The home NAS case market is so frustrating. For my next build, I’m going to design a 3D printed interface to use an 8-bay supermicro backplane like the BPN-SAS-747TQ, build a simple aluminum box around it with 2x120mm fans in the rear, and just run SATA and power to a PC case sitting next to it. It would even be straightforward to have activity lights and everything. Good drive temps, low noise, cheap and replaceable backplane, cheap enclosure, and full freedom of PC case choice to optimize for size or cooling or whatever. Sure, it’ll be a bit bulky and a bit ugly, but I’d much rather take those downsides over noise, cost, or heat.
I can totally understand your frustration! I wish there was a product available that could do everything I want, but there isn’t, and I have access to a 3D printer through my local makerspace. I will say that there are a bunch of ways to get prints made and shipped to you if you don’t have access to one. I also think that lots of people 3D print things when they don’t need to. When I make the enclosure that I mentioned, only the bare minimum will be 3D printed, and the rest of the enclosure will use off-the-shelf parts, a readily available backplane, and will be able to be built with simple tools.
I went for a eBay 4u server case, no hotswap bays or anything, just 13 or so 3.5" slots with a a row of 3x120mm fans behind them. Sits in the garage out of sight all for £45 delivered.
My issues are that I live in an apartment, so size, heat, and noise are large considerations, and that I want hotswap drive bays. What chassis did you get for £45? Does it use an ATX PSU or something else? What are the drive temps? Always under 30°C? 35°C? 40°C?
This one https://www.logic-case.com/products/rackmount-chassis/4u/4u-standard-chassis-15-x-35-hdd-sc-415h/ Got the price wrong it was £50, and 15 drive bays, I populate every other one. Temps are about 25 at the moment, but it is sat in the garage, which is always cooler than the house. I think I just run it with the 120mm fans (and CPU and PSU) but quieter ones as the ones that came with it sounded like an aircraft taking off.
I 3D printed a custom PC case:
