The biggest downside of this case is the ITX motherboard that’s required (as they’re generally limited compared to ATX/mATX options), but if you want a small form factor case that actually looks like a traditional prebuilt NAS, this is the one. Top: 1 x 240mm (over motherboard compartment) and 1 x 240mm / 280mm radiators (over drive compartment) While the total hard drive storage locations are ultimately the most important factor of any good case, there are other key things that must be taken into consideration. First, you need to determine the type of motherboard you’ll be using before actually buying a case. Fans and cooling a concern you say? Not to worry, the Fractal Design Node 804 has you more than covered. It comes with 3x pre-installed fans as standard but there is plenty enough room to add some more of your own if you want. Looking for some water cooling support? Well, the Node 804 has room for 4x 240mm radiators which should be more than enough for any hardware users will be installing inside it. There is room for two of the radiators to be mounted in the front and two more on the top of the case giving users plenty of layout options to get them exactly where they want.

Rear: 1 - 120/140mm fan (included is a hydraulic bearing 120mm Silent Series R2 fan, 1000 RPM speed) It might also be what pre-built NAS devices have done to people’s perception, but when you use the Node 804 to build a NAS, it feels like you’re building a NAS. Nothing against more traditional cases, but the Node 804 is large enough to provide the hard drives needed for a NAS, and small enough to throw in the corner and not think about. I love this case. Graphics card compatibility: Graphics cards up to 320mm in length. Graphics cards up to 290 mm in length may be installed if a fan is installed in the lower position in the front. Stripping the case down to it’s skeleton form and we can see most of the options the case has to offer. Plenty of space for fans, radiators and hard drives galore if that is your thing! If not, Fractal Design have made it easy to use the Node 804 for more of a simplistic build if you desire.

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Maximum radiator configuration: 1x240mm, 1x280mm and 2x120mm radiators simultaneously. Front interface Please keep in mind that while the cases below may support many hard drives, your motherboard must have enough SATA ports to actually use that many hard drives. Please consider purchasing a PCIe SATA/SAS Controller Card if you need additional SATA ports. Cases for NAS devices are generally smaller form factor, meaning they’re either designed to be extremely small (in the case of ITX-only cases) or look more like a cube so they can maximize hard drive space. What I did personally was take off both side panels, the front and top as well as removed the hard drive cages. Getting the Node 804 down to the bare frame was the easiest way I could imagine to do things and it worked out great. Even things like installing the Corsair H80i, which can be a pain in some bigger cases were easy enough to do like this, overall a very enjoyable experience. I thought about top mounting the fans to pull the air upwards, but you can’t use top fan mounts with the drive bays installed.

With nothing against the 3 speed switch included by Fractal, my personal preference is that the motherboard would be in charge of the fan speed instead of a manually set fan controller. When you’re looking to build a NAS, you really have to try and understand what your goals are first. Network-attached storage cases can have special features like hot-swappable bays, small form factors (mATX or ITX), or even tons of hard drive bays. We’ll focus on the best NAS cases to use in this article. The next thing to take into consideration is the networking you’d like to use. For most NAS devices, you’ll either use 1GbE (standard on most Motherboards), 2.5GbE, or 10GbE. Depending on the NIC the Motherboard comes with, you might need to ensure the case can handle a networking card in the event that you’d like to increase the networking speeds of the device. On the front of the main chamber is space for 2x fans, 1 of which comes pre-installed. Also removing the front panel will give access to the dust filter when it comes time to clean it. While the maximum size support for motherboards is microATX, you can get a good deal on older boards that work with powerful Intel processors for running Plex Media Server, virtual instances, and other server-related tasks. There are also some good gaming motherboards in this segment that will make for great PC foundations.After testing tons of different cases, these are the best NAS cases you can use in my opinion. Overall, NAS cases are unique in the sense that each user will have different requirements depending on the RAID array size you’ll be using. The obvious requirement for most people is to determine how many total hard drives you’ll need first. The case comes with three excellent 120mm fans but can be upgraded with several additional fans if needed. Featuring plenty of options for placing water cooling components, tall heat sinks and hard drives. The flexibility of this case really gives the users the possibility to create their optimal system build. Specifications