I just installed Windows Server 2012 R2 in a VM so I can explore the drive pooling options. If anyone has any experience with it, please discuss it here. It looks pretty nice, though without the actual drives, i can't explore it too much. I'm curious how it handles a pool made of multiple physical drives. What happens if one of the drives in the pool dies? how do you replace? It's not RAID, so it doesn't necessarily rebuild things. Also, do files reside on multiple drives? If I pool one drive out independently and stick it in another computer, is it readable? How does this thing actually work?
Also, regarding that Cooler Master Stryker tower, it's pretty nice. I don't need any screws or tools to slip the drives in and out. it also can be configured to slip the drives in front-back, or even from the side. So I don't even really need the istarusa drive bays unless I plan to do a lot of hot-swapping (which I don't). I might get one just to try it, and maybe even to use as an emergency transferring bay, like backing up someone else's stuff (even though I have external enclosures for that).
So looks like I'm almost good to go. I guess the remaining items are the moetherboard, cpu, ram, and expander card choices. The expander card is what i need help with most, I think. what card is good for attaching all these drives? i have one in my notes, i'll post eventually.