (8 bays 3,5" + 1 bay 2,5")

http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617&cat=0&bestseller=Y

That's not a terrible idea. I take it the n54L doesn't have anything proprietary as far as the form factor and is standard mini-ITX? My only concern is I'd probably have to add a pci-x sata controller to accommodate all the drives, and then I'm not quite sure where I'd put the 10gigE card that I'd need to support the throughput to the switch. Hmmm...

Are there any vetted motherboards out there any of you have seen in use with Synology that have all of the functions (RAID controller, etc) supported? I know there are drivers being added in and things like that, just wondering if there's a consensus that is in use among the 12 bay box builders that is as solid as the N54L.

One more question - I notice that the xpenology builds are labeled ds3612xs - does this mean that xpenology maxes out at 12 drives because of the synology hardward typically being built for 12 drives? It's hard to tell what the theoretical max is because I know you can put expansion units in there and things like that. Will xpenology max out at 12 or allow you to keep adding above and beyond?

I believe It's a 36 disk build. the last 2 digits are the series, the year that it was released.

3612 - means model which can be maxed with 36 disks (12 in main enclosure + 2x12 additional DX12xx through eSATA or Infiniband ports). 12 means model year 2012. There is also 3614 model - almost the same, some hardware is changed up to date.

Same way DS1511 - max 15 disks (5 main + 2x5 additional eSATA), 2011 model year. I have this one on my desk with DX510 and DX513 additional enclosures which means 5 disks each, 2010 and 2013 model years (fully compatible). There is almost the same model DS1812 - 8 disks in main enclosure, using the same DX51х additions (18 = 8+2x5).

Letters are DS for DeskStation, RS for RackStation (for 19" racks), VS for VideoStation. There was also a CS - CubeStation, looking like a cube.

I'd go with a server chassis & board to build a 12-bay or more box.

None of the small form factor solution will be cheap, or convenient enough to host 12 HDDs, and full ATX tower is big, loud and inconveniently rather ugly.