SilverStone SST-DS380 - Case Storage Mini-ITX Computer Case, support 8x 3.5" or 2.5" Hot-Swap HDD Bays, lockable front door, black

Product Information

I have a Silverstone DS380B with the usual HDD heat issues, running FreeNAS 11 on a Gigabyte H270N-WIFI LGA 1151 Mini ITX Motherboard, Intel Core i5 7600K Quad Core LGA 1151 3.8 GHz CPU (6 x SATA ports), and 2 x Kingston 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 CL14 DIMM. Designed with poor air-flow that makes half the drives run overly hot (can be easily resolved by adding a small divider made of cardboard or plastic to direct the airflow. A simple search will offer plenty of how-to's. After adding the divider it kept consistently low temps even under heavy usage)

Naturally, that cash buys a purpose-built box which installs fast, runs quiet, sips power and saves space, at least compared to repurposing an old PC, yet the inner DIYer in us is itching to build a NAS. Going that route seems like an easy way to save some cash considering a small desktop could be used as a four or eight-bay server, and there is plenty to value in the extra flexibility and expansion of a custom setup. I was having the usual cooling issues with just 3 disks, trying to space them out optimally in the case. Disks would typically exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122F) on a summer's day. I wanted to add a 2 disk SATA controller and max the system out to 8 disks, but I needed to solve this heat issue first.

SilverStone DS380 Review

So I’m building a NAS (running Fedora Server) and thought that the Silverstone DS380 case looked great. It has 8 hot-swappable SATA bays, claims decent cooling with filters, neat form factor. Rearranged the drives to leave a gap between each one, which basically limits the unit to 4 drives instead of 8 This Mini-ITX case comes from HYTE, a perhaps lesser-known name to some, but it blew us away in our HYTE Revolt 3 review. It might take a few design cues from familiar-looking NZXT cases, but it does plenty to stand out on its own with a clean and sleek design, including a pull-out handle for easy transportation.

As a result, many of the drives run around 65 degrees Celsius at idle (tested overnight) which is already outside of the drives’ recommended temperature range of 0-60 degrees. Note: This isn't so much an actual tech review of the DS380B, more of a "why it didn't work out well" type review.

We were bummed to find that the drive cages are not tool-less like those now used by Synology so the user must secure each drive using four screws. While that might seem like a minor inconvenience, it gets annoying fast when swapping drives in and out. The Silverstone DS380 has a tiny footprint of just 211 x 360 mm and is 285 mm high. This isn’t much, but it still has room for a total of 12 drives, mITX motherboard, SFF PSU and three 120mm cooling fans. The rear fan area is even placed so it can accommodate AIO liquid cooling solutions such as the Silverstone TD03 and the three included fans have a maximum noise generation of 22dBA. The Be Quiet! fans are not too noisy, even at full speed. Eventually this NAS will reside in the basement where we won’t hear it at all, but for now it is very tolerable being on the first floor. There are three important aspects to consider when selecting an NAS enclosure for your DIY build. You’ll want as small a size with as small a footprint as possible, you’ll want an efficient design with space for all your drives and other parts, and finally you’ll want it all to be well cooled since it will be running 24/7. With this in mind, it sure looks like Silverstone hit a triple home run with their DS380 NAS Chassis. x 3000 RPM Noctua 120mm NF-F12 industrialPPC IP52 PWM Fan (REAR OF CASE/HOT EXTRACTION). This fan's speed is set by the temp of the motherboard's chipset (not perfect, but seems to work).

Construction feels cheap with thin aluminium sides and plastic frontpieces. I was disheartened at this but it is surprisingly well constructed and solidly stable nevertheless. Where the Silverstone DS380 does excel is cooling. Whereas we are used to finding one or two exhaust fans, the DS380 has a more advanced setup. In the left side of the case there are a pair of 120mm in-take fans covered by a magnetic dust filter. Then at the rear we have a third 120mm fan serving as the case exhaust. It's a nice dust free setup that should keep the drives inside clean and cool.Inverted the PSU as per suggestion from Dan, so that it helps to draw air through the case. The default for the PSU is to draw air from outside and bypass the case.

While we're spoiled with cable management on cases now, I'm from the era of no cable management (early 2000s) and you did what you had (cut holes if you have to). This case to me was really cramped, tough to pass cables through (had to get extension cables for my short PSU cables). This considering there's many cables for the hard drives as well. Edit: I made some changes which have dropped the temps to around 40 degrees at idle (haven’t tested at load yet). The case has potential, but I still think it’s slightly too cramped and the airflow is not good enough. Cooling: 3x Internal 120mm 1200rpm 22dBA system fans are included (2x intake fans; 1x exhaust fan); Can accomodate an entry-level liquid CPU cooling system (can handle systems with CPU of 95W TDP or above); Externally removable (magnetic) filters on the top and side panels. The all-important power button is found here along with the reset button, though for a NAS you might not want to plug the reset button in.Cut out the case "grill" for the extraction fan and replace with a proper metal grill for better airflow. Building your own NAS requires plenty of drive bays and little else, which is precisely what SilverStone offers with the DS380B. This chassis houses a total of 12 drive mounts with eight hot-swappable 3.5- or 2.5-inch and four fixed 2.5-inch drives. There are plenty of options for installing storage, depending on what you'll use the NAS for.