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Over Synology, and looking to build my first home lab. Could use some advice on parts...
(pcpartpicker.com)
this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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Ooh, that's good to know. I believe the Meshify only has two 2.5" which means I'd need to figure out a solution for the other two I have. The "mesh" and airflow is what drew me to that case. How's the Define?
Also the Node 804 is worth looking into with an entire separate chamber for HDDs in order to keep them cool without exposing them to GPU and cpu heat, plus it is a lot shorter instead, sometimes easier to fit places (mATX motherboard only)
I don't have a ton of experience with other cases but I have been blown away by the quality and customizability of the Define 6. It's super solid with good hardware and the ability to convert it around to different formats. You will need to purchase extra drive caddies as mine only came with 4 I think but I've bought extras over the years to the point that I have an extra set that I didn't realize I had. The whole front is drive space from floor to ceiling and It has two mounts in the back for 2.5" drives along with two in the front that can be used to mount a GPU vertically or for two additional 2.5" drives. You will need to buy two extra 2.5 mounts to use all four spots though. Apart from that it's silent like I mentioned with foam in the top panel to deaden noise. It also has removable screens in the base and front for the air intake to make it easy to clean the dust out. Both side panels are removable with lots of cable management built in and a built-in fan hub.
I'm not super familiar with the 7th gen Define and it's XL counterpart so you may do some research to ensure it has the same capacity if these are all you can find now. The Define 6 is only slightly larger than my old Antec midtower case.
I have a first gen Define XL that's probably closing in on 15 years old. Still going strong as my primary desktop case. The only problem I've had is little cheap plastic connectors to attach the feet to the case broke. I know they've fixed the design for recent versions but I can't justify the cost when the rest still works fine.