Supermicro hotswap cases & WD Reds

[loozhengyuan]

I'm thinking of buying a supermicro case with hotswap bays infront, like the SC733TQ, but many of their cases have the instructions "SAS or enterprise SATA HDD only recommended" in the specifications. I've emailed Supermicro, but the sales support only concluded that they've only tested SAS/enterprise HDDs, hence they are unsure of the what would happen if consumer grade disks are used instead.

As such, my question would be:
1. Have anyone used Supermicro cases (+ hotswap bays) with WD Reds and can give some advice?
2. Or do anyone have any recommendations on cases with 3 to 4 external 3.5" hotswap bays (server/industrial grade backplate)

[b0ssman]

in most cases its better to shut down the machine if you are swapping drives.

most people go with a norco case
http://www.norcotek.com/product/rpc-4224/

the controller of your machine and the driver in the operating system needs to support hot swap.
the case is just the mechanical side and hotplugging works even without a hotswap bay by just pulling the connectors.

[loozhengyuan]

If i'm just after the convenience of being able to swap drives without opening my case, which means that I will power down and change drives, it should be fine correct?

[ChriZathens]

Yes.
And IMHO it is better to look for easy swap bays, not hotswap - they should be cheaper