Western Digital WD Red SA500 NAS SSD 1 TB

[newtekie1]

One mobo, two PCIe cards (one for SSDs and one for network), blow air from front to rear and you're set. I think the hardest part would be find a case that's not built for HTPC, if you can keep outside connectors to a minimum, you could end up with something quite small.
But again, this is all wishful thinking, the price per GB seriously limits SSD adoption in a NAS today.

Ok, now go find me a mITX motherboard with two PCI-E slots.

 

[bug]

Ok, now go find me a mITX motherboard with two PCI-E slots.

Yeah, that would probably need a microATX instead. But stop nitpicking, building a NAS using 4 NVMe SSDs will result in a more compact solution than using 4 2.5" drives

 

[Chrispy_]

Yeah, that would probably need a microATX instead. But stop nitpicking, building a NAS using 4 NVMe SSDs will result in a more compact solution than using 4 2.5" drives

I don't think it's nitpicking, 4 SATA drives could sit under a mITX board with only 7mm added to the height. You can literally tape them anywhere, and even shuck the 2.5" shell if space is a real premium.

Getting a right-angle riser and 4xM.2 on a PCI card is going to need at least as much space, with the added disadvatage of being extremely limiting in where you can put it, not to mention costly as well.

 

[newtekie1]

Yeah, that would probably need a microATX instead. But stop nitpicking, building a NAS using 4 NVMe SSDs will result in a more compact solution than using 4 2.5" drives

Moving to mATX increases the case size a lot, using full height PCI-E cards increases the case size a lot. At the end of the day, you end up with something just as big or bigger than building a mITX NAS with 2.5" drives.

 

[Chrispy_]

Moving to mATX increases the case size a lot, using full height PCI-E cards increases the case size a lot. At the end of the day, you end up with something just as big or bigger than building a mITX NAS with 2.5" drives.

Let's put it this way - up until the end of last year, my HTPC case had 3x 2.5" sata drives in it, despite having no drive bays whatsoever (I ripped them out to fit a full-length blower GPU in there).

I velcro-taped two drives on top of the PSU in a quarter-inch gap of dead space and shucked one (a 120GB Samsung 830 boot drive that occupied only 25% the space in the 2.5" shell) so that its just stuck vertically out of the SATA port using a half-inch SATA coupler. Cables are messy, yes. But they let you put a drive anywhere.

 

[newtekie1]

Let's put it this way - up until the end of last year, my HTPC case had 3x 2.5" sata drives in it, despite having no drive bays whatsoever (I ripped them out to fit a full-length blower GPU in there).

I velcro-taped two drives on top of the PSU in a quarter-inch gap of dead space and shucked one (a 120GB Samsung 830 boot drive that occupied only 25% the space in the 2.5" shell) so that its just stuck vertically out of the SATA port using a half-inch SATA coupler. Cables are messy, yes. But they let you put a drive anywhere.

I can't even tell you the number of old computers I've upgraded with SATA SSDs and just left the drives hanging in the case not attached to anything.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I can't even tell you the number of old computers I've upgraded with SATA SSDs and just left the drives hanging in the case not attached to anything.

Ouch. Talk about irresponsible...

 

[newtekie1]

Ouch. Talk about irresponsible...

Nah, not really. Take the 3.5" drive out, stick the 2.5" SSD in the 3.5" bay and connect the SATA data/power cables. The drives secure enough, even if they move the computer around. But since the computer is likely to spend the rest of its life under the same desk, it'll be fine. Not that this is my common practice, but sometimes it's the only option when I'm out in the field.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Not that this is my common practice, but sometimes it's the only option when I'm out in the field.

Now that I can understand. It happens. Thing is, I never leave it that way, and my techs aren't allowed to either. 2.5 -> 3.5 drive adaptors are dead cheap. It's that extra-mile thing.