Reddit mentions of SilverStone Technology Premium Mini-ITX/DTX Small Form Factor NAS Computer Case, Black (DS380B)

I just built my first NAS/PLEX server and things are going great. Total cost was around $1300

SilverStone Mini-ITX NAS case

32GB DDR3 ECC RAM

4x HGST Deskstars

this sweet mobo ties it all together. It's got a quad-core Atom processor, 12 SATA ports across 3 RAID controllers, and supports 64GB of RAM, all in a Mini ITX form factor.

I'm running FreeNAS with a Plex jail

If you plan to use an ITX board, the Fractal Design Node 304 is quite small and gives you more options for expansion. If you want something that's insanely future proof, you can go with a Silverstone DS380B. Again, I'm assuming you are using an ITX board.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352027

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112339

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI

https://www.amazon.com/Norco-Mini-ITX-Computer-Storage-support/dp/B012UO63TK

I guess other than it being smaller there is no advantage to it over something like this. Silverstone Tek Premium

SilverStone DS380B, its a fantastic case. It supports up to 8 hot swap drives and 4 SSDs internally. Its mini ITX too. Fantastic air flow through it. I've had 6 drives in it since day one with no issues. Its not the cheapest considering its size but it does have all the hardware for the hot swap and if I'm not mistaken also supports SAS drives.

> My main purpose for it is really to do backups with a RAID setup and photo and other file storage.

RAID is not a backup solution. It is simply a way to utilize multiple disks to increase storage space or overall performance. You will still need some kind of backup, whether that is some kind of external USB drive like a WD Passport or using a cloud-based service like CrashPlan, that's up to you.

> I’m willing to spend about $300-$250 on the case and any components needed for it.

If you're planning on building your own server, $300 won't get you very far at all. Depending on the size you're looking for, the hard drives alone will cost more than that.

> If I wanted to “build my own” how are NAS cases usually sold?

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of NAS-centric cases around.

The SilverStone DS308 is kinda neat. It has 8 hot-swappable drive bays.

What a lot of people do is go with some sort of tower case and some hot-swap trays like these.

>Is it likely that I’ll need to buy a power supply, RAM, fans, or any other components for them?

Unless you already have an old PC laying around that you can use, then yes.

>If I built my own how hard is it to install software, etc. to run it?

Do you have experience installing an OS on a PC or laptop? I would recommend going with some flavor of Linux like Ubuntu Server. The installation process is very easy, especially if you're doing it on a brand new computer where you don't need to worry about overwriting anything important.

>What’s the minimum processor speed and memory I should aim for?

Unless you plan on doing things like Video Transcoding or running Virtual Machines, CPU speed and RAM aren't really that important. What's more important is the network hardware and your SATA controller. You want to make sure it has a good 1Gbps network card (Intel is preferred). You also want to make sure that it has SATA-III and that there are enough ports for each hard drive.

>Am I likely to get better performance by tailoring it to better specs (faster processor, more RAM) by building my own then buying a “diskless” setup?

Almost certainly. It will also be more flexible and able to do more things. It will also give you valuable knowledge and experience that you can use in the future.

>Even if I buy a "diskless" system am I going to need to buy an OS? Which one would be best?

No, you will not need any separate OS. These systems are basically little self-contained PCs with an ARM (or sometimes an x86) processor and some sort of Linux-based OS running on them. They're pretty much Plug 'n Play, just load them with some hard drives, set up networking and they're good to go.

> If I just wanted to buy one that’s completely setup, or a “diskless “ that I would add my own NAS HDs too what would you recommend?

Whatever is the least expensive, highest rated and has the features you require. The rest does not matter.

Ultimately what you decide to do depends on your goals. Do you want to learn about building and configuring a server? Then you might consider sourcing the parts and building something yourself. This will be the more expensive approach but it will also be more flexible, have much more performance than a pre-built solution and give you knowledge you can use in the future.

If you want something that Just Works™ then I would go with a prebuilt NAS like the DS216, it looks like a decent system and will give you the features you require.

Hope that helps!

A Silverstone DS380 might be right up your alley. It's not as small as some ITX cases (like Corsair's, TT's etc), but it's still a compact case.

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI

Supports:

• SFX PSU
  
• 11" GPU
  
• 8x 3.5" hot swappable hard drives
  
  You can check out my build using this case here:
  https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/3o3z3f/i732gbgtx960265tb_itx_servergaming_build_xpost/

ASROCK C2750D4I
Hitachi NAS Drives
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IAELTAI/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008VQ2Y4K/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Some DDR3 ECC RAM, Should be 1gb of RAM per 1tb of Storage in the NAS, and then Just have a small SSD run FreeNas in the system.

I have a ds380 I am currently buying parts to build my nas in here is a link for amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IAELTAI?pc_redir=1397498794&robot_redir=1

Edit it has 8 3.5 hotswap and 4 2.5 drives

TLDNR; Without having more info on what I described in the first paragraph. I'd say just buy a couple 10TB Easystores on sale ($180ea) and use your current SBCs and smaller server setups. After I wrote all of this I saw that you are from AUS(I think), so no clue if you can get close to $18 per TB in your area, but prices are coming down every year so sometimes better to just save $$$. It is super fun to think about a new and more powerful setup, plus buying it and putting it together, but as you can see I've done a lot of this thinking already. You are also probably feeling guilty that you have to make use of all your 2TBs, but lots of little HDDs do require more electricity to power up and cool. You need storage density and you cant get around that. Upgrade to 10TB and use the 2TB as a cold storage (backup). You are at a heck of a crossroads because the cost to go from SBCs to a "Proper" server plus buying storage isnt a cheap one. Currently there are limited stepping stones, but more powerful SBCs and Ryzen Embedded are here and on the way so wait if possible. Either way you go, you will spend more money and use up storage faster than you planned... The more powerful SBCs arent always cheap either, once you factor in cost of: memory card, power supply, case, possible heatsink/extra heat sinks, a fan, etc. Their lower price starts creeping into the middle range...


What brand, how many, and how long have the 2TBs been powered on for? It sounds like you are currently swapping out the 2TBs for others depending on what you want to watch and on which HDD it is? Do you have any projected storage numbers and what is your current and future budget? You mentioned that you have a small dedicated server? Is that another SBC or what is with that setup and how many sata ports? I'd forgo the transcoding ideas and nix buying any sort of new "Server" options. Focus on reusing what you have or going with a "Used" setup, so you can start saving that money for when 8TB or 10TB Easystores go on sale.

IMO for a true new build you'd want to price in ECC RAM, UPS, and I personally prefer a case that has hot swap access to HDDs. The Rosewill that meemo linked cant be beat for the price especially since it comes with 7 fans, but it requires extra steps to access the HDDs (internally only), which may be fine for you. There is Mediasonic (JBOD version only) that you could plug into your SBC, but that technically isnt hot swappable either, plus it is USB 3.1 to USB-C which isnt the worst but it isnt the best... I know you wanted to get away from SBCs, but if you disable transcoding there are some SBCs that use SATA to SATA connections that are very viable. Any SBC or standalone storage that uses USB is a potential risk, since USB can suffer connection issues when doing rebuilding, parity, and scrubbing maintenance (same if your power goes out, hence a need for UPS). Helios4 is a time restricted option, since they only open up orders once or twice a year (they are currently taking orders). *I saw a post saying that since the Helios4 is a 32bit processor, so it is limited to 16TB volumes. You get 2GB ECC + 4x SATA and I believe you can use any HDD size with that (double check tho), so 4 separate 10TB volumes (4x$180sale=$720+tax), not including parity... I'm not sure how the 32bit and the 16TB volume limit effect drive pooling... I gotta research more into that. I'm not familiar with the UnRaid, FreeNAS, or the other options that you mentioned, but OpenMediaVault4 has MergerFS drive pooling and Snapraid plugin, you could run 3x storage HDD and 1x parity or you could forgo parity for now. If you prefer Windows (You can also run omv4 on windows in a VM) there is Stablebit Drivepool (Not free) for pooling and then Snapraid (not completely novice friendly) for parity. Depending on the HDD type you could reuse the discarded Easystore enclosures and put your 2TB drives in there (still USB connection). If they are a different brand (non WD/HGST) I think you have to desolder something on the Easystore board? I lost the link on how to do that. You could also just keep the 2TB as cold storage backups, but that still carries a risk, but it's cheaper. You could also get 2nd Helios, but for about the same price you could use that money on a 10TB. That would replace 5x of your 2TB drives... Not too mention the extra electricity to power and cool 5x drives vs 1x drive... As you can see, storage density starts coming into play here, big time.
UPS https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00429N18S/
Mediasonic https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YQHWYW/
Helios4 https://shop.kobol.io/collections/frontpage/products/helios4-full-kit-2gb-ecc-3rd-batch-pre-order?variant=18881501528137
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/as17od/helios4_batch_3_available_for_preorder/

There are other SATA SBCs that you could use and you could also do a janky setup and put the SATA SBCs inside a hot swappable case like this Silverstone one. There are other cases, but this is the only name that came to mind. This case also doesnt have any power supply or fans to cool the HDDs so there will be extra cost there, plus you'll need a power supply, PLUS a way to turn on your power supply (with a power board), since that SBC setup wont have a motherboard. You can also make your own "Dumb" JBOD HDD enclosure and connect that to your mini server. Another option to SBCs is the ASRock cpu+mobo line: J3455-ITX, J4105-ITX, annd J5005-ITX. The issue with this that it appears you are still limited to 4x SATA or other variations of these boards have a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot at x1 or x2 transfer lanes/speed instead of x8 or x16... Also you have to factor in the price of ram and a mini PICO power supply. There is a subreddit+website that focuses on used parts for cheap server setups, but you might want to verify the power consumption of those setups when they are idling. With the NAS killer option, you gotta make sure all of the parts are still available on ebay or refurb sites, plus make sure you have time to build your setup to verify everything is working plus stress test it before the return window closes to weed out any weak used parts.
Silverstone https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI/
HDD enclosure option https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-5-25-Inch-3-5-Inch-Hot-swap-SATAIII/dp/B00DGZ42SM/
Power Board https://www.amazon.com/Super-Micro-Computer-Supermicro-Cse-ptjbod-cb2/dp/B008FQZHZE
J3455-ITX https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-157-728
https://www.serverbuilds.net/nas-killer-v30/

Another option if you really want transcoding and a more powerful "Server" would be a Dell Optiplex 7010, which are used business computers that are "Refurbished", but I think they just take them from that company and wipe the hard drive, nothing else. The Minitower Desktop version is roomier than the slightly cheaper SFF (SmallFormFactor) version, which might be important if you want to swap out the power supply, watch the youtube video to get an idea of what you are getting into. Since a cheap power supply is a weak point plus a potential hazard I'd recommend swapping in a new power supply, but you could risk it with its current power supply. Everything else should last for a good while. You'll also need to install a HBA card. You can get Genuine used cards that were in good working order or you could get a new knock off from China. Both options are viable, but personally I prefer the used option. Theartofserver, ebay seller, also has a youtube channel, so I purchased from him, but I have also purchased from other sellers and got good working parts (I think Ebay still has the most honest and accurate rating system out there?). Since the Optiplex doesnt have room for internal HDDs then you are left with a few options with various HBA cards (internal vs external), expander cards, and adapter setups (SFF-8087 to SFF-8088). If you want it to look "Proper" there will be a lot of wasted money on 2x adapters (1x Optiplex + 1x external HDD enclosure) and an extra SFF-8088 cable between the two. I'd just go janky with it and get a longer reverse breakout cable of 3.3feet (4x SATA to 1x SFF-8087), which should be long enough to go from your external HDDs setup into the Optiplex case and internally connected to the HBA card, like the popular 9201-8i. The janky part being that you'll have the reverse breakout cable snaking directly into each case, instead of plugging into an adapter in the back.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K0GNUOG/
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-Breakout-SFF-8087/dp/B018YHS9GM
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LSI-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9201-8i-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162958581156
Single adapter https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133055
Double adapter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GPD9QEQ/
SFF-8080 cable https://www.amazon.com/Norco-Technologies-C-SFF8088-External-SFF-8088/dp/B003J9CZCK/

Are you looking for rackmount? You aren't likely to find anything with 120-140mm fan support. Most rackmounts have tiny, but loud fast spinning fans.

It's not supermicro, or rackmount, but something like this might work well. Can hold 8 x 3.5 drives, and also has space for 4x 2.5" drives inside. The only thing it doesn't have is ATX PSU support. It needs a SFX power supply.

Silverstone DS380

If you need Rackmount, maybe take a look at some Norco cass. This 4U Norco case might fit the bill. You'd just need to get some adaptors to put in the 2.5" drives.

There are a few. I actually have the [Norco ITX-S4] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J353KH8/) that I use for my NAS and is around the same size as the U-NAS. There's also the Silverstone DS380B, Chenbro SR30169 and Supermicro CSE-721TQ-250B that are slightly larger.

Extreme overkill here... You need nothing more than a new generation Atom proc. No fan noise and no major power consumption. Heres my build i posted for another person. And It handles transcoding multiple streams at once without breaking a sweat.

I have what will be perfect for you.. And it runs at 45-50 Watts. Easily runs 3 streams+ . Any low wattage Powersupply will work. I am using an ITX-case with 8 Hot-swap bays with backplane included. I am running FreeNAS as the OS, and also using a IBM Megaraid 1015 flashed to ITmode but it isnt necessarily needed. Case also has internal storage slots. On the FreeNAS os I am using Plex in a jail, transmission as the bittorrent client, in a jail with VPN, and couchpotato and sickrage for media search and management. Love this setup. and once again, 45w power consumption. Thats less than your average lightbulb

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F0YROSC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00

32GB of this.
Kingston Technology ValueRAM 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L PC3-12800 ECC CL11 1.35V SODIMM http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CUYOGRM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

SilverStone Technology Premium Mini-ITX / DTX Small Form Factor NAS Computer Case http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IAELTAI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s01

SilverStone DS380 is pretty compact, decent quality.

Dynamic disks have gotten a lot better, haha. If you are going with the case you own, There are some internal enclosures that can hold 5 3.25 in drives per 5 in bay. Like this. With the benefit of being hot swappable. If you don't care wether or not things are hot swappable, you can go cheaper and get better air flow.

You can also get a box case like this which has the bays built in and just fit it with a good motherboard, processor, maybe an HBA and maybe a NIC. Honestly, with current parts, you should be able to saturate 1 gigabit drop. Since we are dealing with pictures and videos, I'm thinking you'll be reading and writing sequentially for the most part which maximizes your read/write speeds.

Take a quick look at this before you buy your drives, that way you have the option to balance price with storage. 10TB drives usually cost more than what you get, especially since the 12TB drives are cheaper per gig right now. If you don't want to pay that much for a drive, you can go with one of the cheaper 8TB or shuck for an even lower price with a bit more effort on your part.

As for pre-built appliances, you can go with something like this or this both can saturate your network and give you the storage you desire.

Edit: My first gold, thank you!!

Very cool. Another idea is to use this case. Add hot-swappableness.
http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Tek-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Seems like that octa-core 20W cpu will handle all I need. And with ram upgrading capability like this, virtual machines are a breeze. Appreciate showing me that mobo/cpu.

Here is the desktop version of your link

How about mini-itx instead?

http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Tek-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418141421&sr=8-1&keywords=Silverstone+Tek+Premium+Mini-ITX+DTX+Small+Form+Factor+NAS+Computer+Cases%2C+Black+%28DS380B%29

• no need for the thermal paste, the cooler will come with it pre-applied
  
• Why 6000 series? That's a 3 year old CPU at this point. The i3-8100 is practically the same price and has twice as many cores?
  
• You're not using 1 expansion lot, but bought a full size ATX board, while say you want it to be small... Why? Look into mATX or ITX instead. Seems like it'd fit your use case better.
  
• I can't find any professional reviews for the 300W version of that PSU, and generally speaking, no one is making a PSU worth a damn under 450-500W right now. While you don't need the extra power, I'd recommend upgrading to a unit that's actually been reviewed, tested, and shown to be reliable. SeaSonic Focus and Focus Plus are good choices.
  
• That wifi adapter only supports N speeds, I'd recommend getting a newer AC network adapter if you have to use wireless. Gigabyte and Asus both make affordable WiFi options that support AC standards, have bluetooth as well, and come with relocatable antennas.
  
• For case, if you want something small with a lot of HDD expansion the SilverStone DS380 is pretty solid. Not very flashy, but solid. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI
  
• OS really depends on everything you want to do. FreeNAS is a pretty popular choice these days for home file servers and is fairly user friendly for what most people need to do. Windows Server is nice if you want to run a domain network at home for some reason. UnRAID has some really nice virtualization and expansion options.
  
• UPS is a good idea for something you want on and stable all the time. I recommend looking into the Cyber Power PFC Sinewave lineup. Some of the best UPSes on the consumer market right now, and they have a few sizes depending on how much you want to plug into it, and how long you want it to run. If you do get a UPS, remember they need regular maintenance. Most people forget this. You'll need to replace the batteries inside it every 3-5 years.
  

A few manufacturers make cases kind of like it but nothing as nice/complete. They are also generally very expensive since demand for them is seemingly low.

Silver stone makes a few, like https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI

Chenbro used to make NAS cases, not sure if they do any longer. Nice, but expensive.

u-nas has some nice cases too

I think Sans digital has a 4 bay ITX case too.

Here:

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI/ref=pd_cp_147_3?pd_rd_w=m2btz&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=9MGHG1DYF2GDKZFYH6RW&pd_rd_r=9e7c53ea-6f47-11e9-9381-ffdfe42e5ee6&pd_rd_wg=75dXv&pd_rd_i=B00IAELTAI&psc=1&refRID=9MGHG1DYF2GDKZFYH6RW

alot of depends on available $$ for the project, and design goals.
how much do you want to spend?
how much free RU space in the rack do you have
how wife-agro does it need to be/avoid?
heat/noise considerations.

example 1. this plus a mini itx board build. small lower power, quiet, reasonably modifiable.
example 2. i went this route netapp ds4243 disk shelf hooked up to a 2u supermicro machine. gives me 36 drive slots. pretty much the other way around, big, more power, uses 6U. after boot, its not very loud, a gentle hum. the disk shelf i got off ebay for around $100, plus another $50 i think for the drive caddies. there are 2U models from just about every major vendor like dell, hp, lenovo.

example 3. something in-between. a mid-tower case, 8+ internal drive spots, plus maybe 3 5.25 inch external slots that can be converted to 5 3.5 inch drive bays. any choice of cpu/mobo driven by price/power considerations.

i would shy away from the dl360 G5. its way old.
spare 1u chassis, just the case, or a whole server? if just the case, could build that out with a mini itx type board or some x9 based supermicro board, throw in a decent lsi card and roll.

I was choosing the 'L' CPUs not really for power consumption but rather for cooling needed as I would expect to be able to run with less noisy fans with those. Does that make sense or heat generated wouldn't change for the use cases mentioned above (prob CPU not running very high load).
What other cases do you have mind that would fit a nice little NAS? I looked as well at this SilverStone Mini-ITXcase or this Fractal Node 304

Based on the comments on this thread, looking into a e5 whitebox, but definitely not the e5-2640 - expensive CPUs even 2nd hand!

The DS380 is one I've been looking at. (https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI)

I really like the Hot Swap bays, and the FreeNAS forums have stories of people who have used this case with lower powered Atom builds (C2550 or C2750). Some people say that the drives get warmer if you put higher end CPUs in place, but they mitigated that by adding cardboard to direct airflow.

Sure, but it's two years old...
Intel G3220-dual core on a ASUS H871-PLUS MoBo (with 16GB DDR3) in a SilverStone Tek Premium Mini-ITX and eight 2TB WD NAS drives.


Running FreeNAS.

Amazon (US) has them listed for $150.

Have you considered a Silverstone DS380? It will have 8 hot swap bays (guess if you want to add a raid card later that would be nice)

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_147_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CPRPV46XDXEYQVKG34V3

Silverstone and a few others make some very nice SFX power supplies (which that chassis will require).

There's also this one I've saw on server forums...

https://www.amazon.com/Will-Jaya-NAS-Enclosure-Expansion/dp/B01HE4G9YU/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=unas&qid=1564982817&s=electronics&sr=1-4

It's just a knockoff off the U-Nas NSC-410.

This little guy is pricey and gets great reviews. I’ve always wanted to get one. Just waiting for my readynas to die.

This is not an affiliate link.

SilverStone Technology Premium Mini-ITX/DTX Small Form Factor NAS Computer Case, Black (DS380B) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_EqGwDbW0J6SYK

Norco ITX-S4 - https://www.amazon.com/Norco-ITX-S4-Mini-ITX-Computer-Storage/dp/B00J353KH8/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1518033985&sr=8-7&keywords=nas+case

SilverStone Technology Premium 8-bay - https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Premium-Chassis-CS280B/dp/B01LQZI9J6/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1518034060&sr=8-11&keywords=nas+case

SilverStone Technology Premium Mini-ITX / DTX - https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Premium-Chassis-CS280B/dp/B00IAELTAI/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1518034060&sr=8-11&keywords=nas%2Bcase&th=1