They are 12V fans so I soldered them to the 12V output that also powers the HDDs.

It is ok, the vents are at the back and bottom of the laptop. I have run it in a different 24/7 setup for some time already.

Mostly beans.

I could, yes. The laptop has an M.2 slot that is intented to be used for M.2 SSDs, maybe you know them, they’ve gotten very popular. Almost any mordern motherboard has space for them.

But instead of putting an M.2 SSD in that slot, I bought this adapter with SATA ports. And this adapter fits exactly in the same spot as the SSD could have. Then the SATA ports of the adapter can just be used as regular SATA ports as on any motherboard.

I used PETG, and so far there is no warping/deformation. With PLA I would be a bit more worried, but PETG can stand some heat.

Also slightly bugging me, but I didn’t find 6x SATA power. And my plan always was to use 4 drives.

But I do not have a separate NAS. I do have a laptop I want to use as a NAS.

If you have the money to spare, 3D print projects come with time.

But you could also join a local Makerspace / Comaking Space. They usually have a few printers, and also cool people.

Yeah there is a gap between the disks.

Did you read the whole post? I thought I made clear what I did.

I was also very happy to find out they exist, otherwise this whole thing would’ve been a no-starter.

:)

I thought about replacing the entire bottom part of the laptop, but then I looked at the screw layout and thought this is way too much effort for not much benefit. I am not lacking in rack space so I am okay with it being bulky.

If you look carefully at the pictures, there are 80mm fans attached to the cage.