Hi i need help pls for buy a good external case for my pi4, My problem is the most HDD case are not with a cooler and the hdd temp for the storj node are very high (min50 celsius). What for external casees are the best? (usb 3 or Sata?)
I think it should have a mechanical switch so it automatically switches back on in case of power outage.
I posted some info on mine in the past:
It’s made of metal so it does dissipate heat ok, but it doesn’t have any fan though so it might not fit what you’re looking for.
The disk in it does get quite hot during summer (around 50°C indeed), but it doesn’t seem to be a problem so far as this disk model is known to get quite hot anyway… 
I wonder if USB3 interface is good enough in comparison to SATA.
I can speculate that yes, it is; based in the teorical capacity of USB3, but I’ll be alert in case that USB3 give us headaches when a node gets big enough.
Any thoughts?
Considering Storj network’s activity, even USB2 is enough. Besides, unless you have a very fast fiber connection (e.g. 500Mbit/s or more), USB2 is faster than what ISPs provide us with.
This said, my take on this is that if you have the option to connect your disk with SATA, it’s always a better option than any USB interface; not because of the speed, but because SATA is intended to be used 24/7, whereas USB is not. So stability tends to be better with SATA than USB.
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Nice insight @Pac
My take will probably be to keep my node using USB3 and have another with SATA in order to monitor both as the nodes are growing.
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I think put HDD to external case is bad idea, they usually have bad cooling. So if you use case, hold it open and put some fan for cooling. overheating will kill hdd.
Not using any myself, but there are regular recommendations on r/datahoarder, e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/wmp557/reliable_das/
you most likely need something that has like 4 drives for it to have a fan…
not sure tho, haven’t really due into that… most external enclosures for single disk i’ve seen is more or less a closed box… which is crap
a usb hdd dock seems pretty okay… still no fan, but they are dirt cheap and open air, so one could rig up a fan if needed…
this looks like a pretty good deal…
not sure if it has a fan, but it sure is affordable.
something like this is pretty nice for an old tower case with 5.25" bays… if it will fit…
plenty of options out there… just a matter of how much time you want to put in.
ofc its easy to buy some crap… those that buy to cheap, often buy twice…
It depends on how far you want to go with it. I’m using this.
https://icybox.de/en/product.php?id=301
That might seem overkill at first and it wasn’t as cheap as I would like it to be. But it has great cooling (better than my NAS even) and I have 6 nodes running on there already, with plenty of room to expand. USB3 is not an issue as long as your OS can deal with it reliably. If you plan to run nodes long term, something like this or one with fewer bays is excellent. But be sure to check out reviews about cooling (and noise if you care about that).
Sata is always better, but I wouldn’t worry about USB3 for speeds.
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crap, since linux not supported and max. capacity 8tb…
Not because of that. Generally there usb contraptions shall be avoided as plaque. Just don’t use them. Pretend they don’t exist.
If you have to use one — make sure you research which chipset is it built on. Avoid port multipliers. Avoid cheap USB bridges — you won’t get health information. Avoid any sort of raid enclosures. Your best bet are thunderbolt enclosures that can expose individual disks but at this price point it’s cheaper to build another server.
But it seems the goal in this thread is not to do storage right but to attach to raspberry pi, so none of that matters. Get the cheapest one you can find. Cheapest would be WD easy stores on eBay and USB switch to connect a few. The reliability will be on par with the expectations of what to expect from raspberry pi.
Instead I would get a different single board PC — there are a few that have sata controllers. Like zima. Then you can connect up to two HDDs via sata and avoid shoddy USB bridges altogether . Those devices will have more ram too — helps with responsiveness.
Going back to OPs case — 50C is fine temperature for a hard drive. Most are specified operating range up to 65C.
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Eh, that’s not true. There indeed are cheap misbehaving devices, and this is easy to fall onto a consumer-oriented technology. I’ve seen bad cables, bad hubs (even a somewhat expensive brand unit failed on me). But there do exist reliable USB devices. For example, the USB bridges from WD Elements enclosures were so far super reliable for me. The enclosures themselves aren’t that good because of lack of cooling, but the USB bridges there have never failed on me, with probably around 10 years of use total across several devices and running heavy I/O on them at times.
I recall there were some good recommendations on USB DASes on r/datahoarder, especially multi-drive ones.
Though, frankly, I’d love to see a single board unit with a SAS controller. ^^ That would be nice.
I’m not talking about manufacturing defect, I’m talking about fundamental design flaws…
Hence the qualifier “generally” and the whole next paragraph on researching the controller
Yes, WD tends to do USB drives correctly. Hence recommendation for WD EasyStore above.
So you said it’s not true but then agreed with everything I posted 
They exist, but aren’t cheap. Those that are cheap - should not be used, as they often use SATA port replicators, that a whole separate can of worms.
You have options, depending on what you call “a single board”. Since you want space for drives, you’ll need a large box, so a motherboard with SoC like Supermicro X10SDV-4C-7TP4F is a good choice. SAS controller is built in.
Or if you want more household friendly standalone appliance – there are raspberry pi style single board computers with PCIE slot, where you can plug in your cheap SAS controller from ebay.