Tuesday, December 28th 2021
SilverStone Unveils CS351 Micro-ATX Case Builds Intersecting NAS+Gaming Use-cases
SilverStone today unveiled the CS351, a unique Micro-ATX case that lets you build a gaming or creation PC with hot-swappable storage, or a DIY NAS. This case is significantly larger than typical 5-bay NAS you find in the market, but that's because it packs room for a fully-fledged Micro-ATX setup, including room for a high-end triple-slot graphics card up to 36.8 cm in length. For creators, this means room for a top-grade Quadro RTX or Radeon PRO graphics card; for gamers it means room for any air-cooled RTX 3090 or RX 6900 XT.
The most striking feature has to be the five 3.5-inch hot-swappable lockable caddies, each with SATA 6 Gbps backplanes (optionally SAS 12 Gbps). The cage is ventilated from the inside with an 80 mm fan, and uses a 4-pin Molex input for power. Each of the 5 bays has an individual SATA 6 Gbps connection to your motherboard. Internal bays include one 2.5-inch mount, or the ability to mount up to seven 2.5-inch drives by eating into the room meant for graphics cards. Active ventilation includes three 40 mm rear exhausts, two 80 mm top exhausts, and an internal 80 mm conveyor for the 5-bay drive cage. Measuring 265 mm (W) x 209 mm (H) x 411 mm (D), the case weighs about 5 kg. The company didn't reveal pricing.
The most striking feature has to be the five 3.5-inch hot-swappable lockable caddies, each with SATA 6 Gbps backplanes (optionally SAS 12 Gbps). The cage is ventilated from the inside with an 80 mm fan, and uses a 4-pin Molex input for power. Each of the 5 bays has an individual SATA 6 Gbps connection to your motherboard. Internal bays include one 2.5-inch mount, or the ability to mount up to seven 2.5-inch drives by eating into the room meant for graphics cards. Active ventilation includes three 40 mm rear exhausts, two 80 mm top exhausts, and an internal 80 mm conveyor for the 5-bay drive cage. Measuring 265 mm (W) x 209 mm (H) x 411 mm (D), the case weighs about 5 kg. The company didn't reveal pricing.
20 Comments on SilverStone Unveils CS351 Micro-ATX Case Builds Intersecting NAS+Gaming Use-cases
This looks like a decent NAS box with low power components that don't require much cooling.
I'm sure it's sourced from a third party anyhow.
GPU transcoding is about the best use I can think for it, though with only 40mm exhaust fans I think you'd need a blower-style cooler. NAS and 3.5" hot-swappable implies low-power, always on storage which is the opposite of an mATX desktop build with a dGPU and full-size ATX PSU.
Silverstone make some great cases. They also make some head-scratchingly weird shit that is either just garbage or it's so niche that we can't even identify the niche. My guess is that they are just re-using tooling and design the case around the tooling they already have rather than spending big bucks on brand new tooling for a brand new design.
And open source it. It would be really cool.
But in this case, this is just a misguided design. They tried something, failed and didn't have the balls to can the product.