Have you gone stir crazy yet? If you need a break from gaming (as if!) and own a 3D printer, you can try printing out your own network attached storage (NAS) box. It's all thanks to design files recently made available by a modder and tinkerer who goes by 3Dwebe.
His design is not free—it runs $19.95 on MyMiniFactory—but I'd argue it's reasonably priced for what could be a fun and unique project to maintain sanity during these times.
"The first 100 percent 3D printable mini server/NAS chassis in its class that’s truly printable, has been printed, has been assembled, has been beta tested by an international team and even modified by others. Somewhat time consuming but simple to print and assemble. It is designed to maximize airflow, keeping the system components, disk drives and chassis cool," the description reads.
The MK735, as it's called, is designed to accommodate a mini-ITX motherboard. That means you won't be able to stuff a full-sized ATX or even a micro-ATX motherboard into the 3D printed chassis, so take that into consideration. However, it can fit an ATX power supply up to 170mm in length. Incidentally, 3Dwebe actually recommends against using a shorter SFX power supply, because the cables might not be long enough to reach the motherboard.
Disk drives lock into place using a flex-tab-slot-lock method. The MK735 can fit up to seven 3.5-inch HDDs, plus users can print out optional brackets for a pair of SSDs in the motherboard chamber, if desired.
The MK735 measures around 9.75 (W) x 9.5 (D) x 14.5 (H) inches and weights 5.5 pounds without any hardware crammed inside. Full assembled, you can expect the weight to triple.
If you want to take this project on, check out the MK735 product description for a wealth of information.
