From my experience (see sister comment), I don't think the board will be much cheaper that way. Even at this low volume they will probably not hand-solder anyth

From my experience (see sister comment), I don't think the board will be much cheaper that way. Even at this low volume they will probably not hand-solder anything but rather rely on a company offering pick&place services, and that will not add much to the costs. If you want to try it yourself and prove that it can be done much more cheaply, you can maybe try building one yourself: https://github.com/fhgwright/SCSI2SD/tree/master/hardware https://github.com/fhgwright/SCSI2SD/tree/master/hardware