SilverStone Releases CS380 Storage Chassis

The easy way to get a NAS is to buy a pre-made one from one of the large manufacturers that we review on a regular basis here at eTeknix, but where would the fun be in that when you can build it yourself from scratch. If that’s how you think, then SilverStone’s latest storage chassis, the DS380, might just be the one that you are looking for.

SilverStone’s latest take on the storage chassis can hold an impressive amount of hardware while keeping a compact mid-tower size and a space-saving footprint. The SilverStone DS380 supports eight hot-swappable 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drives and it even features two external 5.25-inch drive bays for optical drives or more backplane docks – or maybe even liquid cooling reservoirs should you choose to add a custom loop to your storage setup.

The chassis is a classic SilverStone built and it looks the way we want it to. The drive bays themselves are hidden behind a front door that features its own power button with safety switch (you can choose to disable it for extra safety, forcing you to open the lockable door before you can use it).

SilverStone added three fans to the DS380 where two are placed on the side of the drive cage and another is added to the rear of the chassis. They are all 120mm fans with a 1200 RPM speed. The rear is also compatible with 120mm radiators for CPU AIO cooling. Despite the compact size, you can add up to ATX motherboards and standard ATX-sized PSUs. The CPU cooler can be up to 146mm high while the expansion cards can be up to 150mm long (up to 240 with restrictions removed).

The internal backplane for the 8 hot-swappable drives makes the setup a lot easier as you can power these eight drives with just two 4-pin Molex connectors. It supports both SATA3 and SAS drives and comes with plenty of capacitors to make sure that all drives receive stable power.

The new SilverStone DS380 storage chassis should be available now for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $132.66.