New HTPC/NAS Case

[Stretch]

I've been looking for a case for my new mini-itx sff htpc/nas box but I'm getting a bit frustrated finding exactly what I need.

I'm looking for something like this Lian Li PC-Q09F

The only thing it's lacking is space for a couple of 3.5 HDs which is a must for the NAS.

I'm sure I've seen something that fit's the bill recently but I can't find it any more. I think there's is a bigger Lian Li (or maybe silverstone) case with space for two 3.5 drives but it's much bigger 45cm wide.

 

[Stretch]

Checkout the Chenbro range, I'm sure they used to do a 2 bay nas aswell.

http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_cat.php?pos=33

I like the chenbro range but I want to put the case in my hifi cabinet/TV stand so needs to lay flat like a sky box, or amp.

The only M-itx HTPC styled cases,capable of taking 2, 3.5" hdd's without mods (that I'ver ever seen or heard of) are made by Inwin.

The BP671 for example.
http://www.in-win.com.tw/US/products_pccase_series.php?cat_id=1&series_id=47&model_id=320

This is the annoying thing. I've seen a number of cases that have space for a 5.25" optical drive but one/none 3.5" drives. Or 2 2.5" drives and nothing else

Another possibility is buy the Q09 and an E-sata box to put the drives in.
Easy to hide a 2 drive E-sata box if you want it out of sight.
Quite a few M-itx boards now with an E-sata port on the back plane.

I've had a look at these. Is there a performance hit by housing them in a external box? Also are you able to boot from these drives, and will they work in a virtualised environment?

I like the look of the chyangfun CFI-A2059 case as that has two 3.5 hot swap bays but i've heard it's not very well built for what you pay for it and it has a noisy PSU.

The do look very cheep and styling obviously wasn't a high priority.

 

[Stretch]

Well. I'm going to use it to stream to my tv via DLNA, so it's not strictly an HTPC. However I would like the option to use it as a straight full HTPC/NAS server if that better suits my needs. Initially I'm going to configure one VM with WHS running mezzmo and see how I get on. I have a similar set up already but the box is under powered and out of disk space. I'd also like something a bit smaller, quieter and slicker.

The VM is because I'm a software developer and I can use it to hook into my company source control system for faster local file access, builds, dev database hosting etc. I need to keep gbis separate for a number of reasons. However I don't really want lots of kit around the house so I like to keep it all in one box.

Do you know if you can boot from a esata drive, or would I be better of getting a separate internal 2.5" for the boot drive and just use the external for file storage?

 

[Stretch]

Fractal Array?

The Fractal is an option but is the wrong shape and has no space for an optical drive.

These are the cases I like the look of. They all full shot in one way or another but one fits the bill feature wise.

Fractal Array

Optical: No
3.5 Bays: 6
2.5 Bays: 1
Dimensions: (W)250 (H)200 (D)350

Full Details

Lian Li PC-Q08

Optical: Yes (5.25)
3.5 Bays: 6
2.5 Bays: 1
Dimensions: (W)227 (H)272 (D)345

Full Details

Lian Li PC-Q09F

Discounted due to no 3.5 bays.

Optical: Yes (slim)
3.5 Bays: 0
2.5 Bays: 1
Dimensions: (W)265 (H)124 (D)200

Silverstone SG05

Optical: Yes (slim)
3.5 Bays: 1
2.5 Bays: 1
Dimensions: (W)222 (H)176 (D)276


Full Details

Silverstone SG08

Optical: Yes (slim)
3.5 Bays: 1
2.5 Bays: 2
Dimensions: (W)222 (H)190 (D)351


Full Details

So the Lian Li PC-Q08 looks like they've managed to fit a a lot in such a tight space. Very impressive compared with the others. It is a bit on the big side for a TV cabinet (height wise), it also has quite an annoying blue light/fan arrangement on the front. Can anyone tell me how loud the fan is and how difficult it is to disable the light?

The other option is to go for one of the Silverstone cases and just put a huge 3.5" (4TB) drive in.

Or just buy a dedicated NAS box and separate server.

I like the look of these but are they are pricey