ROCKPro64 Metal Desktop/NAS Case

It's a nice, case, the screws are in places where you don't expect them, but is simple to understand how to assemble it.
One thing to be careful of is cable management, with 2 HD, the cables are super close to the fan, so you have to be careful, beside that, is a nice case.

This design has been well thought out. I can't say enough good things about it. What I like the most is the limited space required in a production environment combined with the limited amounts of electricity used for a server.

Keeping with the theme of single board computers this setup uses as little space as possible while still allowing for (2) desktop computer HDDs. The key to this case is not carrying forward past experience assembling computers. The bracket to mount the drives to comes on screwed and is the success of this product.

There have been identified challenges in the Pine64 forum with the use of desktop computer HDDs. Other PCIe SATA cards are discussed and required with specific kernels if you are using a desktop HDD in your setup. I've stuck with SSD's for my production servers and have not had issues.

The only shortcoming I've experienced is with the case being purchased separate of the RockPro64 is the MAC address isn't embossed or included on a label. I've made my own noting both the MAC and IP address I've assigned for ease of identifying faulty drives in the future.

Thank you for carrying this product ameriDroid!

I would highly recommend just buying a unit with hot swappable drives bays or at least designed far better than this unit. This was a complete nightmare to work with and required (and as of writing, still needs) extensive modification to make it work. Just avoid this box, the sunken cost into this thing is not worth it.

I'm giving it two stars because it gets the job done, but it is poorly thought out. For starters, there are eight screws that have to be removed just to get the case open! That's crazy!

With two 3.5 inch drives, space is very tight, and the board is almost completely covered. The SATA cables have to be bent at a sharp angle at the back of the drives to avoid interfering with the fan (for 3.5 inch drives) and also at the top of SATA PCIe board to fit in the case (regardless of which drives are used). This could be mitigated with right angle SATA cables, which is not what the case comes with.

Additionally, the power and reset buttons are very hard to press, the SD card is hard to remove, and the LEDs behind the reset button a hard to see. (There is a little plastic doodad that comes with the case, which fits perfectly in the little hole above the reset button, so I figured it was a light pipe, but it doesn't work for that purpose at all. But give there are no instructions of any sort, it could be something else.)

But if you need a case that holds a RockPro64, a PCIe card, and two hard drives, I know of no other option. It works, but not without frustration!

I got a look at this case in person and it is pretty awesome. It's really heavy duty construction. It has room for the RockPro64 with the PCIe SATA card, it has mount points for an internal 80mm case fan (if desired), and has two separate drive bays for (2) 2.5" and (2) 3.5" drives. Of course, with the PCIe SATA card, you'll only be able to connect two drives. But if you want to connect two more drives, you can use two USB3 to SATA adapters to accomplish that.