Guess ill use case that I ordered for now, and maybe transplant the internals later on.
Also: would love if 45 drives made a case that looks something like this one, except with top loading hdds, and 4 120mm fans on the front in a 2x2 square. And with 8 drives, but 6 is fine tbh.
Pure speculation here but it looks to me like the prototype case on the right might be about the right size for a 10" rack mount with ears. If so then maybe there would be an option for two of them to be joined together side-by-side. That would be pretty sweet if that was possible. Mikrotik has some switches that will fit in a 10" rack or two will work in a standard 19" form factor.
Add me to the list of folks who were hoping for a rackable solution. 2U would be great as well, though less of a make-or-break for me.
The model on the left looks most interesting to me as the form factor reminds me of the popular Synology DS series, albeit a bulkier version of it. Curious as to the design considerations that led to 45drives choosing this size and if there is any room to make it more sleek.
To echo a thought I made previously in another thread, for the 8 drive server, it would be really cool if it were designed so that it can be offered in 3 flavors: one with the SATA/SAS backplane in the HL15, the other 45drives’ new SATA/SAS/NVME backplane, 3rd being a hybrid variant that combines the two. I think that would be a homelabbers wet dream! Some would use it for storage, others for virtualization!
That’s a great idea! It would be great to have it rack-mountable (even with optional long ears).
The prototypes look promising. You’re on the right track. Looking forward to the new release.
Hello! Has there been any more progress on this lately?
Hi @urbanracer34,
We are working on the next proto type. We will keep you posted as soon as we get the next update. We appreciate your interest and patience.
Thanks for the info!
Hello HomeLabers,
I’m excited to share that we’re working on the mechanical design for the HL 4 and 8-bay units. We’re committed to perfecting the design of these servers to ensure they meet the highest standards and provide an exceptional experience for our customers.
Your feedback and input is crucial in this process, and we’re dedicated to listening to our community every step of the way. Rest assured, we’ll keep you updated as we finalize the design and move closer to bringing these innovative products to market. Thank you for being part of our journey!
Thanks for the info and the new look!
I still prefer the prototype on the left in the below picture. That works best for me
Do you happen to know what the tech specs are going to be on these 4 bay to 8 bay models?
i love this approach for the home NAS market. upgradable hardware compared to the anemic Synology/QNAP/Ugreen. Looks like its going to be backplane which is great. the Flex/1U PSU noise may need to be picked as quiet as possible or modded based on the fan complaints on HL-15 and the workstation. Also motherboard choice will be crucial to this i feel, obviously its not meant for us with racks, 10Gb+ networks, etc.
Not sure if its coming as chassis or only full build or both. If it comes as chassis, i might be in on this. I hope this doesn’t lose its course like the workstation and mini-pc.
Also hope you entertain bringing over the 1u/2u from enterprise for us rack users. I know someone said to just contact enterprise division but I would prefer a store page. Partly because i don’t know who to email specifically and don’t want to bother Vikram with every order i make lol.
Hello!
Eagerly waiting for more news. 
I thought of sourcing the parts elsewhere and I decided what I would build would be inferior to what you could build.
I haven’t used it since I have an old Norco 8-bay backplane ITX case, but you could look at the Jonsbo N3 case.
Which motherboard would work with this? What would you recommend?
I would prefer to have 45HomeLab do the build, but you might have helped me out a lot.
Any mini ITX mobo. I’d have to research a recommendation. There are a few build videos on YT. Possibly the same mobo 45HL is using for their workstation. It depends a bit on your requirements re networking. If you don’t need 10G, then there should be quite a few choices with up to 2.5G and put an 8i HBA in the PCIe slot. If you need 10G then ITX mobos are rarer, so you’d need to look for one that supports 8 drives on the mobo and use the PCIe for the NIC. I’m sure Asrock Rack and Supermicro have some choices. There are also some with less powerful embedded CPUs designed for NAS if you don’t need a lot of VM and container support.
I agree, I’d like to see a simple 45HL caddyless backplane case in this space, although I’m not personally in the market for one now, I would have jumped on it 6 years ago. If you went with the motherboard they’re using for the Home Workstation (Asrock H670M-ITX/ax), it only has four SATA ports, so one way to get around that without using the PCIe slot is an m.2-to-SATA adapter card.
Asrock Rack has an X570D4I-2T
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4I-2T#Specifications
Which would give you onboard 8 SATA and 10G NICs, but only VGA output, so you’d need a low profile GPU or something if you wanted higher end graphics output. Note you might have to pay more for a board with more SATA or faster NICs on board, but it also means you don’t have to buy those seperately as PCIe cards.
Here is an article with some ideas;
https://nascompares.com/2024/02/09/the-best-m-itx-cpumotherboard-combo-for-your-nas-build-2024-edition/
Back on the case, the Silverstone CS382 has 8 hot swap bays but is a bit larger, accommodating Micro-ATX motherboards, which may be good or bad depending on the form factor you’re after. Also, the Norco case that I had used before they went out of business, the “ITX S8”, now seems to be marketed on Amazon and Newegg by some company named KCMcconney;
https://www.amazon.com/KCMconmey-Internal-Compatible-Backplane-Enclosure/dp/B0BXKSS8YY
One thing I liked about it was that the backplane had two SFF-8087 connectors rather than the Jonsbo and Silverstone that have 7-pin SATA data connectors for each drive. So, although hot-swap, they don’t really reduce the cable jungle of the build much. Note that these cases may require special power supplies, so pay attention to that. I think the Jonsbo wants an SFX max 105mm and the KCMcconney wants a FlexATX.
Anyway, my point wasn’t that you should go out and build a PC if you’re not into that sort of thing, only that there are a few cases around that have 4- and 8-bay hot swap backplanes if 45HL can’t bring something to market in a timely manner.
I’ve done some looking into the case mentioned (Jonsbro) weighed some of the options and TBH I would rather have 45HomeLab build the server I want.
I hope to hear some news from 45HomeLab soon! 
Out of curiosity, what particular aspects of the Jonsbro fall short in your research? What aspects of a 45HomeLab do you expect to be particularly enticing?
Availability of parts to me and the fact that a 45HL (short for 45HomeLab) product would be tested and burnt in.
