As a result of preparing to DIY a regular PC, which did not happen, I ended up with several unused components. At a certain point, I realized I could use a NAS for storing my photo and music archive. So, DIY a NAS looked like a nice activity.
But I do have a challenge for which I would appreciate some advice.
What I do have in terms of components:
Board – PRIME Z790M-PLUS D4
CPU – Intel® Core™ i5-12600K
Cooler - Noctua NH-U12S redux
RAM – VENGEANCE® LPX 16 Go (2 x 8 Go) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16
SSD – SSD 970 EVO Plus 500 Go
HDD – Seagate 8TB (4x) 7200 Ironwolf Pro
Power – Seasonic FOCUS PX-550 Fully modular PC power supply 80PLUS Platinum 550 Watt
Since the cooler and the power are a bit large, I cannot go for a small case.
What would be the best option for a case? Hot-swap is a significant plus.
I’ve just went through this exercise. I looked into mini-ITX and concluded that stuff is just too… weird and I couldn’t reuse any of my spare PS’s nor have enough slots for expansion.
Moving up to mATX the Fractal Node 804 was a natural choice. It’s pretty compact as long as you don’t mind the width, it’s sturdy, it’s thoughtfully engineered, and it’s somewhat flexible with drive and fan placements.
The only catch is no external access to drive slots. But that stuff adds fiddly bits and costs money.
I call it my eWaste Build because only the case, CPU/MB, and RAM are new. The rest is stuff many would’ve recycled already including a 15 year-old Seasonic, HDDs in the 6-9 year range, and 2,3 and 4-pin 120mm fans pilfered during the last 20 years of screwing around with PC hardware.
I’m gonna upgrade to the Silverstone RM600 whenever it comes out. I emailed their sales folks to ask about it, and they said if all goes well it should be available sometime in Q4 of this year. So of course, take that with a grain of salt. When they were showing this case off at Computex this year, it had 12 hot-swap drive bays in a 6U form factor, with a tower configuration available as well. Here’s the gamersnexus quick overview if you’re curious.
I second the Fractal Design Node 804 suggestion. Personally I prefer the smaller cousin Fractal Design Node 304, but that requires an mITX board. So 804 it is.
Another contender could be something like the Factal Design Meshify 2, although that is a bit more expensive.
If there are any other ITX fans, just stumbled across the Jonsbo N2 which gets my vote for best compact HDD NAS right now. It has a disk backplane which is awesome, though ITX support with 5+ SATA ports is still a pain.
That one is SWEEET… And is probably going to cost somewhere around $400, unfortunately. Still, yes, I would go for that if my storage requirements are massive, seems to have 12 hot swap + backplane + another 9 or 10 spots inside the chassi itself.
Given your components and the need for hot-swap functionality, I recommend considering a mid-tower case with support for multiple hard drives. Look for cases like the Fractal Design Define R6 or the NZXT H510. These cases offer spacious interiors, good airflow, and support for both SSDs and HDDs. Make sure to check the specifications to ensure they fit your cooler and power supply.
Still, yes, I would go for that if my storage requirements are massive, seems to have 12 hot swap + backplane + another 9 or 10 spots inside the chassi itself.