Wanted: 3.5" SAS Storage Array or...

[gnif]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for anyone that might have an old SAS storage array sitting around gathering dust, even if broken/faulty. I am looking to replace my home backup array which I made a few years ago out of a HP DL380 G4 (See picture) that I hacked up and retrofitted for SAS/SATA. I would continue to use this, but due to the way I retrofitted it, it is simply acting as an external bay, there is no hot swap controller modules for each bay, making hot-swap an extremely dangerous procedure.

Failing that, an old server with a 6x 3.5" SAS back plane that I could perform the same chop job on would be great also.

My budget for this is cheap to free as this is not for anything commercial, simply for learning, testing, messing around, etc.

[Halcyon]

SAS/SATA no, however I have some old Dell PowerEdge dual-Xeon servers with a SCSI array if you're interested? I also have a range of hard disks to suit. (~70-120 GB mark).

Price for you = Free. I'll even make you a coffee.

[gnif]

SAS/SATA no, however I have some old Dell PowerEdge dual-Xeon servers with a SCSI array if you're interested? I also have a range of hard disks to suit. (~70-120 GB mark).

Price for you = Free. I'll even make you a coffee.

I'm not interested in them as servers, but if the front can be cut off them the same as the DL380 G4 I am interested. If I had known there were hot-swap ICs on these things I would have done it very differently and actually made a controller for it. I already have 6x 3.5" 4TB SAS drives to go into it, so disks are not an issue.

This thing is to go into an office where noise is a concern, rack gear is too loud. My intent is to modify whatever I manage to acquire to make it suitable for SOHO use.

[Halcyon]

I guess you could chop the front off and mount SAS/SATA drives in them instead? I guess you don't even really need a back plane, just a suitable power supply and some long SATA cables?

You're most welcome to come and have a look, I'm only down the road.

[boffin]

https://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/mobilerack/CSE-M35T-1B.cfm

Is a pretty handy device. Converts 3 x 5.25" to 5 x 3½", around $100 hotswap SATA.  I've converted a few old mid tower boxes into cheap storage solutions using one of these.

[gnif]

I guess you could chop the front off and mount SAS/SATA drives in them instead? I guess you don't even really need a back plane, just a suitable power supply and some long SATA cables?

Thanks, the back plane PCB would still be handy as it would provide a template or even a substrate to drill/mount connectors to. Power is being supplied by a server already, and as for cables, I intend to use a internal SAS to external SAS
bracket so I can run SFF-8088 cables.

You're most welcome to come and have a look, I'm only down the road.

I have a contact in a DC that might be able to provide the hardware, if not I guess ill be making at trip to see you finally .

https://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/mobilerack/CSE-M35T-1B.cfm

Is a pretty handy device. Converts 3 x 5.25" to 5 x 3½", around $100 hotswap SATA.  I've converted a few old mid tower boxes into cheap storage solutions using one of these.

Looks great for other projects, but in this instance it's one drive short.