When it comes to NAS cases, the size of the motherboard they can accommodate plays a significant role in determining their differences. ITX and ATX NAS cases differ in this aspect, with ITX cases being smaller and accommodating smaller motherboards compared to their ATX counterparts. This means that ATX motherboards have more PCIe lanes, making them better suited for multi-GPU setups or users who want to use multiple PCIe devices. So if you need a space-saving build, you can see our slim ATX cases for inspiration. How many hard drives can fit inside a mini ITX NAS case?

8 Bay NAS - Create a Networked Storage Centre with NAS Case 8 Bay 8 Bay NAS - Create a Networked Storage Centre with NAS Case 8 Bay

This case is decent quality and I'm happy with the end result, however, it is a royal pain to build in. It comes with the territory to build in a small case, but this case is nearly impossible to snake cable through, and it is razor sharp (I literally sliced off a small portion of the tip of my thumb by accident). You'll need to be especially careful that you don't cut cables when finagling them due to the overly sharp edges. Now some useful information that I wished I'd had as it would have saved me time and money:

Getting Started: Choosing the Form Factor

I know I can’t deploy Synology Servers or replace drives if they will PERPETUALLY alert of “Important data may be lost”. A client would consider this a fireable offense. Have NO confidence in me as their consultant or Synology as a solution to protect their data. I own and have tried QNAP, but HATE the interface… But I MAY have to switch to them for clients [and personally] to avoid these SUPER SCARY alerts.

U-NAS NSC-810A Server Chassis U-NAS NSC-810A Server Chassis

Case comes with front end mounting plates for a flex PSU and a 1u server PSU also rear end plate for flex PSU plus a bag of screws for hard drive mounting to caddies.FreeNAS — Supports Windows SMB, Apple AFP, Time Machine, and Unix NFS, as well as FTP and WebDAV with many advanced features & add-ons. See screenshots.