compact (and aesthetically pleasing/professional looking) NAS case with 6-8 hot swap bays

[ajeje_brazo]

I'm looking for a case for my home NAS.

I'm thinking about 6-8 drives; I don't have a specific need for hot swap drives, I just like that design.

What I have in mind something that would look like a FreeNAS Mini, but unfortunately buying a pre-assembled one would exceed my current budget.


Few clarifications:

• Why "professionally looking"? I'm going to keep it at home so I can't cringe every time I see it - "well designed" would be more in line with what I'm looking for but that I'm sure many would consider an ugly mess of LEDs and plexiglass as "well designed" [but hey, people could say the same of the black monoliths I love ]
• Compact: I'm not looking for a desktop tower to convert into a NAS, I don't see the point in having a 50-liters beast around when I have no use for GPU/water cooling inside my case.
• Ideally the hot swap drives would have LED that can be used to monitor the disk activity/state (I'm not sure how it would be to actually get it to work with the OS so this would be the least important feature).

 

[Inxsible]

You didn't mention your board size, so I am assuming you are ok with ITX and uATX cases. Note that the Corsair cases include a mix of 3.5" & 2.5" drives in the total

1. Fractal Design Node 304 -- 6 drives, ITX
2. Fractal Design Node 804 -- 12 drives, uATX
3. U-NAS NSC 600 -- 6 hotswap drives, ITX
4. U-NAS NSC 800 -- 8 hotswap drives, ITX
5. Corsair Carbide Air 240 -- 6 hotswap drives, uATX
6. Corsair Obsidian 250D -- 5 drives, ITX
7. Corsair Crystal 280X -- 5 drives, uATX

 

[Chris Moore]

It is difficult to get a system like the FreeNAS Mini without spending more than the cost of the FreeNAS Mini.
Is the priority for a low cost, or a teeny tiny box? It is less expensive to build in a standard ATX case so you need to decide what the importance of small is.

Think Fractal Design Define R5.

 

[LIGISTX]

I second the define R5. I got a free Corsair 750d from a buddy and used that and it’s worked out well for my needs, but if I had to buy a case it would have been an R5.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris Moore]

but unfortunately buying a pre-assembled one would exceed my current budget.

What kind of budget and are we doing a whole build from scratch ??

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm looking for a case for my home NAS.

Also, please say where in the world you are so we have some idea where to point you for parts.

 

[ajeje_brazo]

Thank you for your replies!
I have 6 disk NAS but I recently shipped it and while the HDDs are fine the motherboard/CPU became unusable. I figured that as I'm getting a new motherboard I could also upgrade the case.
I'm in the US.

I think something like this [https://www.inwin-style.com/en/ipc-server/ms08/] would look great but I couldn't find this mode on sale.
The U-NAS Inxsible recommended looks good too.

 

[Stux]

UNAS also had the UNAS800A last I checked which is an 8 bay uATX case

 

[Chris Moore]

Thank you for your replies!
I have 6 disk NAS but I recently shipped it and while the HDDs are fine the motherboard/CPU became unusable. I figured that as I'm getting a new motherboard I could also upgrade the case.
I'm in the US.

I think something like this [https://www.inwin-style.com/en/ipc-server/ms08/] would look great but I couldn't find this mode on sale.
The U-NAS Inxsible recommended looks good too.

I sure hate to hear that you want to go with such a small system. Would you consider using an ATX tower system like a Fractal Design Define R5? They look very sleek and they are very quiet. Not hot-swap, but easy to change drives and you can get into a full build that way for less money because you can get memory for less if you buy the right parts.
If that sounds interesting, let me know. Thanks.