Question 1

How is the speed of each fan controlled, and what wiring is required?  The manual indicates the two side fans plug into the drive bay backplane.  Are those connections routed to the MB?  Does the backplane decide the speed?  What of the exhaust fan?

Accepted Answer

Both the side fans and rear fan are equipped with standard three pin connectors which can be plugged into motherboards that have the same standard 3/4pin fan connectors to control the speed. When the fans are connected to the backplane it simply provides voltage to the fans without any speed control.

Question 2

What power supplies are compatible with this? I am looking for something more reliable than the ro-swill listed.

Accepted Answer

The only one that for sure works and is recommended is the bronze + rated ST45SF­. Do NOT get the ST45SF­G (Gold rated + modular). This power supply does not have enough amperage to run the case with 8 HDDs and will eventually burn out.

I bought two of these cases; one using the bronze and one using the gold. The gold burned out ~5 months in and they RMA'd me a bronze after stating the issues with the gold supply. Kind of annoyed as they didn't refund the price difference.

Haven't had any issues since and have been running each machine pretty much 24/7 for over 2 years now. The bronze supplies appear to be of fairly good quality.

Question 3

Can this case fit a hh/hl expansion card with all 8 drives installed?

Accepted Answer

There are strict limitations on expansion card dimensions with all the drives installed.  There is a nice diagram in the manual provided by silverstone. 
(page 17) I would link the manual but Newegg disallows links.  google: DS380B manual
Many low profile cards (6.4 cm max height) will not fit the provided clearance [5.96 cm].   But sizes vary so check your dimensions.
Most, but not all half length cards (6.9 inch max length) will fit the clearance [6 inches] because most half length cards are considerably shorter then the max specification.  Again be sure to check the dimensions.

Question 4

Do the individual HDD activity lights display when a disk is in sleep mode, or only read and writes?

Accepted Answer

Mine sits in a closet so I have no idea. Also you would need to have the door of the case open to see them as the front covers the disks.

Question 5

What motherboard options are available that will support populating this case with all 12 HDDs? What is the best way to add SATA ports in order to accommodate this many HDDs?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately, there aren't many/any mini itx boards that have the number of sata ports you are looking for. An add-in HBA or raid card would be needed in order to accomplish this. One issue you will run into is you will need to try to find a half-height raid card, and even then you have to watch your measurements. when you start loading this thing up, it gets tight quick. I am currently running a high-point card in mine with the 8 hot-swap drives. if you mix that with a board with 6 sata ports it would allow all 12 drives and if you can find a place to velcro it, an ssd boot drive. another issue you will run into is getting power to everything. I recommend a fully modular power supply to save yourself any headaches.

Question 6

Will a micro ATX motherboard mount in this case?

Accepted Answer

Could someone from newegg please correct the description. at the SS website and in the manual it states ***MINI-DTX*** and MINI-ITX.
Not DTX which is larger than Mini-itx.

If you are looking for a similar case (form factor.. but no hotswap. The Node 804 is the only other comparable case on the market at the moment. and it supports mATX

Question 7

How many sata connections are on the back plane for the eight hot-swappable 3.5" drives and therefore required to use all 8 drives? I'm trying to decide on which motherboard to get and if an additional sata card will be required to connect all 8 drives.

Thanks!

Accepted Answer

It's kind of weird; there are actually 16 SATA data connections on the back. Everything is powered through just two standard molex connectors, as you'd find on a traditional IDE drive, which is convenient.

The extra 8 SATA connectors (there are two per bay) are apparently for dual channel SATA/SAS drives. I've never heard of something like that myself, but my guess would be there are uncommon high performance drives out there, which can use two SATA cables for increased bandwidth with special hardware.

So for regular hard drives, you just need to plug in 1, and to answer your question, yes, you need 8 SATA connections to use all 8 drives. The case doesn't do any SATA port multiplier stuff for you internally.

Question 8

Will this case fit a 120mm AIO liquid cooler?

Accepted Answer

I have used this case on a few builds. I have not used this cooler but from specs and my experience it should fit.

Question 9

What would be a good motherboard to use that would maximize this case? At least 8 SATA ports...
Or would a SATA expansion card be the better way to go?

Accepted Answer

Hello, Thank you for contacting us with your question. We apologize that we are unable to provide you with direct technical assistance; however, we recommend visiting our online community forum. www.eggxpert.com. At EggXpert you can chat with someone who may assist you with your question. Hope this information is helpful. Have an Eggcellent Day! Newegg.com

Question 10

will the 4 fixed 2.5" bays above the power supply fit 15 mm tall drives such as "WD Green WD20NPVX 2TB 8MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5 inch Internal Hard Drive"? I can't tell from the photos, and the specifications don't elaborate.

Accepted Answer

They should have no problem fitting.  Just keep in mind that you will be left with little room for the power connector for each drive.  So if you have a PSU like mine that only has one SATA power cable (but does have 4 ends on it), it does not fit for 4 drives that close together.  (The backplane of the hot swap bays uses two 4-pin molex power connectors.)

Questions & Answers