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Fractal Design Array Mini ITX NAS Case

By on April 6, 2010 in Hardware

How cool is this home server chassis, self-builders? Coming out of Sweden, the home of groovy design, comes the Fractal Design Array Mini ITX NAS Case, a small footprint, achingly cool chassis packing six 3.5” hard drive bays and room for an extra SSD (for your system drive, I’m sure).

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The chassis arrives with a “silent” 300W PSU on board as well as Fractal Design’s award-winning (it says here) 140mm Silent Series temperature-controlled fan. Slot in your own mini-ITX motherboard and seven drives and you’re well on you way to home server heaven!

Specs:

  • Built in high quality aluminium
  • Silent, efficient 300W SFX PSU included
  • Room for six silicone mounted 3,5-inch HDD
  • Room for one SSD
  • Removable HDD cage for easy mounting
  • Silent Series 140mm fan included in front, with washable filter
  • Fits Mini ITX motherboards
  • One expansion slot
  • Case dimensions (WxHxD): 230x223x350mm
  • Net weight: 4.1kg

PSU Specs:

  • 80 PLUS rated SFX 300W PSU
  • Silent, temperature controlled fan
  • 7x SATA-connectors, 1x Molex, 1x 4-pin and 1x 20/24pin
  • Meets CE, TUV safety requirements

Fan Specs:

  • 140mm Silent Series
  • Dimensions: 140 x 140 x 25mm
  • RPM: 600 +/- 10% RPM
  • Noise: 9 dBA
  • Airflow: 39 CFM, 66 m³/h
  • Connection: 3-pin
  • Power: 2.52 W +/- 10%
  • Textile covered electrical cable

Pricing starts at 1395 Swedish Kronor ($193/£126) whilst Fractal Design’s stockists are listed over at their website. The first hands-on review is available courtesy of a Swedish blog, which you should definitely check out. I want one of these!

Thanks to Bry Wright for the scoop.

More Info: Fractal Design


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • EddyKilowatt

    Sounds nice. WHS for the Bang & Olufsen aesthetic!

  • HTC-freak

    wow.. i want this

  • GuustFlater

    Cool! and then stuff it with a decent H55 board and an i3 core and some green drives, and we have a mighty WHS box.

  • Ed L

    Hi there, thought I'd add my independent 2c worth as I'm writing away at a workstation housed in a Fractal R2 Case.
    It happens to contain 6 traditional drives and 2 SSD's, so the contents (noise-wise) are pretty similar to what you would find in this new case (my CPU, PSU and GFX are silenced…)

    -Pros – They're very solidly built, very nice to look at, and my mid-tower R2 was very easy to install – good cable routing space, rubber isolation grommets for HDD's etc. Also, small but nice touches such as matching black thumbscrews all round for access, and in my case bitumen-lined side panels for noise absorption. But don't be fooled…
    -Cons – They are NOT, i repeat NOT quiet. I'm sorry to say that NO amount (or lack of) silent fans and rubber grommets will compensate for the outrageous number of holes that are in the case. Look at the pictures above, as you can see it looks like it just drove through Beirut.
    (continues!)

  • Ed L

    Of particular annoyance are the slats down both sides at the front, also present in my Tower case, as noise simply gushes in your direction out of these. By the same token, having 1 washable filter in front of the intake fan is completely useless when dust can get drawn in through this myriad of holes spattered everywhere.
    Bearing in mind that the next version of WHS, based on 2008, incorporates full MCE functionality – you may well want your WHS sitting somewhere in your living room, in full sight (nice) and earshot (not) of ppl trying to watch a movie.
    If u gotta have it, love, need it, either
    1) put it in a study where u can show it off to yourself, scare the dog, annoy your wife and forego MediaCentre use, or
    2) fill it only with silent/modded parts (Clarkendale i3 with GFX onboard, big quiet CPU fan, SSD only) and put a NAS somewhere else for storage. (In which case, u might as well buy a good nettop)

    .. or reap the whirlwind. Literally.

    Hope this helps!

    Ed

    • Mark

      @ Ed L
      Just curious as to what you mean by '… the next version of WHS, based on 2008, incorporates full MCE functionality…' i haven't been able to find any info on MCE functionality

  • Ed L

    @Mark

    http://mswhs.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/sdevacan…

    I know it's a bit old, and this topic has been pushed around a fair bit with plenty weighing in on both sides of the argument for/against tuner integration etc.., but the general idea that it's going to happen, if only as an option for those willing to beef up the spec of the box, seems inevitable…
    Google "Vail TV tuner" and you can start to build up an idea…

    Plus, as you can see from the piccy, not so long ago The Man considered it a top 3 deliverable ;D

    I may only be dreaming, but for me 1 big box and 4 'little' ones, as far as media in my home goes, is a gooood thing. I'll pay for (another) Quad-Core, god knows it will fit in the case.

    Ed

    • Mark

      thanks ed, i'm also keen to get WHS and MCE into the one big box

  • Ed L

    P.S. looking back at my first post '… the next version of WHS, based on 2008, incorporates full MCE functionality…' may have been a little strong ;>
    I'm a dreamer…

  • http://twitter.com/welchwerks @welchwerks

    Flat out…………… nice Case

  • http://comptronicstec.com CompTronicsTec

    Its a very nice case, has everything i could want from an itx WHS case, except its about 2-4 times what id find reasonable to spend on a case. For $25-$50 i can get a m-atx thats only 2 inches bigger in one dimension and maybe 3-5 inches bigger in another dimension and holds the same number of hdd's plus 1-2 5.25" drives. For $100 i can easily find a itx case that holds 4 drives.

    If this case was $100 id jump on it, but double that is a bit steep. The $100 you save for going with a regular case can become another hdd, another kit of RAM, an external enclosure, etc.

    Still i cant argue that its not a nice case and a good engineering job, but to me a server case is more about function than form, and with so many cheap, viable options it doesnt make sense to me to spend top dollar for a server case.

    • MTG

      @CompTronicsTec

      I've been trying to find a good case for 4-6 internal drives and mATX>ITX, but they have all been either massive or poorly designed; which ones do you know of that are 2-3" bigger than the Array in each dimension ?

  • Mav

    The case fullfills some requirements that I have had so I'm considering. I have now a mAtx based WHS, but looking for lower power consumption, smaller form factor and so on – so my question is: What would be a good ITX/Processer (Atom?) choice for a new setup based on this case?

  • SelfBuilder

    Not sure if this is a competition for my current favourite case, the Lian-Li PC-Q08. Almost same dimensions, featuring as well 6x 3.5" bays plus one 5.25" bay. Better airflow by a 140mm intake and a 120mm outtake fan.

    Would love to cram in a Zotac H-55 ITX, an Intel Core I3-530, 4GB RipJaws and a Corsair H50 to keep it cool.

  • smadge1

    Yes, that would be the perfect case for a Vail Box…

  • Mike Lowrey

    The case is really nice, but it's to expensive for a Home Server…

  • Alan

    OMG 6 regular hard drive vibrating in a light aluminum case at the same time. That just defeats the purpose of large fan and quiet PSU. Make sure you have a isolated server room to store this nice however noisy little NAS.

  • http://www.showercaddylab.com Shower Caddy &middot

    there are many engineering jobs that are available both online and offline because there are great demands for it these days ~*,

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