Use this option if you want to build out your system with your own components.
When you source your own components, we won’t be able to ensure fit or function, so you may be venturing into uncharted territory. However, you don’t need to be alone. We will have a community forum available for 45Homelab members to discuss builds, share 3D printing files and talk about anything related to their systems.
The chassis is designed to accommodate ATX motherboards and ATX modular power supplies. The backplane will come prewired including an easy-fit adapter that will allow you to plug data and power cables without touching the existing wiring. Data cables can be selected at time of final purchase to ensure they will be compatible with your electronics.
Chassis Dimensions: 20"L x 17"W x 7"H
Chassis + Backplanes + PSU ($910.00)
For your convenience, this is the chassis-only option with a pretested power-supply unit wired into the system. This is a great option if you wish to build your own server but want to ensure your system’s power supply will function with the backplanes. Your new system will still require you to source the core electronics.
Data cables can be selected at time of final purchase to ensure they will be compatible with your electronics.
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (750W Modular ATX)
Chassis Dimensions: 20"L x 17"W x 7"H
Full Build with Components ($1999.99)
This is your choice for a fully built, tested server that comes configured with an open-source platform featuring Rocky Linux and Houston UI for administration. With the help of the community, we have selected an electronics configuration that is powerful enough to run the applications you desire along with supporting your storage.
The RAM in the pre-build is 16GB (it’s now on the form) and a 1TB Kingston NV2M.2 NVMe for the boot drive.
There will be add-on options to include a 2.5" SSD bracket on the full order.
Four SFF 8643 (mini SAS HD) are the connectors on the backplane. Cables can be chosen on the order form when the HL15 is ready for shipment if the cables we provide will suit your needs.
The rackmount kit will be approximately $60 USD, which provides SuperMicro rails. The rack ears and rubber feet are included with every chassis.
Edit #2: @Ashley-45Drives says:
There will an option for a two, four and six bracket option in the motherboard chamber. The case will support one of these brackets. Keep in mind that you can use the hard drive slots for SSD storage as well.
I went for the + PSU option because I plan on slowly cobbling together the parts. Don’t have any specific need for a new server, so gonna slowly put together one with this purchase and make my current one the backup server. The PSU is roughly $50 cheaper than on amazon so I figured might as well.
I went with backplane+PSU. I’m moving out of a 4U 32-bay noisemaker so I have all the internals already. Looking forward to the full 4U height for future components after living with 2U clearance in a 4U case.
I just went with the Chassis + Backplane option because I already have a server put together, but the case doesn’t have enough hard drive bays.
I need to pick up an HBA Card for adding more drives though cause i only have 4 sata ports on my board. Would anyone from 45Drives be able to point me in the direction of a good card i can pick up off ebay that works with your backplanes?
Most likely any of the Broadcom 9300/9400/9500 series cards—you’ll need one of the versions with four ports to support all the drives 1:1, but we’ll also need the details about what SAS/SFF connector is used in the chassis to make sure you have the right plugs on the card (or get the right adapter cables).
I think there are a few questions people have had over on Reddit that I share, and it would be helpful to get them resolved before some people would be willing to pre-order:
Does the full build include RAM and a boot drive? (I assume so but it’s not listed)
Will the boot volume just be an NVMe on the motherboard, or is there another mounting space for 2.5" SSDs somewhere in the back part of the case?
What SFF connectors are required for the backplane, for those buying the Chassis or Chassis + PSU? Will a cable be included in the chassis, or just a jack that you’d plug your motherboard or HBA into using your own cable?
How much will the rackmount kit be? And will the base chassis include rubber feet or anything or just the metal case?
I chose just the chassis + backplane because I’ve never had an issue sourcing the rest of the parts, but finding a good quality rackmounted case WITH hotswap drive bays has been a MAJOR pain point. I’m currently using an offbrand of the Rosewill 4U server, I think it’s a Logic Case SC-xxx something. It’s terrible, pretty ugly & a complete pain in the ass to perform maintenance on.
Although 800 bucks is a bit steep, I’ve justified it based on these reasons:
Full Support from 45Drives
Also supporting this initiative in general
Hopefully excellent quality build by true professionals who understand us die hard homelabbers & forever self hosters
Ability to sit upright like a normal ATX tower if I ever want to downscale my rack in the future (not likely to happen but it would suck if I somehow didn’t have room for it anymore)
Finally able to get something with included rails… No clue why that has been so difficult to obtain with my current setup, so I can reclaim a few U spaces by removing the 1U shelf I have supporting my current unRAID server
To answer your questions (and those of others on Reddit);
The RAM in the pre-build is 16GB (it’s now on the form) and a 1TB Kingston NV2M.2 NVMe for the boot drive.
There will be add-on options to include a 2.5" SSD bracket on the full order.
Four SFF 8643 (mini SAS HD) are the connectors on the backplane. Cables can be chosen on the order form when the HL15 is ready for shipment if the cables we provide will suit your needs.
The rackmount kit will be approximately $60 USD, which provides SuperMicro rails. The rack ears and rubber feet are included with every chassis.
I’m currently using a 4U Rosewill RSV-R4000U as an all-in-one homelab server and I’m planning to move the internals into the HL15.
I currently only use 4 SATA drives directly to the motherboards SATA so it looks like I’ll need to decide if I want to be cheap and just use an SFF-8643 to SATA reverse breakout cable or future proof by buying an HBA. I’ve never tried a reverse cable though, it would be cool if 45drives could test this and verify that it works with their backplane.
@Ashley-45Drives Thank you for providing additional information. How many 2.5" SSD drives can that bracket hold? How many of these brackets does the case support?
I went with the “Chassis + Backplanes ($799.99):” because the only PSU option “Corsair RM750e (750W Modular ATX)” was found locally for cheaper than the difference. If there were any 80 plus Platinum PSU options I would have likely selected option #2
Option #3 is way too much money for my use. I can just use my existing system’s guts in this CASE. $1500 and I would have jumped on it with the current specs. A system with UHD graphics and more memory and NVME slots would maybe justify the extra price. IN MY CASE. We all have different wants and needs.
PS:
Would be nice if order page will include HBAs, cables, fans, and SSD mounting options.
Would love to pick out a 4-6-8x SSD caddy like @technotim showed on his vid around 8:30. A backplane for that would also get a buy from me.
There will an option for a two, four and six bracket option in the motherboard chamber. The case will support one of these brackets. Keep in mind that you can use the hard drive slots for SSD storage as well.
One thing to also keep in mind regarding which size of the brackets to choose: If you are using your own, custom-supplied CPU cooler, it might interfere. We will be providing dimension drawings so that you can choose accordingly at the time of purchase.
Waiting for this to come true for years. Came across the BackBlaze Storage Pod design years ago. However, I didn’t have the money to fork out for the enterprise version. But, I had access to a small sheet metal shop. So, I bought some metal and designed my own version based on the Pod v1 (see image below). An it’s been the heart of my home lab for years with various different hardware configs running UnRaid.
I’m using this as a second server/new primary to store my files (besides offsite backup), completing the full 2+1 data security.
My current storage server does not have enough x16 slots to get the HL15’s full backplane working with the IBM cards I’ve got currently, but a second more barebones may be in the cards in future if this goes well
I went the full configured route. I have plenty of time at work with matching hardware and sourcing parts that I’ve grown to prefer simplicity in a “turnkey” solution such as this. Try as I might with older/current gen enterprise gear, the “failure point” is always lack of an upgrade path and non-OEM compatibility.
I’ll happily invest my money in projects I enjoy, and one that shines light on an all too forgotten community. The fact that 45Drives is talking to key community members and creators and happens to work closely with Backblaze makes it that much easier.
I went with the Chassis + Backplane. I currently am running a Rosewill RSV-L4000U with an amalgamation of drives. It’s running Truenas scale, on a 7700k and 32gb of ram. I have been meaning to upgrade it with IcyDock bay’s but when the news of this was spreading a few weeks ago it seemed like a far better alternative. Especially when 3 bays from IcyDock would cost me nearly the same as this.
My Rosewill with ebay rails, and 3 IcyDock bays easily hit over 800. The bays alone are 150-200 each. This just seems to hit all of that in a far greater package. Very excited to swap this all out.
Current build’s board is EATX, and the PSU is on the long side. I decided I didn’t want to be arsed with finding this hardware to match that hardware … this’ll last me a good long while.
I am going the Chassis + Backplane route. I have an existing server I built and will be moving the drives from my old chassis to the HL15. Right now I am virtualizing TrueNAS over Proxmox and I would like to give the NAS it’s own hardware since I am getting close to out growing my current configuration.
(taking this as an opportunity to show off my converted Compaq 7122 for the retro look)
Is it cheap? Yes.
Does it get the job done for a small home lab? Yes.
Is it the lowest quality chassis I have ever seen? Yes.
It has a system where all the drive attach to 2 rails in the case as a single unit. If you ever want to remove/swap/add drives you will need to take EVERY drive out. Not to mention there is hardly any room from the drives to the CPU cooler and without some VERY creative cable management, you will be interfering with the cooler. Overall just a very bad internal configuration.
I CANNOT WAIT to get my HL15 to add 7 extra drive slots to my server AND take a step into a quality chassis.
