> SoC Mini-ITX boards that don't cost an arm and a leg
It really depends on your requirements. If you can generalize "Mini-ITX board" to "Small Form Factor x86", then the ODROID H2 fits the bill for less than 200$ (2x1Gbps ethernet, 2xSATA, 1xM.2), unless you require ECC (which admittedly, is an interesting offer of the Ryzen boards of the article).
There are certainly other ARM boards meeting NAS requiremens in a way or another, but I personally prefer, for simplicity (due to compatibility), x86.
Gotta second the ODroid H2 recommendation... Much more cost effective then then NUC/NUC-clones. Also awesome for small home lab - kubernetes clusters, etc.
It really depends on your requirements. If you can generalize "Mini-ITX board" to "Small Form Factor x86", then the ODROID H2 fits the bill for less than 200$ (2x1Gbps ethernet, 2xSATA, 1xM.2), unless you require ECC (which admittedly, is an interesting offer of the Ryzen boards of the article).
There are certainly other ARM boards meeting NAS requiremens in a way or another, but I personally prefer, for simplicity (due to compatibility), x86.