I've been lining up some mods and designing a few 3D-printed parts that allow expanding the capabilities of NSC-800 cases. Figured I'd share for whoever may be interested.
First, there's plenty of room on the side opposite the motherboard. With the included 2.5" drive tray, it's possible to mount one drive there.
With a bit of work (and modding/replacing the rear molex power cables so they don't exit from the side) it becomes relatively easy to fit 2 drives instead of 1:
The 1st version of the twin drive carrier relies on a fabricated metal plate with threaded inserts, but that ends up fairly expensive. Only difference in additional hardware between 1st and 2nd versions is that the 1st version uses 1/4" 4-40 screws instead of 3/8"
(no comment on the Vertex2)
The 2nd version is mainly 3D-printed. The only non-printed parts are:
6x 3/32" x 5/8" dowel pins
12x M1x2 o-rings
6x 3/8" 4-40 pan-head screws (or M3x10mm, with more work required)
6x .185"-wide (face-to-face) 4-40 nuts (the 'small' size, as used in D-Sub connectors)
Why not use the 2.5" drive mounting point that's on top of the 3.5" bays, you ask?
Because that spot will be used to mount a 2nd expansion (low-profile only) card, courtesy of a 4-lane m.2 extender and a m.2 to pcie x4 adapter. (here shown with a ConnectX-3)
The baseplate and upright frame mount on the normal U-NAS NSC-800 2.5" drive carrier and allow adjustment in both horizontal axis.
Of course, a network card with no way to get the cable out of the enclosure isn't all that convenient, but that can be fixed with a FlexATX to 1U PSU bracket with an integrated Keystone jack holder.
Using that position for an HBA that can run well enough on only 4 pcie 3.0 lanes is also doable but needs a bit of work to obtain a more convenient orientation.
First, there's plenty of room on the side opposite the motherboard. With the included 2.5" drive tray, it's possible to mount one drive there.
With a bit of work (and modding/replacing the rear molex power cables so they don't exit from the side) it becomes relatively easy to fit 2 drives instead of 1:
The 1st version of the twin drive carrier relies on a fabricated metal plate with threaded inserts, but that ends up fairly expensive. Only difference in additional hardware between 1st and 2nd versions is that the 1st version uses 1/4" 4-40 screws instead of 3/8"
(no comment on the Vertex2)
The 2nd version is mainly 3D-printed. The only non-printed parts are:
6x 3/32" x 5/8" dowel pins
12x M1x2 o-rings
6x 3/8" 4-40 pan-head screws (or M3x10mm, with more work required)
6x .185"-wide (face-to-face) 4-40 nuts (the 'small' size, as used in D-Sub connectors)
Why not use the 2.5" drive mounting point that's on top of the 3.5" bays, you ask?
Because that spot will be used to mount a 2nd expansion (low-profile only) card, courtesy of a 4-lane m.2 extender and a m.2 to pcie x4 adapter. (here shown with a ConnectX-3)
The baseplate and upright frame mount on the normal U-NAS NSC-800 2.5" drive carrier and allow adjustment in both horizontal axis.
Of course, a network card with no way to get the cable out of the enclosure isn't all that convenient, but that can be fixed with a FlexATX to 1U PSU bracket with an integrated Keystone jack holder.
Using that position for an HBA that can run well enough on only 4 pcie 3.0 lanes is also doable but needs a bit of work to obtain a more convenient orientation.