NAS Killer (Sorta) - CS381 Case

Specs/Prices:

X9SCM-F Super Micro Motherboard - $67.45
Xeon E3-1270 V2 - 78.95
16GB (4x4GB) PC3-12800E DDR3-1600MHz 2Rx8 ECC Nanya NT4GC72B8PG0NF-DI - $52.50
12 TB - Hitachi 3.5" 3TB x4 7200RPM 64MB 6Gbps SATA HUA723030ALA640 - $159.96
LSI 9300 8i (overkill, but decided to keep in case I wanted to expand or upgrade drives, etc) - $129
FSP 450 W PSU (SFX) - $84.99
*Silverstone CS381 * - $324.97
*Noctua NH-L9i chromax.Black, Low-Profile CPU Cooler * - $49.95
ARCTIC P12 PWM - 5 Pack (utilizing 4 since I swapped out the two stock fans) - $26.99

Additional/Unexpected:

I had to also purchase a V1 CPU which cost $18 and I also bought some 1333 MHz RAM (just one stick of 4 GB) - this was because my motherboard was BIOS 1.0 and needed to be updated prior to V2 being recognized, along with 1600 MHz RAM - PCIe 3.0 is also not activated until BIOS 2.0 is updated.

Total Price: $974.76 - this could easily have been about $400-450 cheaper with a different case/HBA but I really liked the look of the CS381 and liked the hot swap feature - coming from an enterprise environment where I swap out drives in data centers regularly, it makes me comfortable in having an indicator to inform me of the correct node :slight_smile:

Temps:

Having heard bad things about cooling in this case, I was nervous and once I had everything except for drives populated, I had excellent temps. After installing, it was a different story and my drives were hitting 58 C - I had to crank my fans to full speed, which now keeps system at 29 C and my HDD (which have no room vertically between) stay around 38-40 C. I am happy with this considering the size factor and space limitations between the drives themselves…

Pictures:

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1 Like

Now after more than one year, are you still satisfied with the CS381? Am currently in the market for a compact 6-8 drive case.