While more common today than always, network-attached storage (NAS) devices aren't quite mainstream all the same. Although Synology and QNAP have become recognized brands with products ranging from $150 to $3,000, the lower end of that bracket will just get you a sluggish single-bay model and if you want four bays or more -- equally almost of you likely do -- we're talking north of $500. Listen yous, that'south before installing hard drives.

Naturally, that greenbacks buys a purpose-built box which installs fast, runs repose, sips power and saves space, at to the lowest degree compared to repurposing an one-time PC, yet the inner DIYer in us is itching to build a NAS. Going that route seems similar an easy way to relieve some greenbacks considering a small-scale desktop could exist used as a four or eight-bay server, and there is plenty to value in the actress flexibility and expansion of a custom setup.

Assembling your own NAS would internet more performance as well because yous'd be using a Celeron or Pentium over the Atom or other SoCs, while ability shouldn't be a business organisation with Haswell using less than xxx watts at idle. Equally the crimson on top, open source software such equally FreeNAS and enclosures like Silverstone's DS380 should make it less daunting to become started with your homebrewed eight-bay NAS server.

Silverstone's latest chassis is unlike anything we have seen. Although it'south still a estimator case, it isn't designed for gaming or even workstations. The DS380 is aimed directly at users who are building their own NAS.

The trunk of the Silverstone DS380 has been constructed of steel, while simply the forepart door is made of aluminum. It measures 211mm wide, 285mm tall and 360mm long, giving it a 21.6L chapters. Although this is quite large compared to eight-bay models from QNAP and Synology, keep in heed they feature custom-built motherboards that take up considerably less infinite.

The DS380 comes exclusively in black with a brushed aluminum front door that opens to betrayal the eight 3.v" hot-swappable drive bays.

Also behind the door are 2 audio jacks (not sure why those are needed) and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. While the audio jacks seem useless on this product the USB ports aren't as they can be used to quickly access and share data from external devices.

The all-important power button is found here along with the reset button, though for a NAS you might not want to plug the reset push in.

Oddly the bulldoze cages are broken up by a divider on the 3rd cage from the acme -- not a large deal, but non sure why Silverstone did that. Information technology is piece of cake to wait by that quirk, simply the bulldoze cages themselves are a chip disappointing.

We were bummed to notice that the drive cages are non tool-less similar those now used past Synology so the user must secure each bulldoze using 4 screws. While that might seem like a pocket-size inconvenience, it gets annoying fast when swapping drives in and out.

Thankfully the bulldoze cages themselves are piece of cake to remove using the squeeze and pull method, yet not nearly every bit elaborate as what you volition find from Synology, QNAP or even Thecus, but they do the job.

Where the Silverstone DS380 does excel is cooling. Whereas we are used to finding one or two frazzle fans, the DS380 has a more advanced setup. In the left side of the case in that location are a pair of 120mm in-take fans covered by a magnetic dust filter. Then at the rear we have a third 120mm fan serving as the case exhaust. It's a prissy dust free setup that should keep the drives inside make clean and cool.

Around the dorsum, the instance isn't painted but it does have room for a elevation mounted SFX ability supply that also features external ventilation complete with another magnetic dust filter. Below the PSU are two external expansion bill of fare slots and room for the motherboards I/O console, which is adjacent to the 120mm fan and grill.