FreeNAS build

which case did you recommend? the silverstone ds380 or the supermicro CSE-721TQ-250B?

I have this case, itā€™s okay but you canā€™t use the middle hard drive rack and a PCI card, even a half height card, at the same time. You can use a half height card but you have to modify the hard drive slot. Otherwise itā€™s a good case.

I donā€™t know about this, I have an old AMD 8320e on my plex server and it has handled 4 simultaneous streams without showing any signs that it couldnā€™t handle more. Plex atleast (donā€™t know about alternatives) transcodes in chunks and then idles while the user is streaming that chunk so itā€™s not constantly working on each stream.

which case?

Sorry, the silverstone

would you say the Supermicro would be a better choice? especially given that it comes with a bronze PSU?

I think those 2 chunky black connectors break out into 4 SATAs each. Iā€™m not familiar with it though.

Sorry, didnā€™t read.

It only has 4 drive bays, there arenā€™t many small form factor cases with as many bays as the silverstone. I think there are some Fractal cases with a bunch of drive capacity that might be worth looking at too.

If you do get the silverstone itā€™s not difficult to modify it to be able to use eight disks and a half height card (you will have to give up a disk for a taller card). Thereā€™s a plastic cover on the side of the drive cage which you remove to add a PCI card and leave on to be able to slide a disk in. But if you cut a section of the plastic out above the rail that the drive slides on then you can have both without any problems.

what if the card is something like an NVME adapter or a TV tuner card?

If itā€™s half height it will fit if not then you can only have 7 disks