I've been pricing out what I'll call a MarkNAS. The ultimate would be one that's fanless. I'm almost there, so close!
The main problem is fanless PCs are hard to come by. VIA makes several Mini-ITX fanless boards. It's the Mini-ITX cases that are a problem though. They are definitely hard to find, and I'd like them to have two features: - fanless PS. Yes, these are out there. - 2 X 3.5" bays for a pair of drives in RAID 1. No, these AREN'T out there. :-( I read here http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=18 that FlexATX cases can house Mini-ITX boards, so with that in mind I finally found a FlexATX case that has two 3.5" internal bays: http://www.athenatech.us/a100.htm Not the height of fashion but it prevents fall-apart. My main concern is the fan noise - 2 tiny 6 cm screamers along with another tiny whiny fan in the PS. Cheap though, $50. In my search I came across something that really caught my eye: http://www.ibt.ca/ICM168.htm :-O Totally fanless, both board and PS, solid as a brick sh*thouse and uses a Pentium M! There's one big catch though, only one 3.5" drive bay! <bawl> There's a 2.5" drive bay as well, but I'd need a 250 GB drive to mirror the main drive. Maybe I could use an external USB 2.0 drive, but that would limit RAID 1 speed, although it would still be fast enough for SlimServer. Also that doesn't look cheap. So the search continues for a Mini-ITX/FlexATX case with a fanless power supply and two 3.5" bays. Note: I am limiting my search to items available to me locally or on a national basis. I'm sure there is such an item somewhere in the world, but I'm not importing anything. -- Mark Lanctot ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25892 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
