instal la 4 |3.5 sat/sas for 3 -5.25 cage in an HP Z800. Anyone with expeirence in Z800 Cage

[hput3]

I have an HP-Z800 with the chassis partially disassembled for a repair and thought It would be a good time to install a HDD cage.

I've looked at quite a few today, but of course have no real idea what the specs actually mean or if one or another would not work in HP Z800.  I hoped to hear from someone who has used one in a similar workstation or is using one now. 

Just going by dimensions I see some that extend around  8" into the tower.   Checking on the Z800 I have all opened up, that would put the cage about 3/4 of an inch from the fan on one of the cpus.  Seems that might cause some serious air blockage... but it seems the better cages have a fan in exactly that position so it would be an 120 MM  or in some cases  80mm fan facing the cpu fan which looking at the configuration on mine, it  must be sucking; so they might help each other I guess.

Anyway that is the kind of stuff I would like to hear about from someone with experience using a cage.

[DGroves]

i've installed both 5.25 and 2.5 drive cages in the z800/z820

question is what's your budget?

do you need hotswap?

do you need a SAS/SATA or just SATA bay adapter?

will you be using SSD's or mech drives or both?

do you need status lights? temp sensors?

adapters run from around 80.00 to 200.00

[hput3]

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@DGroves wrote:

i've installed both 5.25 and 2.5 drive cages in the z800/z82\

Were the cages built for 2 or 3 5.25 bays? Or maybe you've tried both?

About budget: : Something like the one below on amazon for $182 isn't out of the question

FatCage MB155SP-B $182 

That one has 5 trays, I was thinking 4 ... I suspect it might be a job keeping 5 disks all in three 5.25 space from over heating.

 Also some of the commentary about it (on amazon) , complain that the backplane isn't much of a backplane.

I'm not sure just what a backplane is expected to do.  More than provide connectors?

I am  a bit confused about what a backplane actually does.  I have been thinking  I'd be  using a:

Adaptec 71605 as discussed in a different thread.  (About $130 on ebay)  So now we're talking well over $300

Of course I'd sooner get away cheaper but wary of trying to go too cheap

DGroves asked:

"will you be using SSD's or mech drives or both?

 "Mechanical" for now.. I took advantage of your tip about the sas drives on ebay.

DGroves asked:

"do you need hotswap?"  

Not a "must have" but, of course, It would be handy.

DGroves asked

"do you need a SAS/SATA or just SATA bay adapter"?

"sas/sata"  But I'm not sure what a "bay adapter' is.  do you mean the cage?

DGroves asked:

"Do you need status lights? temp sensors"?

I suppose that's something that would be needed for such close quarters

I could benefit greatly from your experience concerning how all this goes and works together.

I will probably create myself some unnecessary problems tinkering with little knowledge of what I'm doing.

Just trying to pound it all into my pea brain by reading about it in manuals and tutorials is, of course, necessary but a few words of actual experience... is worth quite a lot.

[DGroves]

ok, will you be using this as a hobbyist, or as something work related, or something that stores important data where down time is unacceptable

does it have to be internal, or can a external usb/esata box meet your needs?

a SAS/SATA enclosure will usually cost more due to it usually offering a better feature set and better build quality

SAS drives usually have a better feature set than consumer SATA drives, sas will usually expose I/O lines for temp. error status, drive ID and so on

these adapters/enclosures are not usually rated for 7200/10k   due to vibration and generated temps from the drive(s) although some enclosures will support 7200, and a very small percentage will support 10k

for the hobbyist something like this using 2.5 mech drives or ssd's i

and for 3.5 drives

https://www.icydock.com/category.php?id=113

and raid capable enclosures

https://www.icydock.com/goods_cat.php?id=192

Business Class

chenbro  "SK33502" 5.25 enclosure that holds 3.5 drives SAS/SATA  (similar to your fatcage sata only product)

http://www.chenbro.com/en-global/products/Storage_Expansion_Kit/Hot-Swap_HDD_Enclosure/SK33502

https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=151

http://www.chenbro.com/en-global/products/Storage_Expansion_Kit/Hot-Swap_HDD_Enclosure/SK32303