Build a NAS replacement

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I really don't like my D-Link DNS-323 and was thinking of replacing it with a proper computer.

The new Intel Atom boards look like great value for building a little server, but I'm struggling to find a nifty little case that will hold a mini-ITX board and ideally three or four drives (one boot, 2/3 storage).

Anyone got any case recommendations?

 

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Skeeter, that looks very nice indeed but the price is high!

I've looked around a bit more and found a smart Chenbro ITX case, with four hot swap drive bays. It's £150 though.

entireweb, your set up sounds a lot like I'm thinking of building. That case looks good, and the price is great. Is it quiet? What OS are you using and what services are you running

I was going to use Ubuntu, and run file sharing, DNS, Firefly (DAAP music server). I was thinking of running squid proxy too but have no idea whether it would speed up browsing.

 

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Did a bit more looking around and I'm starting to like the look of the SilverStone SUGO SG01B

It's not mini-ITX, but that might be an advantage in the long term. Plus I might have an old microATX board kicking around that would get the machine up and running, without having to buy everything up front

 

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Does it have to be a PC, wouldnt concider another NAS?

I was thinking it has to be a PC this time. What NAS were you thinking of? I like the drobo, that's a nice piece of kit but expensive and still less flexible than a PC.

I like the idea of a PC server because you can even change the OS if it makes sense to. Also it's is upgradeable from a hardware point of view.


After some more digging around, it's looking like the new Athlon 64 2000+ could be the way to go, the CPU uses more power than the Atom but the 780 chipset uses a lot less than the current Intel atom chipsets, so overall it's much lower power usage, and faster too. I'm thinking of a setup like this in a Lian Li V350 case