Nas Case

[tomoyo]

I've always wondered why this aspect of computer cases is so rare. I'm looking for a case for 4 hard drives in a NAS format such as the Infrant Readynas or Buffalo Terastation. Something that will work with either microatx or mini-itx. Very preferable to have 4 hard stacked on top of each other. Any suggestions for cases? Towers are far too large and cubes such as the Antec Aria/Shuttles are too small.

 

[Zap]

How about this Shuttle micro tower?

PRO:
12.3"x12.3"x7.5" so pretty small
four drive bays (two will need adaptors)
PCI-E 16x and PCI for expansion

CON:
only two SATA150 ports and one EIDE
network only 10/100

THOUGHTS:
Perhaps it might fit the bill. Pair it with the cheapest A64 (for power management). May be able to add a gigabit ethernet card and SATA card using expansion slots.

A mini ITX possibility
Looks like an overgrown Shuttle cube, but can hold 4 drives.

Alternately go micro ATX and live with the size of a mini tower. Benefits will be wider choice in motherboards and power supplies, and cheaper than most mini ITX solutions (though the Shuttle I listed is cheapest). For instance this case has four HDD spots, but can take a total of 8 drives in a 14.3"x15.4"x7.2" size. Pair that with a mATX board that has four SATA 3.0 ports and onboard GBe, toss in a more efficient PSU and you're golden!

 

[tomoyo]

The shuttle is actually an interesting idea...if it had a decent mobo. Both the amd and intel versions are subpar due to their cons...and due to the fact it's low end SIS chipsets. They need to put in a good 690G or G33 chipset in there. For a nas, 10/100/1000 is required for decent performance and I'd like to avoid using an add-in card for that. An add in raid 5 controller is definitely a possibility though. I think given the right parts, this could be a great suggestion though.

The Morex looks a lot like the Qpack/Microfly type cases, which is interesting. I've been kinda iffy on those as they don't really seem quite designed for the purpose....but it's certainly possible it could work.

The last choice looks like it's in NSK3300/3480 territory(although these would be no good for hd's), which are cute cases, but a quite a bit larger than the nas devices.

It's certainly a challenge as the idea is to make something that meets or beats all those $400-600 empty nas boxes made by infrant/thecus using off the shelf parts and a linux based server without sacrificing size.