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The SilverStone DS380 NAS server chassis offers a great blend of performance and features. At only 1318.11 cubic inches (21.6 liters) overall, this small form factor chassis can accommodate Mini-ITX motherboards, an SFX power supply, a standard-length dual slot expansion card, and an entry-level liquid CPU cooling system. What highlights this chassis most is the tremendous storage expandability: the DS380 can support up to 12 drives, with eight hot-swappable 3.5"/2.5" drive bays and four fixed 2.5" drive bays. Three pre-installed 120mm fans effectively cool all the drives and other components. The aluminum front door conceals two USB ports and the power button for a uniform look. Other features expected on a premium SilverStone chassis are also included, like a quality build, an LED indicator with adjustable brightness, and removable filters, making the DS380 the perfect choice to build a powerful SFF NAS for home or office use.
For users migrating to small form factor (SFF) computers with large libraries of media files, storage capacity is often a compromise that is difficult to overcome. Choosing a smaller case may require additional purchase of external storage enclosure, while choosing a larger case with extra drive bays may defeat the purpose of going SFF in the first place.
To fulfill the needs of enthusiasts looking for a no compromise SFF media box, SilverStone designed a cutting edge product, the DS380. With the ability to accommodate standard components such as Mini-ITX motherboards, standard-length dual slot expansion card, and entry-level liquid CPU cooling system, the DS380 can easily handle high end system based on CPU with 95W TDP or above. Equipped with two 120mm intake fans and one 120mm exhaust fan plus externally removable filters on its top and side, keeping everything cool and dust-free is as easy as in any SilverStone premium chassis. Notable features from SilverStone's famed HTPC cases were also included such as LED indicator with adjustable brightness and lockable front door and power button.
Completing what is an impressive SFF case is DS380's signature feature: a modular eight hot-swappable drive cage design that supports both 3.5" and 2.5" drives. It utilizes a custom, back-panel PCB designed to support both SATA and SAS interface for increased compatibly with nearly all modern hard drives or SSDs. At only 21 liters overall, the impressively small DS380 is perfect for anyone looking to build a powerful SFF NAS for home or office.
Lockable power button design and adjustable LED
Hot-swappable 3.5
Front I/O Port
Filtered intake vents
Magnetic filter for easy-cleaning
Lockable front door
Keys for front door lock
Power button lock
2 x 120mm intake fan
1 x 120m fans in the Rear
High-quality foot pads
Model No. | SST-DS380B (black) | |
Materials | Aluminum front door, SECC body | |
Motherboards | DTX, Mini-ITX | |
External Drive Bays | 3.5" SAS / SATA hot-swap x 8 (2.5" compatible) | |
Internal Drive Bays | 2.5" x 4 | |
Cooling Systems | Left Side:2 x 120mm 1200RPM 22dBA Rear:1 x 120mm 1200RPM 22dBA |
|
Expansion Slots | 2 | |
Front I/O Ports | USB 3.0 x 2 audio x 1 MIC x 1 |
|
Power Supply | 1 x Optional standard SFX | |
Max. PSU Size | 2.25in. (57mm) | |
Dimensions (W x H x D) | 8.3 x 11.2 x 14.2 inches (211 x 285 x 360mm), 1318.11 cu. in. (21.6 liters) | |
Volume | 1318.11 cu. in. (21.6 liters) | |
Extra | Kensington Lock |
Pros: 8 hot swap bays in a case of this size is amazing The case provides a locking front door and a switch to disable front power button to prevent children from accidentally switching the system off.
Cons: The SATA backblane needs a PSU that can supply more than 14 amps from the 5v rail. This results in Slverstones own S45SF-G SFX supply being flaky with this case. I could power on sometimes, but not reliably as the backplane would sometimes draw too much current during start up and trigger the PSU overcurrent protection. After replacing with an ST30SF PSU (which is not modular) that can supply 20a, all current issues were resolved. Because of the small size of the case, cable management is a bit tricky as the case provides no cable routing features. However, there is a convienent 'empty' spot at the top of the case above the top side fan where you can coil up the case cables and leftover PSU cables and using cable ties, I was able to keep the coil wedged between the PSU, side of the case, top of the fan, and edge of the motherboard. This worked fairly well to keep all the cables out of the fans and airflow areas. Airflow in the case is not good at all and HD temperatures vary a lot between different bay positions. At full load on the drives (using 16 dd processes to read from all 8 drives for 24+ hours), some drives reached 43c, while other drives remained at 37c. Under normal operation all drives did stay below 40c, but the load temperatures do concern me. The sata backplane connectors are not high quality and fairly flimsly. Even the soldering jobs on some of the capacitors for the backplane was very medicore, with one capacitor on mny backplane soldered at a very screw angle that exposes way too much lead from the capacitor. When trying to route longer sata cables and connect them to the backplane, due to the stiff nature of many sata cables, some plastic from the connector guard snapped off of one of the ports despite how careful I was trying to be. I strongly recommend buying very short sata cables to use with this case and getting the cables routed as much as possible before attempting to connect them to the backplane. The stock 120mm fans are only 3 pin, and spin at 1100 rpm. My CPU is passively cooled, the PSU fan shuts off when not needed, but I can't control the case fans to reduce their noise. I recommend replacing the stock case fans with 4pin fans that can be slowly ramped up by the motherboard or a fan like the Antec TrueQuiet 120 that can be switched to 600RPM.
Overall Review: I'm very happy with this case. Although I listed many more cons than pros for this case, none of the cons are critical enough to be deal breakers. If you build a NAS in this case, especially if you're trying to build a silent NAS with a passively cooled CPU, this case will work fine for you. Using 8 WD RED which are very quiet, a PSU who's fan shuts off when not needed, and replacment variable speed case fans controlled by the motherboard (ASROCK C2750D4I), the system is almost totally silent.