Small case for file server

Scottland · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:16

Hi there,

I'm upgrading my NAS solution to be using a small ITX (could go upto mATX) solution. What I'm looking for is a small case, preferably steel with accommodation for 4 3.5" drives and one 2.5" SSD. It also needs to be well suited to running 24/7 so reasonably decent cooling and very quiet as it will be situated in my office. I like the idea of having front mounted removable bays for the hard drives, but I'm not sure if this would compromise the acoustics or not?

Also for the PSU - would need to take a PSU big enough to power it all, so not sure if a picoPSU would be up to the task?

Thanks

Scottland · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:01

PaulB said:
Unless you are particularly keen to build your own, an HP Microserver sounds pretty much a perfect fit.

On the face of it yeah, but a friend of mine has one of these and it doesn't quite seem to have enough grunt to stream HD TV (via DVB-S2) to other clients.

Scottland · 11 Apr 2014 at 15:22

Having just measured the space it needs to fit in, the Fractal 304 wont fit.

I have 25cm width max, which means in reality I only have 20cm to allow some room either side. 30cm depth, and 40cm height - so need to look at some tower type designs I think.

Scottland · 12 Apr 2014 at 14:05

Thanks for that, it looks ideal. What is the PSU like noise wise?

Low profile cooler could be an issue as I'm looking at passive bay trail d motherboards.

Scottland · 12 Apr 2014 at 14:41

The new ones would be fine I'd imagine, but they're not as attractively priced. If I recall, they're over 350? I think this build will be around 150 with case, motherboard and ram. I already have a spare SSD.

Scottland · 12 Apr 2014 at 14:49

Too deep that one Stelly, only have 30cm to play with.

Scottland · 12 Apr 2014 at 15:17

Can't comment from personal experience, as I've not used it. But he tells me its not perfect and doesn't quite work well. So I'd rather build something with a bit of headroom.

Scottland · 13 Apr 2014 at 10:30

The only issue with the height is that the motherboards come passive, and they don't take a standard sized cooler so options are limited. Passive isn't a complete requirement but it would be nice.

Here's a pic of one of the boards in question:
http://m.gigabyte.com/fileupload/product/2/4881/9578.jpg

Scottland · 13 Apr 2014 at 12:45

Possibly if I went that route I would try to get a J1900 or preferably a J2900 but I'm also considering a Celeron 1037u board, as my HTPC uses one of these and I know it will work for my usage.

There seems to be limited stock (and no cashback) on the N54L microservers at the moment