[clug] Mini-ITX NAS build - case to avoid

[Chris Smart]

So I'm building a NAS and thought that the Silverstone DS380[1] case
looked great. It has 8 hot-swappable SATA bays, claims decent cooling
with filters, neat form factor.

It requires an SFX PSU, but there are some[2] that have enough juice on
the 12v rail (although avoid the SilverStone SX500-LG, it's slightly too
long) so that it's not a major problem (although I would prefer standard
ATX).

So I got one to run low-power i3, C226 chipset mainboard and five HGST
3TB NAS drives. Unfortunately the cooling through the drives is pretty
much non-existent. The two fans on the side draw air in but blow _onto_
the hotswap chassis and nothing really draws air _through_ it.

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.

I've replaced the case with my second choice Fractal Design NODE 304[3]
and the drives at idle all sit at around 35 degrees.

It has two smaller fans at the front to bring air directly over the
drives and a larger one at the rear, with a manual L/M/H speed
controller for all three on the rear of the case. As a bonus, it uses a
standard ATX power supply and has plenty of room for it.

The only downside I've found so far is the lack of hot-swap, but my NAS
isn't mission-critical so that's not a deal breaker for me.

Your mileage might vary, but I won't buy the DS380 for a NAS again,
unless it's going to run full of SSDs or something (or I heavily mod the
case). It's OK for a small machine though without a bunch of disks
(shame!) and that's what I've re-purposed it for now.

[1] http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452
[2] http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=342
[2] http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=524
[3]
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-304-black

-c

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