The top dust filter doesn't quite blend in as well as the side one but it's clear that the case has been designed with easy maintenance in mind as well as thoughtful airflow. That said, there's a fair amount of positive air pressure here with two 120mm side intake fans but a single 120mm rear fan. However, with the front fans dealing predominantly with the huge hard disk mount construction, it's likely that a lot of their airflow will be deadened as a result since it does a fairly good job of blocking the fans.
With a potential eight hard disks stacked up, though, we think SilverStone has been sensible here, plus longer GPUs will get some airflow too. SilverStone specifies GPU lengths up to 11in so for the most part, so long as you're prepared to lose a 3.5in bay and deal with the fiddly process of getting a big graphics card into the case, you can in theory have a six or seven-disk RAID array and still have room for a decent graphics card. That said, our standard mini-ITX test card wouldn't quite fit plus the 111mm width restriction will rule out pretty much anything other than a reference design card.
We actually managed to squeeze in a GeForce GTX 750 Ti without having to dismantle the drive cage at all and ended up testing with that instead, but SilverStone just about manages to accomplish its aim of a NAS/gaming case hybrid, albeit with some GPU limitation. There's also a small 2.5in drive mount at the top rear of the case for up to four drives so if you do plan on kitting out the DS380 with 3.5in hard disks, you can have an SSD or four for your OS. This is removable too so you could remove it to give yourself an easier time when building the system if you won't be using an SSD.
Cable tidying isn't one of the DS380's strong points. In short, there are very limited options. Water cooling may appear fairly limited too but there's certainly room for a 120mm all-in-one liquid cooler in the rear fan mount - you're otherwise limited to just 57mm CPU clearance, which is extremely limiting. Even low profile coolers such as the Deepcool Gamer Storm Gabriel are a couple of millimetres too high.
Price-wise the case costs less than most premium dual-bay NAS enclosures from the likes of QNAP and Synology - £116 isn't a bad deal when you consider that £40 on top of a Prodigy, you're getting a fully implemented eight-drive hot swap mount and superior build quality. The downside is that the DS380 is another case in SilverStone's lineup that requires an SFX PSU. It's an added cost if you were planning on transplanting your own ATX model, but the case is kept much more compact as a result. Plus SilverStone's SFX PSUs aren't bad either and as SilverStone told us here, they're soon to be available in capacities up to 600W and include quieter 120mm fans too.
Click to enlarge
With a potential eight hard disks stacked up, though, we think SilverStone has been sensible here, plus longer GPUs will get some airflow too. SilverStone specifies GPU lengths up to 11in so for the most part, so long as you're prepared to lose a 3.5in bay and deal with the fiddly process of getting a big graphics card into the case, you can in theory have a six or seven-disk RAID array and still have room for a decent graphics card. That said, our standard mini-ITX test card wouldn't quite fit plus the 111mm width restriction will rule out pretty much anything other than a reference design card.
Click to enlarge
We actually managed to squeeze in a GeForce GTX 750 Ti without having to dismantle the drive cage at all and ended up testing with that instead, but SilverStone just about manages to accomplish its aim of a NAS/gaming case hybrid, albeit with some GPU limitation. There's also a small 2.5in drive mount at the top rear of the case for up to four drives so if you do plan on kitting out the DS380 with 3.5in hard disks, you can have an SSD or four for your OS. This is removable too so you could remove it to give yourself an easier time when building the system if you won't be using an SSD.
Cable tidying isn't one of the DS380's strong points. In short, there are very limited options. Water cooling may appear fairly limited too but there's certainly room for a 120mm all-in-one liquid cooler in the rear fan mount - you're otherwise limited to just 57mm CPU clearance, which is extremely limiting. Even low profile coolers such as the Deepcool Gamer Storm Gabriel are a couple of millimetres too high.
Click to enlarge
Price-wise the case costs less than most premium dual-bay NAS enclosures from the likes of QNAP and Synology - £116 isn't a bad deal when you consider that £40 on top of a Prodigy, you're getting a fully implemented eight-drive hot swap mount and superior build quality. The downside is that the DS380 is another case in SilverStone's lineup that requires an SFX PSU. It's an added cost if you were planning on transplanting your own ATX model, but the case is kept much more compact as a result. Plus SilverStone's SFX PSUs aren't bad either and as SilverStone told us here, they're soon to be available in capacities up to 600W and include quieter 120mm fans too.
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