I have posted this thread on an Australian forum, but feedback is a little slow over there, so maybe I can get better traction from Anandtech users.
Quite regularly, people post on these forums looking for cases suitable for a NAS. The unfortunate situation is that there aren't really any cases ideal for a custom NAS; there's really nothing that can compete with the size and functionality of appliance NAS cases.
Typically, you want your NAS case to be small, hot-swappable, and have support for an expansion card (RAID controller, etc). You also typically want to have room for a 2.5" SSD for the boot volume. There's unfortunately nothing on the market that meets these requirements, and those that get close, typically only support up to 4 drives, which for those of us wanting 5 or 6 drives, is too small and not economical enough (core components will cost the same regardless of number of hard-drives, so it makes sense to go with something with support for over 4 drives).
I'm currently looking into designing and manufacturing my own NAS case using services like emachineshop.com. The only problem is that for single quantity orders, it's very expensive, but for every extra set of items ordered, the price drops significantly, even if only ordering 5 or 10 items. So what may cost $1000 for a one-off case, will only cost about $2000 for 10 cases (~$200 each). The price drop is that dramatic.
I'm wondering whether anyone would be interested in collaborating on a custom NAS enclosure, or whether you'd even be interested in buying one assuming they looked good and had all the aforementioned features.
To give you an idea of what I'm currently thinking:
My goal is to make a cheaper, prettier and higher performing custom NAS than an equivalent appliance from QNAP or Synology, at roughly the same size (under 13 litres). So for $1200, instead of a 6-bay QNAP with 1GB RAM and Atom processor, you get can get a beefy Quad-Core IvyBridge processor, 16GB RAM and the same number of drives. Something more than capable of running FreeNAS or Windows Server, and which can be more like a general purpose server than file server.
So, would anyone be interested in buying such a case. What would be your upper spending limit so I have a rough idea what cost targets need to be. I'll be aiming for under $300 per case, excluding hot-swap drive cages as they can be configured in many ways. Still very early days though, so I'm after feedback on the idea, as well as gauging interest.
I want as few parts as possible. A two-piece chassis (like most Lian Li cases), two-piece cover (U-shape cover for top and sides; flat face for front), internal structure for 5.25" bays, PSU, SSD and of course motherboard, as well as power button and LED which will be purchased off-the-shelf. I'd also get some off-the-shelf case feet (nice polished metal ones).
So hopefully only 10 pieces all up for structure, and only a few pieces for the complementary accessories like power buttons, etc. Everything will be assembled with standard-size phillips and thumb screws; countersunk wherever possible and no rivets. I'd send them out fully assembled though of course.
Please let me know what you guys think.
Quite regularly, people post on these forums looking for cases suitable for a NAS. The unfortunate situation is that there aren't really any cases ideal for a custom NAS; there's really nothing that can compete with the size and functionality of appliance NAS cases.
Typically, you want your NAS case to be small, hot-swappable, and have support for an expansion card (RAID controller, etc). You also typically want to have room for a 2.5" SSD for the boot volume. There's unfortunately nothing on the market that meets these requirements, and those that get close, typically only support up to 4 drives, which for those of us wanting 5 or 6 drives, is too small and not economical enough (core components will cost the same regardless of number of hard-drives, so it makes sense to go with something with support for over 4 drives).
I'm currently looking into designing and manufacturing my own NAS case using services like emachineshop.com. The only problem is that for single quantity orders, it's very expensive, but for every extra set of items ordered, the price drops significantly, even if only ordering 5 or 10 items. So what may cost $1000 for a one-off case, will only cost about $2000 for 10 cases (~$200 each). The price drop is that dramatic.
I'm wondering whether anyone would be interested in collaborating on a custom NAS enclosure, or whether you'd even be interested in buying one assuming they looked good and had all the aforementioned features.
To give you an idea of what I'm currently thinking:
- All aluminium; as sturdy as practical. 1.5mm for chassis, 2mm for face plate, 1mm for cover.
- Macbook-like bead blasted finish. Perhaps anodised for a range of colours.
Support for 4x5.25" drive bays to allow for two 2x5.25"-to-3x5.25" hotswap enclosures. - Fully covered face plate (with ventilation holes) to hide relatively ugly hot-swap drive bays. Held on by strong magnets to allow for instant access to hot-swap drives laying behind. Looks pretty without sacrificing practicality.
- Support for Mini-ITX motherboard and full-height expansion slot. ~60mm clearance for CPU cooler.
- Power button and LED. Small hole in faceplate will show LED light. Power button will be hidden behind face plate; it's a NAS, you shouldn't to use the power button often.
- CNC bending and other cheaper forms of manufacturing will be preferred over more costly milling. Internal structure will be covered by faceplate, and single-piece U-shape body (much like the body of the QNAP's, but with a nicer finish hopefully).
My goal is to make a cheaper, prettier and higher performing custom NAS than an equivalent appliance from QNAP or Synology, at roughly the same size (under 13 litres). So for $1200, instead of a 6-bay QNAP with 1GB RAM and Atom processor, you get can get a beefy Quad-Core IvyBridge processor, 16GB RAM and the same number of drives. Something more than capable of running FreeNAS or Windows Server, and which can be more like a general purpose server than file server.
So, would anyone be interested in buying such a case. What would be your upper spending limit so I have a rough idea what cost targets need to be. I'll be aiming for under $300 per case, excluding hot-swap drive cages as they can be configured in many ways. Still very early days though, so I'm after feedback on the idea, as well as gauging interest.
I want as few parts as possible. A two-piece chassis (like most Lian Li cases), two-piece cover (U-shape cover for top and sides; flat face for front), internal structure for 5.25" bays, PSU, SSD and of course motherboard, as well as power button and LED which will be purchased off-the-shelf. I'd also get some off-the-shelf case feet (nice polished metal ones).
So hopefully only 10 pieces all up for structure, and only a few pieces for the complementary accessories like power buttons, etc. Everything will be assembled with standard-size phillips and thumb screws; countersunk wherever possible and no rivets. I'd send them out fully assembled though of course.
Please let me know what you guys think.
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I found these as well, in case I can't find a google single backplane solution: 
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