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NAS PC Casse ?

P

Phimp

Gawd
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
596
I'm planning for the build of a FreeNAS box.
I'll use 3 750gb drives at first then probably throw in a fourth later on.
And I'm looking for a shorter case, like the shuttle-style of cases.
But apparantely most Shuttle or Apevia cases like that come with absolutely worthless PSU's. I'm hoping to not have to replace the PSU, so it could support a couple hard drives and a low-end system without issues and be reliable.

I'm tempted to just throw this all in an Xbox case and have an external PSU cuz it would be cheaper. :p

Any suggestions?
What did other NAS PC builders use?
 
If you're looking for a NAS system, you probably want RAID for the hard drives, look at the chipsets (intel southbridge chips with a -R suffix supports raid - ex: ICH8R, ICH7R and so on), unless you want to have a RAID controller card. I'd look at small cases without a PSU, and I wouldn't necessarily go for a barebones kit unless you find something absolutely perfect (which probably won't happen, but ya never know).

My suggestion: look around mATX cases without PSUs that can hold as many HDDs as you want, and remember you can put them in external 3.5" slots or put in expansion brackets - usually either 3 HDDs in 2 5.25"s or 4 HDDs in 3 5.25"s
 
well, im going through my choices for the system in the "Disk Storage Systems" subform, I already have a thread for the inner workings of the NAS.
I'm using FreeNAS (if I can figure if it's possible to expand raid5 w/ it) and using it's software raid function, pretty simple&easy.

I have the components roughly picked out. really cheap though, not too worried about getting max performance because I'm working with a fairly tight budget for everything.

But ya, I just can't find a small micro/miniATX case that isn't expensive and doesn't look like it was made by Mattel.
It doesn't really need to include a PSU but I have no idea what to look for as far as quality in PSU's and it needs to be shorter if it's gonna fit in a tiny case.

Thanks for the suggestions on the chipsets!

But most micro/miniATX cases have 2 internal 3.5" bays, and 1 or 2 external 5.25" bays and some have just one 5.25" bay with an external 3.5" bay for a floppy. So most would fit 3 drives easily, and 4 just fine. If I moved up to 5 in the future, It'd require a little metal work but I'm not concerned about that far ahead.

Do most people just go for the typical atx desktop case that's cheap and has a decent PSU? Then throw it in a closet? I will go that route if no micro/miniATX cases appeal to me at their price.
 
AMD_RULES said:
I found a great case for you. It runs a bit expensive, but it is a mini ITX case with four 3.5" Removable drive bays. Perfect for a NAS or File Server.


http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=100

http://techawave.jitbid.com/techawa...wer-mini-itx-4-x-sataiisas-no-p-p-555801.html
Click to expand...
Wow! That case is a thing of beauty! I fell in love when I saw the pictures.. but my heart was broken when I saw the price lol
Why'd you have to show me that? Now I may just end up going way over budget! haha
Realistically though, I can't just can't bring myself to pay that much for the case and still have to look for a PSU.
If it were $100 cheaper I'd be all over that!

Lazy_Moron said:
I just ordered this last night:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3301330&CatId=32

Might not be on the shorter side but it includes the removable drive bays and you even have room to add another remove drive bay in it.
Click to expand...
Seems a bit more in my price range, I'd probably jump for it if it came with a reliable PSU, but I'll definitely still consider it.


How about a small Thermaltake case
 and throw in a decent PSU? What psu though? I've re-used PSU's so many times that I don't have to purchase them very often so I'm not familiar with the reliable brands.

Edit: I was hoping for a non-tower case, but my budget is cutting it close after picking out hardware. So how about this CM case? Decent PSU?
Wow, I hate shipping costs... any good deals on case+psu at Best Buy B&M lately?
 
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