3d printed NAS case

[Bingie 99]

Hi everyone,

Has anyone here printed a NAS case?  I'm seriously thinking about going down that road.  Buy a 3d printer, and design the case that I want.

When I first started with Emby a few months ago, we were poor as dirt, so to keep costs down, I bought a cheap mini-pc and connected an external USB hard disk.  People here recommended a starter NAS, like the Synology 220+, but at the time, I couldn't justify an extra $100 for basically a plastic case to hold everything.  If I had the money, I probably would have.

Now that we are currently doing better financially, I'm looking at a chassis to hold the now 2x 10TB hard drives.  There are no NAS cases you can buy empty (I've been looking), and they all seem to price gouge for their chassis.  For example, the Synology 220+ is $300 holds 2 drives, the 420+ with 4 drive bays is a whopping $200 more for $500.  To me, they are charging $300 just for the plastic 4 bay chassis.  Hell, for $300 I can buy a really good 3d printer and make a case... which is the direction I'm leaning.

I'm a do-it-yourself (DIY) kind of guy, and this whole process has been a learning experience.  Instead of buying a 2 or 4 or bigger slot NAS, I'm thinking of building a NAS case from scratch, choose all hardware, the motherboard, power supply, etc., and each time I need to add bays, just design and print a larger NAS chassis, and move everything over.  Sounds good, right?

I know, I'm probably kidding myself, it's probably a massive undertaking, but other people are doing it, so it can be done.  I might just start by printing a NAS chassis that somebody else designed, then go from there.

Anyone here print your NAS chassis?  Or have you thought about it?  Google "3d printed NAS chassis" there are plenty out there already done:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=3d+printed+nas+case&atb=v229-1&iax=images&ia=images

Since I'm building from the ground up, I'll probably start with FreeNAS software, and go from there.  Why not.  It can be a fun learning experience, certainly interesting.

Thanks for reading

 

[Bingie 99]

or lego

 

[Bingie 99]

I may have found a mini-ITX chassis that might do it for me:

https://www.newegg.com/black-fractal-design-core-500-mini-itx/p/N82E16811352060?Item=N82E16811352060

Small footprint, can hold 4x 3.5" drives and 2x 2.5" drives.  Supports ATX PSU's and 2 card slots, for maybe a tuner card and high-end video card.

Only $60, that's more like it.