A-Tech NAS4x Silent 2TB Capable NAS Server
By Andrew McLaughlin |
March 28th, 2006 
A-Tech Fabrication of California recently introduced the Mass-Storage NAS4x. The NAS4x is designed around the company’s proprietary fanless cooling system and is capable of holding up to four 3.5-inch SATA drives (or up to 2 terabytes of data storage).
A-Tech’s NAS enclosure can be configured with Infrant Technologies’ ReadyNAS IT71004 integrated network storage system board. This is the same board used in Infrant’s own line of NAS devices and OEM’d in several other NAS boxes as well. The Infrant name and RAIDiator firmware are becoming well know for their high quality standards and feature-rich capabilities normally found in enterprise class storage systems. The A-Tech enclosure can also be configured with a mini-ITX motherboard to create a fully operational fanless PC.
As for the construction, the NAS enclosure is precision CNC machined from heat-treated aircraft quality billet aluminum and includes a thick aluminum heatsink case with cooling fins to route heat away from the drives. The enclosure measures 17.5″ wide x 15.5″ deep x 2.5″ high and is available in black and silver. Note that the dimensions are perfect for placing this unit into an A/V rack.
The home NAS market is quickly becoming a critical item for anyone building a home media server with few (if any?) enclosures offering a fanless and silent cooling solution. Expect to pay a premium for the high end looks and silent operation as the base chassis is listed at $450 without a controller, cooling system, or hard drive. Expect to add an additional $450 for the Infrant controller upgrade and $75 for A-Tech’s proprietary cooling system.
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