SilverStone Unveils CS381 Chassis for DIY NAS + Creation Rigs

[btarunr]

Today's NAS servers are getting increasingly powerful, and rising beyond their mandate of providing storage over the network, with media and production/creation capabilities being added to them via fast x86 processors and GPUs. SilverStone is targeting this market with its new CS381 pedestal chassis. Measuring 400mm (W) x 225mm (H) x 232mm (D), with a volume of 30 liters, the case offers eight 3.5-inch hot-swap caddies behind a lockable front bezel. These 8 caddies are split into two columns of 4 caddies, each, which have SATA 6 Gbps and miniSAS 12G HD backplanes. There are also two concealed 2.5-inch mounts for your SSDs.

The CS381 has room for a micro-ATX motherboard with room for a full-height graphics card, but a CPU cooler only as tall as 6 cm, which is plenty of room for the pump-block of an AIO CLC. You can use a CLC with a 240 mm x 120 mm radiator thanks to the two 120 mm rear exhausts. An SFX/SFX-L power-supply bay allows you to deploy a reasonably powerful PSU. Two additional 120 mm fans can be mounted along the sides. Front-panel connectivity includes two USB 3.0 ports, and HDA jacks. The company didn't reveal pricing.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheLostSwede]

Maybe a tad big, but I like. Long time since there was a new NAS chassis.

 

[dinmaster]

simple setup, i agree a little big for just 8 drives... Id rather see this with drives mounted vertically, have a backplane on the bottom for all the drives then the mobo under that etc. something like backblaze servers. would need sliders to pull it out of the rack tho

 

[Monberg75]

simple setup, i agree a little big for just 8 drives... Id rather see this with drives mounted vertically, have a backplane on the bottom for all the drives then the mobo under that etc. something like backblaze servers. would need sliders to pull it out of the rack tho

View attachment 125180

Insane weight though. I'm doing HDD mining, and know how much my rig of 30 drive weighs. Imagine 50 or so like in these casings.
Microstorage made some of the casings though.. They are made, andpayable.

 

[nemesis.ie]

It looks a bit tight to fit a 240mm rad to me, i.e. where the tubing would connect (plenum) would stick out too far.

 

[TheLostSwede]

It looks a bit tight to fit a 240mm rad to me, i.e. where the tubing would connect (plenum) would stick out too far.

Not the best picture, but it seems to fit just fine...

CS381

To fulfill the needs of enthusiasts looking for a compact, flexible NAS chassis, SilverStone created the CS381 with unprecedented level of space efficiency. Designed to house a Micro-ATX motherboard, it gives users a wide array of hardware options that includes robust backplanes to support...

www.silverstonetek.com

 

[phill]

I think my Fractal Design 804 case seems to do the same as this one, maybe a bit smaller as well.. Still I like it with the drive bays, nice touch

 

[nemesis.ie]

@TheLostSwede

Good stuff, a GPU with a backplate might be wise though as the tubes look to be right up against the card and any pins sticking out could be "entertaining".

Making sure to get a rad with as small as possible plenum would be wise too probably - or I suppose their own one that they have tested.

 

[odaniel]

I waited months for this case (since CES 2018). I finally gave up waiting and got a U-NAS 810A. The U-NAS offers a nicer more compact design with the 8 drive capacity.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I waited months for this case (since CES 2018). I finally gave up waiting and got a U-NAS 810A. The U-NAS offers a nicer more compact design with the 8 drive capacity.

Thats more of the regular off the shelf NAS design that Qnap, Synology and a host of other brands use.

 

[Valantar]

Good to see they finally released this, IIRC they first showed this off at Computex or CES 2018. Looks very tempting for a future upgrade for my NAS when I grow out of its 6 3.5" bays (Fractal node 304) - but that's still a ways away. Hot-swap with a proper backplane and room for mATX are both big pluses, as is SFX PSU support. mATX means plenty of room for both a 10GbE card and an extra SATA/RAID controller if needed, plus decent, cheap motherboards with 4 RAM slots for RAM-heavy file systems. The tucked-away SSD mounts are also a good move. I agree that the case overall is a bit on the large side, but I don't really see how they could have shrunk it - I guess they could have stuck a 9th hot swap bay where the main PCIe slot ends, blocking long GPUs, but that seems a bit counterintuitive as it would make other hardware difficult to fit too. Also, note how shallow the case is overall - it might be wide and a bit tall, but it's only 9"/23cm deep. Perfect for sitting on a shelf or on top of a cupboard somewhere out of sight. The only "wasted" space I see is in front of the PSU, and I'm sure an enterprising user could stuff another HDD in there with some elbow grease.

 

[Xajel]

I really liked it, thought I hope it will be overly priced like most NAS cases.

While an 8 bay case could be smaller, this case have flexibility also as we can use mATX motherboard with plenty of expansions, a GPU, 10GbE and even a SATA controller. The only thing I miss here is an optical drive, while many might said what you'll do with it? I'm just moving my current ODD to the NAS/Server as I rarely use it, being in the server means I can use it whenever I need rather have to rely on external drive adding another clumsiness.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I really liked it, thought I hope it will be overly priced like most NAS cases.

While an 8 bay case could be smaller, this case have flexibility also as we can use mATX motherboard with plenty of expansions, a GPU, 10GbE and even a SATA controller. The only thing I miss here is an optical drive, while many might said what you'll do with it? I'm just moving my current ODD to the NAS/Server as I rarely use it, being in the server means I can use it whenever I need rather have to rely on external drive adding another clumsiness.

Or just use an external USB one that you can buy for £20 off amazon or ebay. Ive got one and ive used it like once in 3 years...

 

[bug]

Ha, I was actually looking for something like this. Though I figure for my needs 4 bays would be enough...

 

[ERazer]

this with Ryzen and ECC mem, id be happy

 

[sam_86314]

This would be great for my Plex server since that needs decent processing power for real-time video transcoding, which most off-the-shelf NAS devices don't have. It would make storage expansion easy, and I like how my drives would have some airflow.

I expect the price to be terrifying, as this stuff usually is. If it isn't, I might end up getting one.