Silverstone DS380 NAS Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Silverstone DS380 isn’t one of the cheapest chassis on the market, but when you think of all the features, hot-swap bays and other included bonuses – I’d call it a bargain. What you’d otherwise pay to upgrade any other chassis with 8 hot-swap backplanes, would most likely already exceed the costs of the DS380. At the time of writing, the Silverstone DS380 can be had for £116.99 at Overclockers UK, £107.04 at Scan UK while Amazon UK will charge you £189.62. Our American readers can pick up the chassis at NewEgg for $149.99 or Amazon for $149.99. German fans can get it for around €135 and upwards through Geizhalz.

Overview

The overall build quality on the Silverstone DS380 is great. I didn’t have the feeling at any time that the materials used were inferior as I’ve seen lately in my personal choice of chassis. The side panel is sturdy and doesn’t bend or wobble, which of course partly due to the small size. It does however become clear very early on that Silverstone put a lot of thought into this chassis and how to create a great storage solution with a tiny footprint.

The quality continues when we take a look at the stock fans and their noise. Rated at a maximum of 22dBA, the fans aren’t audible in any normal environment and especially not when you add 12 mechanical hard drives. The three 120mm fans also did a very good job at keeping all this hardware at a normal temperature that will ensure a long lifespan on your parts.

The front panel door gives the chassis a clean and great look, whilst also protecting your hardware. The built-in protection against outside use of the power button is a great addition to a chassis that is going to run 24/7 and the lock prevents sticky fingers from tampering with your setup.

Building the system itself was easier than expected. I’ve built quite a few tiny systems in my days and this was by far one of the easiest, while also being the one with the most drives. We did see that we could get some issues cables that are too long and stiff, but nothing that can’t be prevented with the right choice of parts to begin with.

All that said, there is still room for improvements, though tiny. I’d love to see a new version of the chassis that is 5mm longer and 2mm wider, because that would have allowed me to fully utilize all the chassis drive bays with my current hardware.

Pros

• Great build quality
• Several smart anti-tamper protections
• Good price for what you get
• Room for a lot of hardware considering the size
• Great cooling abilities

Cons

• Some larger add-on cards might cost you a hot-swap bay

“Silverstone hit a triple home run with the DS380. It comes at a tiny footprint, allows for a massive amount of hardware inside, and with a quality that doesn’t leave many wishes open.”

Thanks to Silverstone for providing us with this sample.