For those interested in repurposing a small mini-PC with no Mini PCI ports available as NAS, I recently purchased a ICY IB-3780-C31 enclosure (USB3.1 to 8xSATA)

For those interested in repurposing a small mini-PC with no Mini PCI ports available as NAS, I recently purchased a ICY IB-3780-C31 enclosure (USB3.1 to 8xSATA), and although I still have to put it in operation (will order new disks soon), I tested it with a pair from my spares and can confirm it works out of the box with both Linux and XigmaNAS (FreeBSD). Just beware that although it can turn back on after the connected PC goes to sleep and then wakes up (the oddly named "sync" button on front panel does that), it doesn't after a accidental loss of power or power outage even if the connected PC is set up to boot automatically, which to me is quite bad, therefore having recently moved to a place where power outages aren't uncommon and can last longer than a normal UPS could handle, I'll probably modify the enclosure by adding a switchable monostable circuit that emulates a short press of the power button after power is restored. That would mean a big goodbye to warranty, so I'll have to think about it, but the problem can indeed be solved.