Local hard drive remote access

[Miss Sissy Princess]

Thats kind of a cool case. Can thermal paste (super thin layer) be used instead of tape or is there a gap between the heat sink contacts and the component surfaces?

It has a bit too much clearance between the top of the chips and the aluminum columns that extend down (nearly) to them.  I suspect that manufacturing tolerances on the boards,  ICs, and case might be such that it was more prudent to do that than try to engineer tight enough clearances for thermal paste.

I've been extremely happy with the cooling.   The pads are of very high quality and, but they do require some care in placement on the chips.  Tweezers or the tip of an X-acto knife works well in placing them.

Fans are a no-go for me when it comes to a music server, and since I already had an 8-port gigabit Ethernet switch in the room, I could directly cable up Ethernet without having to worry about the attenuation of WiFi (it was still usable for me, but that may be due to the close proximity of the Ubiquiti "Long Range" WiFi Access Point).

I like this case better than the prior one because it has a flat surface on the bottom on which to mount rubber feet.   The other one had ribs on top and bottom, though it didn't cool any better and maybe a bit less well.