Silverstone DS380: ITX 8 drives hot-swap

E

EnzoFX

[H]ard|Gawd
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Looks like a great case for a small file server:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452&area

The case I was eyeing before is the popular Lian Li PC-Q25, which has 5 hot swap drives, with room for 2 more in a tray I believe. The sizes are nearly identical as well. Only factor for me would be price, as the Lian-Li goes on sale for $60 AR, can't see the Silverstone below $100. No idea on release date.
 
This has four dedicated 2.5" drive bays and eight combo 2.5"/3.5" hot swap bays. You'll lose one hot swap bay if you use a graphics card. It uses an SFX sized PSU. This pic shows the layout from the rear of the system. There are two intake fans on the left side of the 8x drive bays when facing from the front. One exhaust fan in the rear next to the motherboard. Vent for the PSU to draw in cool air. The motherboard will sit "upside down" from a normal tower case, like in the Silverstone PS07 and TJ08-E cases.

I don't see it possible to populate the entire case (4x + 7x drives) with a graphics card since you'll run out of SATA slots and won't have an expansion slot for an add-in card. Also, 450W SFX PSU can run a Titan, but including all the drives would be serious borderline.

ds380-34-1.jpg
 
Zap said:
I don't see it possible to populate the entire case (4x + 7x drives) with a graphics card since you'll run out of SATA slots and won't have an expansion slot for an add-in card. Also, 450W SFX PSU can run a Titan, but including all the drives would be serious borderline.
Click to expand...
It's possible (assuming no real heavy duty GPU like a Titan and you don't mind a big performance hit for some of the drives) if you use SATA port multipliers:
http://www.addonics.com/category/port_multiplier.php
 
I think those need host SATA ports to be compatible with port multipliers (for instance, Intel desktop chipsets are not), unless you run them in RAID as a single volume.
 
Zap said:
I think those need host SATA ports to be compatible with port multipliers (for instance, Intel desktop chipsets are not), unless you run them in RAID as a single volume.
Click to expand...
I thought that it was just a driver issue that prevented port multiplier support with Intel desktop chipsets?
 
This is just what I've been looking for. I was leaning towards the Lian Li PC-Q25 as well, but was wishing for something that could accomodate more drives for future growth -- especially hot-swappable ones.

$150 seems like a great price to me for. I had come across a couple of iStars with very similar forms (five 5.25" bays and seven 5.25" bays), but they're more expensive and don't include the drive cages. So it would end up costing closer to $250 probably to get a similar layout without 8 drive bays.

Hopefully we can get a review when this one's released.
 
Wait you can't use all 8 hot swap bays with a low profile PCIe SATA card?

If you CAN, this would be a good option for people that want more drives than the Fractal 304 can handle (6) for an unRaid type server.
 
From the manual:

If the primary drive cage is completely filled then there is a strict limitation on graphics card length
  • There is a 6 inch limitation for standard width graphics card
  • If the card width is less than 2.35 inches, then there are no length limitation
Click to expand...

I would guess you can still use a PCIe SATA card and use all 8 + 4 drives. The post above was talking about using all drives + a graphics card, since almost no mini-itx motherboards can support 12 drives without a an expansion card, which would rule out a dual slot GPU.
 
The manual says it needs a 100 mm SFX psu, but I bet you could even squeeze the SS-350SFE (130 mm) psu in it. There looks to be 6" behind the drive cages which should be enough
 
Dangman said:
I thought that it was just a driver issue that prevented port multiplier support with Intel desktop chipsets?
Click to expand...

I think you are right. The Intel links are down, but this post references them.

Technical explanation: Intel didn't implement that feature.

http://communities.intel.com/thread/19687
http://communities.intel.com/thread/20954

In short - hardware side is probably done, but there is no support on software side at all (by software support they mean BIOS/UEFI/OS drivers).
Click to expand...

But moot issue. Does it matter if it is the hardware, software or BIOS? End result is that one cannot run port multipliers off Intel desktop chipsets.

kekumu said:
The post above was talking about using all drives + a graphics card, since almost no mini-itx motherboards can support 12 drives without a an expansion card, which would rule out a dual slot GPU.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly what I was talking about. Are there any mITX boards with internal SATA ports using 3rd party controllers that might support port multipliers?

kekumu said:
The manual says it needs a 100 mm SFX psu, but I bet you could even squeeze the SS-350SFE (130 mm) psu in it. There looks to be 6" behind the drive cages which should be enough
Click to expand...

Why would you want to, other than "because Seasonic" (or you already had one). I have one of those, as well as SS-300SFD. I'd rather use one of the FSP made 450W units, if I needed the extra oomph.
 
Zap said:
Why would you want to, other than "because Seasonic" (or you already had one). I have one of those, as well as SS-300SFD. I'd rather use one of the FSP made 450W units, if I needed the extra oomph.
Click to expand...

It's just one of the units I've been looking at -- I had to go back and search for the FSP 450W on Newegg (it's listed as Micro ATX). Seeing that this one is 130 mm deep just prompted me to see whether or not it could possibly fit in this case. It's always nice to know all of your options, especially if you already have the parts (like you do).
 
Yeah, listed wrong. Same PSU also rebadged and sold as the Silverstone ST45SF. Same PSU, so choose based on price/availability. Also, sometimes cheaper at Amazon.

FSP makes a 400W version too.
 
I thought this was supposed to be out by now, can't find anything on it yet that isn't pre-release. Anyone have any availability info or reviews?
 
Just wanted to update so someone does not make the same mistake I did while putting a review unit together:

I bought a Seasonic SS-300SFD and thought the fan bulge would fit around the PSU mounting point in the DS380. That did not work at all. Posted a picture and ordered another FSP 450w unit: (see here)
 
Do you think it'd have enough cooling if I wanted to build something with a entry-mid level nVidia Quadro card / Xeon e3 CPU (no overclocking)? Use case would be some multicore computing jobs (differential equation solver, diffusion tensor image processing, some 3D rendering/visualization).

Nice to have the computing workstation + storage drives in the same box if possible..
 
pjkenned said:
Just wanted to update so someone does not make the same mistake I did while putting a review unit together:

I bought a Seasonic SS-300SFD and thought the fan bulge would fit around the PSU mounting point in the DS380. That did not work at all.
Click to expand...

FWIW the same problem exists in the Silverstone SG05/SG06 cases and that style of SFX PSU with the protruding fan. My solution was to bend the PSU support a bit, and of course lose a bit of clearance for the CPU cooler.

Another case with similar issues (but not fixable with a simple bend) are the Xion slim mATX cases.
 
Any ideas on air coolers for this case? 57mm height max indicated on the specs.. both the Thermalright AXP-100 and Scythe Big Shuriken 2 are listed as 58mm with their fans mounted.. worried they wont fit by just that 1mm! Throwing a 80w tdp Xeon (signature) in, so ditching the fan isn't really an option.

Trying to avoid the AIO liquid cooler route if possible. Not fond of them.
 
There is an atom server board with 12 SATA ports that would fit this perfectly. You could also drop in an 8 port SAS card on an mini itx board with 4 sata ports to get 12.

This is the perfect case for my next mini storage server...
 
Bookmage said:
There is an atom server board with 12 SATA ports that would fit this perfectly. You could also drop in an 8 port SAS card on an mini itx board with 4 sata ports to get 12.

This is the perfect case for my next mini storage server...
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Asrock C2750D4I which was linked above at http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C2750D4I also http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=C2750D4I this is the first ITX board I see with four DIMM slots and ECC support to boot.
 
Just put together a cheapo NAS using this case. I had a stack of 8 1.5T drives laying around that I wanted to put to use at a minimal cost.

Asus E350 MB
http://amzn.com/B004ZMGVUM

SATA port multiplier (to augment the 6 SATA slots on the MB)
http://amzn.com/B00EON3W5E

PSU
http://amzn.com/B005CP07PQ

Added a dual-port Intel NIC, 8GB of memory I had laying around and FreeNAS on a USB stick and it's off and running. Wasn't sure if the port multiplier would work off the motherboard, but I figured I would try and see. I'm sure there's a performance hit based on the port multiplier, but this NAS was built for cheap storage, not ultimate performance. I tried out the free version of UnRAID and it seemed to have no problems seeing the drives behind the port multiplier as well.
 
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I just got min in yesterday. It's very well built, I think it will serve me well as a HTPC/NAS hybrid box :)

nmxkq1.jpg


2guec8x.jpg
 
Nice, please keep us informed when you assembled it, with some pictures and experiences. I believe this case will spark many new NAS-users.
 
Grabbed one today. Unfortunately server based ITX 1150 boards (essentially the Asrock offerings) are near impossible to get in Canada, so I'm going to have to await the arrival of one from the US before I can test out whether a slim tower cooler will fit in this. Socket placement is supposedly crucial in regards to if you are limited to the 57mm indicated or if you can get away with it.
 
And otherwise you can always go for a relatively cheap CLC like the Corsair H55 or the Coolermaster Seidon 120-series. You should measure to be sure but I think it could fit. Just mount the fan so it pulls the air out of the case, so it will keep cooling the HDD's.
 
I was trying to avoid that personally as I don't like AIOs, but they are in fact the recommended route for CPUs over 65 watts in this case, so it is an option.
 
Got the E3C226D2I in last night and played around to see what may fit. I don't have a tower cooler currently but I did have a Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev.B on hand. It doesn't fit by about 1-2mm (as expected by specs), but, pleasantly, it doesn't hit the HDD - due to socket placement, it actually hits the rear case fan ever so slightly.

Possible workarounds/alternatives:

1) Remove the fan from the heatsink and run passive (not a sensible option for a 80w tdp Xeon)
2) Mount a slim fan as rear exhaust, which as a side-benefit would allow a larger fan to be mounted directly to heatsink if desired. This, however, may hurt the overall airflow and case ventilation design.
3) Attempt a tower cooler, however due to the layout of this particular motherboard this will almost assuredly cover the PCI-E slot, which is not an option for my particular build due to the use of a raid card.
4) Use an AIO as suggested above.
 
Vittra said:
Grabbed one today. Unfortunately server based ITX 1150 boards (essentially the Asrock offerings) are near impossible to get in Canada, so I'm going to have to await the arrival of one from the US before I can test out whether a slim tower cooler will fit in this. Socket placement is supposedly crucial in regards to if you are limited to the 57mm indicated or if you can get away with it.
Click to expand...

Email NCIX, they will order in special requests for asrock / supermicro boards..
 
Just saw this case in a video. First thing I thought of when I saw the 2 * 120mm fans on the side was ripping out all the 3.5" drives and throwing an Alphacool Monsta 240 in there with quad fans. Epic WC ITX system right there. The only downside is you'd have to settle for a shorter GPU, like a 670, 760 or 270x.
 
I've had a H55 in the case, but today I removed it and swapped it for a NH-U12S. Never really liked the H55.

Measurements prior to purchase all looked good, and from my determinations a NH-U14S should be possible, however with the motherboard I'm using it would overlap the PCI-E. This ruled it out for me, as I may throw my raid card back in when I have more drives.

It's definitely a tight fit but doable for those who don't want to use an AIO. 45 degree SATA cables (or something like the incredibly thin Silverstone CP11) are mandatory, otherwise they will interfere with the fan (assuming you want to run in push).

Some pics:

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Album
 
Thank you for the pictures. I'd still love to have one of these due to it's sheer size efficiency, but my modified PowerMac G5 case still serves that purpose well though. I sure hope this is enough of a success to keep Silverstone making these, it's a good case but for a niche.
 
In procuring a X99 rig, I acquired a Noctua U14S along with the other parts. As it doesn't fit the S340 the X99 rig is going into, I decided to throw it into the DS380 to see if my research proved accurate in regards to fitment.

It was. Not too bad, really. Removing the rear exhaust and using the AF-15 as a pull fan would likely be a more comfortable fit, if you are fine with the drives being a tad warmer. It actually seems like certain raid/HBA cards would still be possible - I'll have to try my IBM M1015 at some point.

Album
 
Nice report ! A huge heatsink like that would allow silent operation even for a loaded Core i3 and with the large fan, you'd have a good airflow for everything, I'd reckon.
 
this case is an oven for roasting your drives. too bad, there are not many good options out there for DIY NAS boxes. If they redesigned the drive cage and fan placement it might work. avoid this thing unless you dont mind drive temps of 45-50 at idle
 
XcPNehVYlE4A3C said:
this case is an oven for roasting your drives. too bad, there are not many good options out there for DIY NAS boxes. If they redesigned the drive cage and fan placement it might work. avoid this thing unless you dont mind drive temps of 45-50 at idle
Click to expand...

You have one? What are your load temps with all drives running? I'm thinking about getting a DIY nasbox, but I don't want to damage m'reds.
 
KazeoHin said:
You have one? What are your load temps with all drives running? I'm thinking about getting a DIY nasbox, but I don't want to damage m'reds.
Click to expand...

returned it. I didn't even test under load, I didn't want my drives, especially the older ones, to go above 50 for very long so after a couple days of testing different fans and configurations i called it quits.

the fans are too far away and the drive cage is practically solid so the drives can't breathe. I thought about modding it by removing the drive cage and mounting the drives on 2 metal strips so they could breathe, but for the price and time i would spend I just picked up another case. If they redesigned the case so the fans actually forced air past the drives it would be a fantastic case.
 
XcPNehVYlE4A3C said:
returned it. I didn't even test under load, I didn't want my drives, especially the older ones, to go above 50 for very long so after a couple days of testing different fans and configurations i called it quits.

the fans are too far away and the drive cage is practically solid so the drives can't breathe. I thought about modding it by removing the drive cage and mounting the drives on 2 metal strips so they could breathe, but for the price and time i would spend I just picked up another case. If they redesigned the case so the fans actually forced air past the drives it would be a fantastic case.
Click to expand...

I was considering buying one until I saw your post. At least there's still the considerably larger Lian Li PC-Q26.
 
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