Silverstone DS380: ITX 8x SAS/Sata Hotswap

[Ayugai Michiko]

Awesome. I almost took a drill to the cage but I am terrible at these things.

I drilled anyways.

I also got the ASRock E3C224D4I-14S to fit inside the DS380 with a SFX PSU by adding new motherboard standoffs. Was about to do your zip tie method, but relieved I got it working.

More pictures and build log here

 

[T_Minus]

I believe you've just made drive cooling worse by drilling holes in the back of the cage when the air-flow is meant side-to-side, and then out the back, not half-way across the drives then out the back. FYI - The hottest point in the case for drives is the bottom corner, the furthest point where you've drilled the holes, also the hardest post for air to reach and then cycle out... PICS coming

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

I believe you've just made drive cooling worse by drilling holes in the back of the cage when the air-flow is meant side-to-side, and then out the back, not half-way across the drives then out the back. FYI - The hottest point in the case for drives is the bottom corner, the furthest point where you've drilled the holes, also the hardest post for air to reach and then cycle out... PICS coming

Hmm. Maybe. Worse case if that is true then i'll plug up the holes with some electrical tape. Could also stick a 40mm fan over to pull air through. However, someone else also drilled holes into their cage like this and their temps drop from 50c to 38c. I'll have to wait until all my HDD arrive to test.

 

[T_Minus]

Interesting that the holes in the back cool down the drives more, do you know if the other person also swapped fans when he drilled or was it drilling alone? In my experience even a slight increase in air flow causes a drastic temperature reduction of hard drives.

I'll be using/keeping this as my backup device so if you want other pictures let me know.

8x WD 2TB RE 4 @ IDLE after 24hr heat soak at minimum.
2x S3500 120gb + 2x S3500 180gb (or 160 I forget) in rear-slot.
C2750 ATOM 8 Core w/32GB RAM Supermicro Motherboard

You can just barely see the "hot square" in the top picture located "top middle" of that image is the M1015 HBA.

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

Interesting that the holes in the back cool down the drives more, do you know if the other person also swapped fans when he drilled or was it drilling alone? In my experience even a slight increase in air flow causes a drastic temperature reduction of hard drives.
.

He upgraded to noctua fans without much luck and then put holes in.

Thermal picture is interesting. I would think the heat would concentrate more towards the top since heat rises. Could it be there is more stagnant heat coming from the CPU area, more cables in the way of airflow or the air is being pulled downwards out the rear case fan? What would happen if you flip the case upside down?

 

[T_Minus]

He upgraded to noctua fans without much luck and then put holes in.

Thermal picture is interesting. I would think the heat would concentrate more towards the top since heat rises. Could it be there is more stagnant heat coming from the CPU area or the air is being pulled downwards out the rear case fan? What would happen if you flip the case upside down?

I was really surprised too.

I think it has to do with the fan on the bottom pulling the other 2 fans air down/through, so by the time the air reaches the bottom to be sucked out it's really hot, and heat soaks the bottom drives working it's way up to the picture you see after day(s) run-time at idle.

I want to try running 2x 1500RPM intake fans with a 3000RPM exhaust fan and see if that can stabilize the heat soak affected area. But, for a silent solution, I think the ultra-thin fan exiting air out the side would be more efficient... especially if you did two, then again this may swirl.. never know Have to test!!!

We'll just have to see as I hack it up and test, and take more pics


BTW: I had to cut ~1/4" plastic to fit the M1015 + drive in that slot, and that drive has to be installed first so you can support it due to removing the plastic 'slide' it's meant to go through.

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

E3C224D4I-14S has 5x Case fan and 1x CPU fan. Is the automatic smartfan control for them all dependent on CPU temperature or is there also MB sensor tied to the case fans?

spec sheet says CPU and SYS temperature sensor, but manual doesn't say anything about system temperature sensor.

 

[dezren39]

Ayugai, I have the hyper 212 on my E3c224d3i board I just built this weekend and I'm already considering a different one. The board is so close to the PCI-E that I don't think I'll be able to fita 10-gigabit card in there one day. Also, the 'tower' design of the heatsink seems like it's blocking airflow, either in the case or specifically to the northbridge, because my northbridge is mid 40s on average which seems warm. The cpu is only at 35C though, which is okay. I'm wondering what your temps are looking like, seeing as you have a similar setup? It may be my arctic silver was old or my thermal paste got messed up due to how finicky install can be in the DS380 with this board, but it may also be that a different design might help.

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

The cpu is only at 35C though, which is okay. I'm wondering what your temps are looking like, seeing as you have a similar setup?

According to IMPI sensor monitoring on my E3C224D4I-14S at idle CPU 29C & M/B 46C. Which I think is normal.

I didn't need to put a 212 evo in it, just has one handy and it fits. Given the choice I would have put a different lower profile cooler.

Don't think a tower design would block much airflow because the fan is there moving air. I have my 212 fan pulling air instead of pushing.

 

[T_Minus]

After 24hrs heat soak with the new fan installed on the opposite side of existing fans all HDs idle around 40*C. For reference my Synology 5 Bay with 2x RE & 3x SE the RE both idle around 40*C too while the SEs both idel around 34-36. Ambient temp: 22*C

So, it's at-least as cool as my Synology now. I'm going to try a higher RPM fan to see if I can get temps under 40*C. Although, I'm confident NAS, Green, Desktop drives would all run low 30s, the WD RE are hot, energy sucking drives And in-case anyone is wondering RAIDz3 is what I'm running.

New thermal images coming, and more info, I'll start a new thread with pics/info.

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

I've been using WD Green drives fine without heat issues, temps are ~33C idle and ~39C load.

Silverstone DS380 thread? some people on this forum used cardboard inserts to block/funnel the side intake fan directly on the drive cage. This forces more direct air between the drive cage openings. They reported pretty good results.

 

[T_Minus]

I've been using WD Green drives fine without heat issues, temps are ~33C idle and ~39C load.

Silverstone DS380 thread? some people on this forum used cardboard inserts to block/funnel the side intake fan directly on the drive cage. This forces more direct air between the drive cage openings. They reported pretty good results.

Your temps are acceptable, but pretty bad for WD Green based on people online sharing they run 22-28*C and even backblaze has two models around 23*C and 27*C.

More proof the case has terrible cooling and is a little heater box LOL!!

I'll be doing a few more tweaks, but likely this will work just fine for me as it won't be "on" that often.

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

Your temps are acceptable, but pretty bad for WD Green based on people online sharing they run 22-28*C and even backblaze has two models around 23*C and 27*C.

More proof the case has terrible cooling and is a little heater box LOL!!

I'll be doing a few more tweaks, but likely this will work just fine for me as it won't be "on" that often.

lol, my full tower ATX case temperature never even gets down to 22-28C, even my Samsung evo SSD is at 30C right now. Backblaze blast their pods with air in chilled rooms.

 

[T_Minus]

lol, my full tower ATX case temperature never even gets down to 22-28C, even my Samsung evo SSD is at 30C right now. Backblaze blast their pods with air in chilled rooms.

That doesn't make it an acceptable "cool" temperature at idle though, it just means your ATX Full Tower is ridiculously hot too

My room is almost 75*F right now and my Samsung 850 EVO is 23*C. That's in a corner, under my desk with terrible air movement.

I still hold my opinion that your WD Green are hotter than they need to be due to the case, and what sounds like your environment.

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

That doesn't make it an acceptable "cool" temperature at idle though, it just means your ATX Full Tower is ridiculously hot too

My room is almost 75*F right now and my Samsung 850 EVO is 23*C. That's in a corner, under my desk with terrible air movement.

I still hold my opinion that your WD Green are hotter than they need to be due to the case, and what sounds like your environment.

My SSD maybe would be around 23C if it wasn't a OS drive, and my WD green could go below 30C if i let it spindown.

 

[uOpt]

I loved those little Silverstone things ever since I have seen the threads about it pop up, and so wanted to put in one of the ECC enabled Atoms and be happy.

But I have so many larger board, the ECC atom is expensive and I don't think I will ever buy anything non-mobile without the ability to run registered RAM ever again

I salute everybody who got these little suckers!

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

I've been using WD Green drives fine without heat issues, temps are ~33C idle and ~39C load.

Silverstone DS380 thread? some people on this forum used cardboard inserts to block/funnel the side intake fan directly on the drive cage. This forces more direct air between the drive cage openings. They reported pretty good results.

Installed some 7200rpm drives and those ran hot, around 45C during disk scrubs. Tried inserting a cardboard skirt to force the intake fan air directly over the drive cage. Works very well. Temps went from 45C to 35C. My wd green drives are now below 30C. My intake fans are only set at 800rpm NF-F12.

 

[dataoscar]

Installed some 7200rpm drives and those ran hot, around 45C during disk scrubs. Tried inserting a cardboard skirt to force the intake fan air directly over the drive cage. Works very well. Temps went from 45C to 35C. My wd green drives are now below 30C. My intake fans are only set at 800rpm NF-F12.

Would you mind sharing some pics. This sounds very interesting.

 

[Ayugai Michiko]

Would you mind sharing some pics. This sounds very interesting.

I have some new drives in there and doing badblock burn in tests atm, going to take 3-4days so I can't take pictures. However, there are several other people that have done the same thing and gotten good results.

SFF Silverstone DS380 Build This person did the cardboard insert trick too. Mine is similar except I my cardboard was thinner, longer and bent around the cage. Then I tapped it to seal it more.

 

[maze]

Has anyone had issues with drives dropping out of raids in this chassi?

Im running an xpenology setup in mine. 5x2tb and 1x8tb drives + 2x ssd on a Aston avoton quadcore board.

8tb runs fine - No issues putting load on it. But as soon as i but any load on my 2tb drive raid5 it crashes.. Im wondering if its the backplane or something like that.