The home NAS case market is so frustrating. For my next build, I’m going to design a 3D printed interface to use an 8-bay supermicro backplane like the BPN-SAS-747TQ, build a simple aluminum box around it with 2x120mm fans in the rear, and just run SATA and power to a PC case sitting next to it. It would even be straightforward to have activity lights and everything. Good drive temps, low noise, cheap and replaceable backplane, cheap enclosure, and full freedom of PC case choice to optimize for size or cooling or whatever. Sure, it’ll be a bit bulky and a bit ugly, but I’d much rather take those downsides over noise, cost, or heat.
I went for a eBay 4u server case, no hotswap bays or anything, just 13 or so 3.5" slots with a a row of 3x120mm fans behind them. Sits in the garage out of sight all for £45 delivered.
My issues are that I live in an apartment, so size, heat, and noise are large considerations, and that I want hotswap drive bays. What chassis did you get for £45? Does it use an ATX PSU or something else? What are the drive temps? Always under 30°C? 35°C? 40°C?
I thought your post was satire at first because I actually experience more frustration watching videos about NAS builds where they casually drop in the “I just 3D printed this bracket” and “I bought this used motherboard on EBay/AliExpress” when they bought probably the only one being sold in the last 6 months. Like, neat. But neither of those things help me lol.
I can totally understand your frustration! I wish there was a product available that could do everything I want, but there isn’t, and I have access to a 3D printer through my local makerspace. I will say that there are a bunch of ways to get prints made and shipped to you if you don’t have access to one. I also think that lots of people 3D print things when they don’t need to. When I make the enclosure that I mentioned, only the bare minimum will be 3D printed, and the rest of the enclosure will use off-the-shelf parts, a readily available backplane, and will be able to be built with simple tools.
I actually have somewhat limited access to a 3D printer and I definitely appreciate the effort that people put into designing and then making those designs freely available. There’s just so many DIY projects now that basically require one.
Anyway, I just settled for one of these for home use, so those kinds of projects are sort of outside my wheelhouse anyway. Would be interested to see your build once it’s finished though.
The home NAS case market is so frustrating. For my next build, I’m going to design a 3D printed interface to use an 8-bay supermicro backplane like the BPN-SAS-747TQ, build a simple aluminum box around it with 2x120mm fans in the rear, and just run SATA and power to a PC case sitting next to it. It would even be straightforward to have activity lights and everything. Good drive temps, low noise, cheap and replaceable backplane, cheap enclosure, and full freedom of PC case choice to optimize for size or cooling or whatever. Sure, it’ll be a bit bulky and a bit ugly, but I’d much rather take those downsides over noise, cost, or heat.
I 3D printed a custom PC case:
https://www.printables.com/model/486506-3d-print-pc
I went for a eBay 4u server case, no hotswap bays or anything, just 13 or so 3.5" slots with a a row of 3x120mm fans behind them. Sits in the garage out of sight all for £45 delivered.
My issues are that I live in an apartment, so size, heat, and noise are large considerations, and that I want hotswap drive bays. What chassis did you get for £45? Does it use an ATX PSU or something else? What are the drive temps? Always under 30°C? 35°C? 40°C?
I’m not opposed to standard mid or full towers for a home NAS, but the common ones have so few 3.5" bays.
I thought your post was satire at first because I actually experience more frustration watching videos about NAS builds where they casually drop in the “I just 3D printed this bracket” and “I bought this used motherboard on EBay/AliExpress” when they bought probably the only one being sold in the last 6 months. Like, neat. But neither of those things help me lol.
I can totally understand your frustration! I wish there was a product available that could do everything I want, but there isn’t, and I have access to a 3D printer through my local makerspace. I will say that there are a bunch of ways to get prints made and shipped to you if you don’t have access to one. I also think that lots of people 3D print things when they don’t need to. When I make the enclosure that I mentioned, only the bare minimum will be 3D printed, and the rest of the enclosure will use off-the-shelf parts, a readily available backplane, and will be able to be built with simple tools.
I actually have somewhat limited access to a 3D printer and I definitely appreciate the effort that people put into designing and then making those designs freely available. There’s just so many DIY projects now that basically require one.
It’s not a NAS, but this guy made a sff PC cooled with 3D printed ducts.
Anyway, I just settled for one of these for home use, so those kinds of projects are sort of outside my wheelhouse anyway. Would be interested to see your build once it’s finished though.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
sff PC cooled with 3D printed ducts
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.