# Awesome ITX NAS Case



## Xaero252

I recently managed to pick one of these up:








From our friends in china, here:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=14643563178&spm=2014.12003210.0.0

Basically a Chinese manufacturing company produces these cases for companies to purchase in lots of 25, they support an ITX board, up to 8 bays (I linked the 6, a rumoured 10-12 bay version is on the way) A single expansion card with NO BRACKET. This user on Taobao (the chinese ebay) is reselling them so that people in America/users who want one unit can afford to purchase them. Case is roughly $180 shipped.

If you can't ship to your country or don't feel like puzzling through taobao's user registration to find out, the BuyFromTaobao service is excellent - pretty much they buy the product, have it shipped to them in china, and then they ship it to you, no matter where you are in the world - for a small fee ($5-30 depending on the size, weight, and shipping expense on their end)

Here are some pictures of this case:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7147490&postcount=61

EDIT:

I was wrong, the ones being sold on Taobao DO NOT INCLUDE PSUs. Standard 1U power supplies fit.


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## Jonowxeno

I remember seeing these earlier and completely forgot about trying to get one since as you said they were selling in lots of 10, 25, etc.

Thanks for the link and suggestion to use buyfromtaobao.

This looks like an excellent case for a home NAS, especially for $180 considering the hot-swap bays alone would be worth that.

Any idea when the 10-12 bay will come out?


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## Xaero252

I haven't heard any estimation on it, I'll try snooping around the chinese forums that rave about these cases for some more info.

And for those who may be curious, I managed to pick up a Perc/5i for $29, a gig stick of fully buffered memory for it for $10 and am placing an AMD APU board ($79) and 6 WD 2tb Blacks that I have had for about a year inside the chassis. The robust board/raid solution are of course a little over the top for a home-nas, but I'm planning on this ending up being a full fledged media server, I intend to have the machine potentially handle some transcoding, as well as the generic nas tasks.


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## Jonowxeno

Ah, now I remember where I saw it, on Alibaba : http://nbtaifa.en.alibaba.com/product/484820141-212566619/NAS_Server_Chassis_w_8_Hot_Swappable_SATA_SAS_Drive_Bays_Mini_ITX_.html
There's the 8 bay one, but minimum order is 10

looks like
6-bay = NSC-600 - 998 Yuan ~ $160
8-bay = NSC-800 - 1298 Yuan ~ $200

My Uncle is in Beijing, gonna see if he can find these.

I don't understand the expansion card mounting from the pics on overclockers, is it suppose to be mounted there?

Definitely would make a nice ZFS, FreeNAS, unRAID, WHS2011, etc. box.


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## Derek1387

DO WANT.

Replace my freeNAS build that cost me like, $120..... and make this look good!


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## Xaero252

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Jonowxeno*
> 
> Ah, now I remember where I saw it, on Alibaba : http://nbtaifa.en.alibaba.com/product/484820141-212566619/NAS_Server_Chassis_w_8_Hot_Swappable_SATA_SAS_Drive_Bays_Mini_ITX_.html
> There's the 8 bay one, but minimum order is 10
> looks like
> 6-bay = NSC-600 - 998 Yuan ~ $160
> 8-bay = NSC-800 - 1298 Yuan ~ $200
> My Uncle is in Beijing, gonna see if he can find these.
> I don't understand the expansion card mounting from the pics on overclockers, is it suppose to be mounted there?
> Definitely would make a nice ZFS, FreeNAS, unRAID, WHS2011, etc. box.


http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=9811624088
This user sells the 8 bay model on taobao. In fact, that user sells the 2, 4, 6, and 8 bay models.
Edit: Probably because that user on Taobao is Yu Technologies - the company that makes the chassis.

As for the expansion card mounting - yes, unfortunately the expansion card is supposed to be installed there, which requires a PCI(-E,X) ribbon cable. Luckily those aren't too pricey either. Its designed to have the card use no pci bracket. the reason the one on overclockers is really weird is because he decided to mount it between two 2.5" drives (one 2.5" drive is supposed to be installed with the stock configuration) using motherboard standoffs as spacers. It worked, and he has 2x2.5" drives in addition to eight 3.5" drives.

As far as my recommendation to use buyfromtaobao.com, I have used them in the past to obtain other products only manufactured/available in that small area of the world. Last item I ordered was a Qanba RAF Q3 Arcade stick, took a while to receive, but was received in perfect condition. They even have an option for them to take photographs upon them receiving the item.

Once I receive this case, I'm going to see about mounting a 20x4 VFD vertically above the power button for health and usage statistics... I think that would pretty neat.


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## wkstar

Can Anyone post a Walkthrough of parts and the build of this ?


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## DuckieHo

Anyone know if there's a US source for these awesome cases?


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## Xaero252

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DuckieHo*
> 
> Anyone know if there's a US source for these awesome cases?


Well BuyFromTaobao works well but unfortunately the 8 bay case isn't very popular so I've been waiting for it to be manufactured since February. The 4 and 2 bay are pretty much readily available.there is an NAS manufacturer in the us who uses cases almost identical these but they are like $500 and have their proprietary PSU and motherboard and isn't made to be used the same way, its too small for an it board or the 1u psu.

They are supposed to be doing a production run soon and the friendly staff at buyfromtaobao has been keeping me updated on the status of things.
I haven't been able to find another enclosure that fits the bill as well as this, so I'll just keep patient.

Another plausible solution is to set up a group buy and purchase a full lot of 20 cases from them directly via alibaba


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## DuckieHo

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Xaero252*
> 
> Well BuyFromTaobao works well but unfortunately the 8 bay case isn't very popular so I've been waiting for it to be manufactured since February. The 4 and 2 bay are pretty much readily available.there is an NAS manufacturer in the us who uses cases almost identical these but they are like $500 and have their proprietary PSU and motherboard and isn't made to be used the same way, its too small for an it board or the 1u psu.
> They are supposed to be doing a production run soon and the friendly staff at buyfromtaobao has been keeping me updated on the status of things.
> I haven't been able to find another enclosure that fits the bill as well as this, so I'll just keep patient.
> Another plausible solution is to set up a group buy and purchase a full lot of 20 cases from them directly via alibaba


I was looking at the Fractal Node 340 as 6 (8 with mods) drive NAS case.

However, this one with hot swappable bays is so nice..... Hotswap bays costs like $15-25 for each drive already.


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## jmorey

These are becoming available in the US. The 2 and 4 bay versions are available now. They say the 8 bay should be available by the end of the month (march 2013). See www.u-nas.com.


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