i have no words for how happy i am to see optical disc drive(s) along side a plentiful amount of 3.5" bays, this is literally my perfect nas case and my next computer is going inside it.
I built my NAS with this case a few months ago and I faced the same issues I want people to know if they buy this case. I thought I was going to get away with 50-60% speed on the stock disk fans and I was so happy the NAS was so quiet at first, but the SAS drives quickly raised to the 60s degrees. After playing with the fans speeds I was still unsatisfied with 50+ degrees on full speed. plus the noise. Looking at the specs I'm certain they lie on these fan specs. I bought two Noctua NF-A9 PWM because thicker = more static pressure (yes they fit with no issues) and even at full speed it's so much quieter and cooler (45 degree max temp on hottest disk under load). I also isolated (with tape) the whole disk cage to force the fans to get air from the front and not recycle air from the case. Other than that I'm happy with this case. TLDR for everyone that is considering this case: - Get 2x Noctua NF-A9 PWM if you want quieter - Isolate the disk cage to force airflow through the disks with fresh air from the front - If your PSU has the turn off fan feature (my case I used seasonic focus), set the fan as always on to help circulate air on that zone!
Silverstone stock fans are never great. Replacing them is recommended. They are absolutely killing it with their cases this year, though. If I didn't already have a NAS setup built I'd get one of these cases immediately.
That case has some odd idiosyncracies, but it has worked really well for me, but the entire configuration reminded me SO MUCH of the old Dell BTX form factor. Right now I am using it as a dual purpose storage server/gaming PC. Because I live in a tiny house. Wish I could find an LTO-6+ drive for it that didn't cost a mortgage, but that icy dock system has potential! The AM5 board arrangement you mentioned with the GPU hanging off the edge is exactly how I did it. I have an A770 in the top(bottom) x16, and an LSI-9207-8i in the clear bottom(Top)
I've got the CS380 for my home server, it's a great case. I used one of the 5.25" bays to add in a 4x2.5" hot swap sled so now I can have up to 12 drives total. Main flaw with it for the intended use-case is the airflow/cooling not being that great, but you can work around that with the included fan mounts etc.
I just finished my homelab build using the CS382. The case is fantastic overall, you have to use what the case can do to make your life easier. Like pulling out the drive-cage when installing the motherboard etc. The drive bay fans are connected to the "backplane" and have no speed control and run full speed and full noise all the time. I've connected them to the motherboard for PWM control. Running a bit on the more "Pedestrian" side with mine. AMD 5600G on a B550M board, 128GB memory, LSI SAS HBA, 6x 16TB drives, 2x 2TB NVME and 2x 2TB SATA on Unraid. In the future i would love to upgrade the motherboard to something more "enterprise", but that wasn't i the budget just yet. Overall I'm extremely happy with the case, very happy i preordered it and waited for months for it to be delivered (I ordered mine in January). Would I build another homelab server in it? YES. 100%
Makes me nostalgic; almost everything I’ve tested in the past few years used in a single system. Would love an “open” version of this case without the eight default front 3.5” drive bays but with the opportunity to fill the entire front with your own individual 5.25” bay parts.
Yes and no. Parts especially for PCIe Gen4 (and higher) NVMe SSDs have to be built with quite tight tolerances (PCIe Gen3 is less demanding), but Icy Dock also uses its monopoly on the DIY market regarding these kind of niche accessories to demand pretty steep sticker prices.
@@abavariannormiepleb9470 "...uses its monopoly on the DIY market regarding these kind of niche accessories to demand pretty steep sticker prices" Aka, supply & demand lol. Lets get some other options out there so we can increase the supply to meet the demand.
Yeah, they really need some competition in the market. I managed to pick up two of the IcyDock 5.25" bays for x8 SSDs on eBay and even though I got the bays essentially half price it was still painful.
They're such a rip-off it should be a crime. In fact, SilverStone makes a lot the same stuff for a bit less, and with metal instead of plastic, but that makes their affiliate links not worth as much. Which is why you'll never see these "influencers" endorse the lower price stuff. Oh yes, we all know why.
After watching this video, I am buying one of these cases. It looks so awesome. That's a really usable case format, and I could easily see how it's layout is better than my old Fractal cases.
Yeah, I used to buy some of the initial Icy Dock stuff, but it's gotten TOO EXPENSIVE, and it is out of my price point now. Seriously, I'll just turn off my system, and swap stuff manually to save the money. No more than I would do it, it doesn't make the Icy Dock stuff any more affordable by trying to think of a way to justify the high prices.
As an owner of this cases predecessor, this looks good. The drive bay cooling is definitely an improvement as the CS380 had them on the side with the same narrow cutouts the CS382 has, which is not the best cooling performance. Inverting the layout makes room for a big GPU, and keeps the cable management from draping too many cables across the motherboard. One tip I would suggest for anyone getting this case is to label the drive trays with the serial # of the drive you're putting in it. If you have a failure, and don't recall which sled which drive is in, you cannot see that with the drives in the trays.
Look at Silverstone, putting both a proper 5.25" bay AND a slimline optical drive slot in with all those other things. It's really very impressive. I do wonder what it would take for them to make a solid state version, lets say all those hot swap bays changed to 14mm thick SSD slots and more of them in the same basic case frame
Great video! But how did you manage to get the system idle at around 20 watts? What I read im the forums for the 7900 is about 40 watts idle and at least 22 watts package power. That is one of the main reasons I considered an older am4 system with 5650G instead of an AM5 system. Maybe I have to rethink that
Silverstone is the GOAT for compact server chassis. I have an RM41 with a pair of the 3x5.25 into 5x3.5 tool/sled free cages. This plus a slim optical drive slot and an additional 5 internal drive bays means i have a 7950X(set to 45w) server with 10 hot swap drives, 4x optane 905P, and high speed networking inside of a shallow depth fully enclosed audio rack(glass doors) To get a chassis that can hold 10 hot swap drives along with 5 interal drives in a 430mm*450mm package (almost exactly 19x19 inch) just blew my mind, i thought i would have to scrap this free audio rack. I'm just upset this is the screw type posts rather than square for rack nuts/other methods. My other server has 18 SSDs using 2 different ICY-Dock adapters, one external 3.5 into 2x2.5, and another 2x5.25 into 16x2.5, this is technically my backup server but its also my portable server i use to make large syncs to my offsite as its in an old apevia X-QPACK2 case, wish there was something similar a bit more modern, and a bit better built, that will still fit an mATX with a full height SAS HBA, and 2x5.25 stacked on top of each other, with a nice carry handle.
I have this thing, it's GREAT! I did have one of the two backplane boards fizzle out catastrophically, but you should never hold a QA issue against a manufacturer when it's an n of one unless they do the customer service horribly. I haven't tried to RMA this thing yet, but will report back if I have any troubles. SilverStone is usually pretty good though. Take out the five screws to remove that drive cage for initial setup for a FAR easier time installing the motherboard.Trust me on that! I wish I could remove the PSU shroud too actually, but that's because I put a crazy sized Peerless Assassin cooler on the CPU. I figured it might help with the drives a little to have the extra fans helping pull air out. I mean it doesn't hurt, but it doesn't help a ton. The GPU I would use in this thing is probably an Arc 300-series because I'm using the thing for media transcoding. It's not what's in there right now, but that's a planned upgrade. One last thing I did … I didn't want to have to go digging for the screws to mount anything in this machine. I took a little plastic snap box and glued some fridge magnet to the bottom and stuck it to the side of the power supply. I didn't need that space for cable management, I didn't have anything to mount there, and it didn't interfere with cooling … it was just the right size to put the extra screws inside the case.
Yeah, I have some of their initial stuff, but it's gotten too high and out of my price point now. I used to love them and suggest them to others, not anymore.
I bought two CS380 - basically the predesessor of this case for Nas builds. Complete Garbage: The drives run super hot within minutes since the cooling is far from being sufficient. Even diy fixes from the net and additional Nuctua fans did improve this very much. The new case does not look so much different regarding the drive cooling. 8 * 16+TB HDs runing a parity check will toast the whole thing.
Case looks so cool. Appreciate that it has some quirks but that they are all easily overcome. I wonder what the perfect mobo would be though. The one you demonstrated is probably close but I wonder if anything has a more optimal pcie layout. Also for 8x3.5” bays what are we thinking? 8 wide raid-z2?
I have 2 10 year old CLC's from Corsair still going, both in servers!!! I have a v1 H110, There first dual 140 CLC I believe, on and old x99 system with a 2697v3 18c for a long time now as my survanlance pc, and an OG v1 H70, single 120, but with the BA SP fans in push/pull, that do 2700rpm and the rad is the 60mm thick one on that. Actaully have it on my plex/meadia server, and has no problem cooling a 10850K. These have been run 24/7 there whole life. As long as I can keep getting brackets for never sockets, i'll keep using them. Thanks corsair.
I'd like to see you add 25 gig or 40 gig networking to a system like this. I'm thinking of repurposing an older 5600g into an NVME SSD NAS and would like to add 25gig networking to it since that is the max I could do off a pcie3x4 connection.
25 or 40 Gbit works well in combination with Zen 3 cores. These adapters profit from advances in single-core CPU performance. Have been using Intel XL710 T2 dual 40 Gbit NICs since 2018 (at first with a Skylake client and Broadwell-EP server) and moving through Zen+, Zen 2, Zen 3 and Zen 4 made the actually usable transfer speeds faster and faster. Using more modern ethernet adapters that have hardware acceleration like RDMA in a home environment is a bit tricky since when using Windows Microsoft arbitrarily blocks this feature and it only works if the SMB Share Server is running either Windows Server or the Windows “For Workstations” add-on you can get in the Microsoft Store. The connected clients using the SMB shares can be regular Windows Pro or Enterprise variants.
6:35 I've been fond of downdraft coolers like the noctua L9x65 or even better the C14S to get some cooling on the VRM and RAM without needing a massive ammount of case flow, and they often dont interfere no matter the orientation. unless you're ITX
Ya I learned in the instruction manual that the drive bay structure must be slid out somehow to fit some motherboard and then slid back in after install.
This is so interesting now that I have attempted to build a NAS. Mine only has 6 mechanical HDD, but there is a 5 1/4 bay, and plenty of space on the inside for upgrading in the future. I just got a relatively old 6 bay Antec case. Most of the stuff I'm using I'm trying to do with second hand stuff as its cheaper. But stuff like this is really interesting now that I'm getting more hands on. When Wendell says pretty nice its less of a 'oh yeah that'd be nice' and more of a 'yeah that fixes that 1 issue i was having' XD
Ive recently been designing my own 3d printed cases for a home NAS, and looking at this it has like exactly the same layout i came to the conclusion for for micro atx. Pretty cool, that price is really high for this it feels. Guess they are chasing that margin for business customers and don't want to compete with the other boys.
Icy Dock's stuff is really cool but after ppl on TH-cam started talking about them, their prices seemed to go up quite a bit. If money wasn't a concern, of course I'd go with Icy Dock.
I wanna see you do fileserver using m.2 drives on expansion cards, they're probably going to be the easiest to get going forward, and more reliable than consumer hdds these days imo. My next fileserver is probably going to be setup like that.
I am hoping I am as excited at the end of this video. I have been searching the last 3 or 4 days to build my own NAS/SAN. I can't find anything with these features not in a rack mount.
12:43 Keep in mind that we should eventually see 128GB UDIMM sticks(both ECC and non) for DDR5 for up to 256GB in 1DPC configuration for AM5, I'm going to be waiting for these to come out before i buy the 96GB sticks. I feel wrong having my main 7950X server with 4x16GB non ECC but my portable backup server with 4560GE has 4x32GB ECC, and that 3200MT/s ECC was cheaper than that 64GB of DDR5(when built around the time of AM4 launch)
I have a cooler master n300. with a 5.25 to 3.5 converter i can fit 12 3,5 drives in it, in a standard atx case size. one drawback, no hot swap, you have to remove from the inside. my upgrade will be an innovision S46524 Series with a used epyc modo from ebay.
Putting the external bays inside the case is not something I've thought of, pretty good compromise. Using that 4-bay U.2 seems pretty salty on that AM5 platform though - WTB more PCIe Lanes, PST! Wendell if you didn't catch it NASCompares covered a JONSBO N5 which looks more attractive to me. Really interested what your thoughts are on that. I need to update my blog on your forums still, but I went with 3 x 8-bay SATA backplanes from Athena power - $65 each versus the absolutely insulting prices Icy Dock is stabbing people with. I'd like to see just how many thousands of dollars you just flashed at us during this video. Their NVMe enclosures in particular are saltier than the Pacific.
"Putting the external bays inside the case is not something I've thought of, pretty good compromise" Are you actually insane? Those bays are WAAAAYYYY overpriced. There are plenty of add-in sleds, trays, and other gadgets which would accomplish the exact same thing for a comparatively tiny fraction of the cost. What are you even thinking? BTW... If you're going to just throw it away, I'll take some of that extra money you seem to have too much of. I'll send a hauler right over, just tell me where.
@@TheChadXperience909 If you read the entirety of my original post, I did mention how crazy ID products are priced. The compromise I was referring to was you're essentially turning a normally external bay into an internal backplane. I personally wouldn't use it in this configuration, but I thought it was at least novel.
Check.out the cmmv 8845 board. Has 4 network ports 2 sata 4x2, 2 minisas and one sata port. Itx form factor. I'm seriously considering it and connecting it to a supermicro sas expander backplane for 24 drives. Mounting it with my switch in a 9u wall mount network chasis
This case is crazy good but man 250€.... Im gonna stay for my free out of the landfill fractal R4 for a while I guess, or a Jonsbo N4 which is a lot of compromises
maybe because the case already had enough 3.5 hdd space, but would've been nice to see if icy dock had something that converted the 5.25 or the bottom slot to another 3.5. went on their site f or a dell 5.25, but wasn't the easiest to navigate or they just didn't have what i needed.
Im building a replacement for my home server on the AM5 platform. I'd like to see something about good and reasonable motherboards for this, both mATX and ATX. I have an NIC, so the built-in ports are dead-weight.
Would the Icy Dock MB852M2PO-B fit in the slim optical bay to give you 2 x hotswap M.2 bays? It's about 30mm longer than standard slim driive, and how to secure it?
About Epyc 4004 - I don't see BIOSes for regular boards to support epyc 4004. Its a first time as I remember when AMD making something strange like Intel - separating support of "desktop" xeons
What's happening with multi mode U.3 bays? The ones that allow you to have any SATA, SAS or U.2/U.3 drive with a single connector? Is that dead in the water for the CXL based SSDs?
Amen. Yeah, I used to buy some of the initial Icy Dock stuff, but it's gotten TOO EXPENSIVE, and it is out of my price point now. Seriously, I'll just turn off my system, and swap stuff manually to save the money. No more than I would do it, it doesn't make the Icy Dock stuff any more affordable by trying to think of a way to justify the high prices.
Love the idea of Icy-Dock products but never actually went as far as purchasing a single one. Reason - with a few minor exceptions, they are not offering the entire solution. They offer a dock, but you are on your own on how you are going to connect it. I would feel much better if I could buy the dock, the PCIe card, and the cable, from the same vendor, all qualified to work together.
Yeah, I used to buy some of the initial Icy Dock stuff, but it's gotten TOO EXPENSIVE, and it is out of my price point now. Seriously, I'll just turn off my system, and swap stuff manually to save the money. No more than I would do it, it doesn't make the Icy Dock stuff any more affordable by trying to think of a way to justify the high prices.
Hi @Level1Techs (And Everyone Else :) ) I really like this case, it seems to fit my wishlist perfectly :) I only have one question i would like answered, if possible : I would like to put a 5 1/4in LTO tape drive for backing up the server in the 5 1/4in slot. What NAS OS could i use that would allow me to have an LTO drive as a backup device ? I currently use Xpenology, with 7x 4TB drives. (+1 Hot SPare), but am looking to change to a new mATX case (more expansion slots than ITX) with larger drives. Any OS help would be much appreciated :) Love the your videos, very helpful, and insightful, and to the point ;)
I've been very interested in this case for a low-power storage+virt server (unraid/truenas/proxmox )since it came out, but I'm a bit skeptical regarding build quality (eg plastic drive trays), noise and air flow, especially at the drive backplane. But there are almost zero alternatives in this size, with hot-swap and black interior finishing.
When you put the disk bay into a cd drive bay do the drives get adequate airflow? I'd be a bit worried given how hot some server ssds can get. I used to have my ssds hidden at the back behind motherboard in my tower case and once i saw them hitting 70C under load i immediately moved them to the front so they get airflow from fans.
I just built a Plex server and blu ray ripper in a Silverstone fara 313. Managed to get 5 3.5 and the 2 optical drives in it. This case would have been a lot easier.
If love to see a similar case but full tower and not from Silverstone cause they're hard to find in many markets and when you can, they're overly expensive - just like the icy dock
So cpu and case are ready for massive home storage but the storage itself isn't I bought those 20tb exos drives but I know they won't age well and no one has made a similar storage sata ssds which age gracefully and die with end user having a lot of headroom for replacement.
i just wish it was easier to stuff a ton of u.2's in a plain old home system. and it really isn't. icydocks got the capability to do it from the drive side, but getting all the pcie lanes to do it.. not so much. and that sucks.
at 16" high, this thing is just begging for a rail kit and some rack ears. Homelab needs more desktop / rack cases. Even without that, we could put on a shelf in a rack. it'd take up 5U, but....
Question was a brain fart (Are there fan-mounting options for the eight front 3.5” HDD bays? Installing 7.200 RPM drives in there will get quite toasty if the one 120 mm fan in the back of the case is the only way of moving air through them. And 7.200 RPM enterprise drives like the Seagate Exos models are commonly a great deal regarding price per capacity and performance.)
No idea how I missed it. Maybe the CS382 melted together with the CS381 in my memory, the CS381 doesn’t have any front HDD bay fans. Then it’s great that SilverStone improved that design.
May be there is some "cheap hack" for home user to connect 8 pcie4 m.2 to x16 pcie5 slot? Building low noise low consumption nas - for now its am5 with 4 bifurcated drives + 2 mobo slots
How well do those M.2 => SATA adapters work? I've read that they have problems when you're trying to write to multiple drives at the same time, like in ZFS. Curious if anyone has experience with them.
i have no words for how happy i am to see optical disc drive(s) along side a plentiful amount of 3.5" bays, this is literally my perfect nas case and my next computer is going inside it.
obligatory "literally"
I built my NAS with this case a few months ago and I faced the same issues I want people to know if they buy this case. I thought I was going to get away with 50-60% speed on the stock disk fans and I was so happy the NAS was so quiet at first, but the SAS drives quickly raised to the 60s degrees. After playing with the fans speeds I was still unsatisfied with 50+ degrees on full speed. plus the noise. Looking at the specs I'm certain they lie on these fan specs. I bought two Noctua NF-A9 PWM because thicker = more static pressure (yes they fit with no issues) and even at full speed it's so much quieter and cooler (45 degree max temp on hottest disk under load). I also isolated (with tape) the whole disk cage to force the fans to get air from the front and not recycle air from the case.
Other than that I'm happy with this case.
TLDR for everyone that is considering this case:
- Get 2x Noctua NF-A9 PWM if you want quieter
- Isolate the disk cage to force airflow through the disks with fresh air from the front
- If your PSU has the turn off fan feature (my case I used seasonic focus), set the fan as always on to help circulate air on that zone!
Silverstone stock fans are never great. Replacing them is recommended. They are absolutely killing it with their cases this year, though. If I didn't already have a NAS setup built I'd get one of these cases immediately.
I found that those stock bay fans have a BRUTAL whine at high RPMs. Thanks for posting the replacement that you found. I may need to look into those.
That case has some odd idiosyncracies, but it has worked really well for me, but the entire configuration reminded me SO MUCH of the old Dell BTX form factor. Right now I am using it as a dual purpose storage server/gaming PC. Because I live in a tiny house. Wish I could find an LTO-6+ drive for it that didn't cost a mortgage, but that icy dock system has potential!
The AM5 board arrangement you mentioned with the GPU hanging off the edge is exactly how I did it. I have an A770 in the top(bottom) x16, and an LSI-9207-8i in the clear bottom(Top)
I've got the CS380 for my home server, it's a great case. I used one of the 5.25" bays to add in a 4x2.5" hot swap sled so now I can have up to 12 drives total.
Main flaw with it for the intended use-case is the airflow/cooling not being that great, but you can work around that with the included fan mounts etc.
I just finished my homelab build using the CS382. The case is fantastic overall, you have to use what the case can do to make your life easier. Like pulling out the drive-cage when installing the motherboard etc. The drive bay fans are connected to the "backplane" and have no speed control and run full speed and full noise all the time. I've connected them to the motherboard for PWM control. Running a bit on the more "Pedestrian" side with mine. AMD 5600G on a B550M board, 128GB memory, LSI SAS HBA, 6x 16TB drives, 2x 2TB NVME and 2x 2TB SATA on Unraid.
In the future i would love to upgrade the motherboard to something more "enterprise", but that wasn't i the budget just yet.
Overall I'm extremely happy with the case, very happy i preordered it and waited for months for it to be delivered (I ordered mine in January). Would I build another homelab server in it? YES. 100%
How much storage do you need in your home lab server? Yes.
More.
This is the correct answer.
Makes me nostalgic; almost everything I’ve tested in the past few years used in a single system.
Would love an “open” version of this case without the eight default front 3.5” drive bays but with the opportunity to fill the entire front with your own individual 5.25” bay parts.
ICY DOCK is SO expensive..
Yes and no. Parts especially for PCIe Gen4 (and higher) NVMe SSDs have to be built with quite tight tolerances (PCIe Gen3 is less demanding), but Icy Dock also uses its monopoly on the DIY market regarding these kind of niche accessories to demand pretty steep sticker prices.
@@abavariannormiepleb9470 "...uses its monopoly on the DIY market regarding these kind of niche accessories to demand pretty steep sticker prices"
Aka, supply & demand lol. Lets get some other options out there so we can increase the supply to meet the demand.
Regardless of why it's so expensive. No thank you. Would rather do without than pay those prices.
Yeah, they really need some competition in the market. I managed to pick up two of the IcyDock 5.25" bays for x8 SSDs on eBay and even though I got the bays essentially half price it was still painful.
They're such a rip-off it should be a crime. In fact, SilverStone makes a lot the same stuff for a bit less, and with metal instead of plastic, but that makes their affiliate links not worth as much. Which is why you'll never see these "influencers" endorse the lower price stuff. Oh yes, we all know why.
After watching this video, I am buying one of these cases. It looks so awesome. That's a really usable case format, and I could easily see how it's layout is better than my old Fractal cases.
I love "perfect home server" content!
There just aren't many options out there for cases, and standard form factor motherboards that support ECC.
I would like to see builds with this case. low power and high performance, since it can support both.
I will go along with that request
This case is amazing, genuinely has me thinking about getting in to the home nas/server setup properly
These Icy dock bays are nice BUT way too expensive for what it is.
Yeah, I used to buy some of the initial Icy Dock stuff, but it's gotten TOO EXPENSIVE, and it is out of my price point now. Seriously, I'll just turn off my system, and swap stuff manually to save the money. No more than I would do it, it doesn't make the Icy Dock stuff any more affordable by trying to think of a way to justify the high prices.
As an owner of this cases predecessor, this looks good.
The drive bay cooling is definitely an improvement as the CS380 had them on the side with the same narrow cutouts the CS382 has, which is not the best cooling performance.
Inverting the layout makes room for a big GPU, and keeps the cable management from draping too many cables across the motherboard.
One tip I would suggest for anyone getting this case is to label the drive trays with the serial # of the drive you're putting in it.
If you have a failure, and don't recall which sled which drive is in, you cannot see that with the drives in the trays.
I've been looking to build out a new home server; definitely going to be looking into this and would love to see some finished builds in it.
The optical drive bay could also be used with a SATA caddy for another 2.5" drive. This case has basically all the options. Top work, Silverstone.
Look at Silverstone, putting both a proper 5.25" bay AND a slimline optical drive slot in with all those other things. It's really very impressive. I do wonder what it would take for them to make a solid state version, lets say all those hot swap bays changed to 14mm thick SSD slots and more of them in the same basic case frame
Great video! But how did you manage to get the system idle at around 20 watts? What I read im the forums for the 7900 is about 40 watts idle and at least 22 watts package power. That is one of the main reasons I considered an older am4 system with 5650G instead of an AM5 system. Maybe I have to rethink that
Silverstone is the GOAT for compact server chassis. I have an RM41 with a pair of the 3x5.25 into 5x3.5 tool/sled free cages. This plus a slim optical drive slot and an additional 5 internal drive bays means i have a 7950X(set to 45w) server with 10 hot swap drives, 4x optane 905P, and high speed networking inside of a shallow depth fully enclosed audio rack(glass doors)
To get a chassis that can hold 10 hot swap drives along with 5 interal drives in a 430mm*450mm package (almost exactly 19x19 inch) just blew my mind, i thought i would have to scrap this free audio rack.
I'm just upset this is the screw type posts rather than square for rack nuts/other methods.
My other server has 18 SSDs using 2 different ICY-Dock adapters, one external 3.5 into 2x2.5, and another 2x5.25 into 16x2.5, this is technically my backup server but its also my portable server i use to make large syncs to my offsite as its in an old apevia X-QPACK2 case, wish there was something similar a bit more modern, and a bit better built, that will still fit an mATX with a full height SAS HBA, and 2x5.25 stacked on top of each other, with a nice carry handle.
I have this thing, it's GREAT! I did have one of the two backplane boards fizzle out catastrophically, but you should never hold a QA issue against a manufacturer when it's an n of one unless they do the customer service horribly. I haven't tried to RMA this thing yet, but will report back if I have any troubles. SilverStone is usually pretty good though.
Take out the five screws to remove that drive cage for initial setup for a FAR easier time installing the motherboard.Trust me on that! I wish I could remove the PSU shroud too actually, but that's because I put a crazy sized Peerless Assassin cooler on the CPU. I figured it might help with the drives a little to have the extra fans helping pull air out. I mean it doesn't hurt, but it doesn't help a ton.
The GPU I would use in this thing is probably an Arc 300-series because I'm using the thing for media transcoding. It's not what's in there right now, but that's a planned upgrade.
One last thing I did … I didn't want to have to go digging for the screws to mount anything in this machine. I took a little plastic snap box and glued some fridge magnet to the bottom and stuck it to the side of the power supply. I didn't need that space for cable management, I didn't have anything to mount there, and it didn't interfere with cooling … it was just the right size to put the extra screws inside the case.
Nice review. Have 2 of the first Icy Dock units you mentioned for a pair of installations that work very nicely.
Yeah, I have some of their initial stuff, but it's gotten too high and out of my price point now. I used to love them and suggest them to others, not anymore.
Love your build ❤ I will build one similar for myself.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
OMG, I was about to make something like this my own. They need to make it rack mountable
I bought two CS380 - basically the predesessor of this case for Nas builds. Complete Garbage: The drives run super hot within minutes since the cooling is far from being sufficient. Even diy fixes from the net and additional Nuctua fans did improve this very much. The new case does not look so much different regarding the drive cooling. 8 * 16+TB HDs runing a parity check will toast the whole thing.
Case looks so cool. Appreciate that it has some quirks but that they are all easily overcome. I wonder what the perfect mobo would be though. The one you demonstrated is probably close but I wonder if anything has a more optimal pcie layout.
Also for 8x3.5” bays what are we thinking? 8 wide raid-z2?
That looks awesome, love Silverstone gear.
I have 2 10 year old CLC's from Corsair still going, both in servers!!! I have a v1 H110, There first dual 140 CLC I believe, on and old x99 system with a 2697v3 18c for a long time now as my survanlance pc, and an OG v1 H70, single 120, but with the BA SP fans in push/pull, that do 2700rpm and the rad is the 60mm thick one on that. Actaully have it on my plex/meadia server, and has no problem cooling a 10850K. These have been run 24/7 there whole life. As long as I can keep getting brackets for never sockets, i'll keep using them. Thanks corsair.
I'd like to see you add 25 gig or 40 gig networking to a system like this. I'm thinking of repurposing an older 5600g into an NVME SSD NAS and would like to add 25gig networking to it since that is the max I could do off a pcie3x4 connection.
25 or 40 Gbit works well in combination with Zen 3 cores. These adapters profit from advances in single-core CPU performance. Have been using Intel XL710 T2 dual 40 Gbit NICs since 2018 (at first with a Skylake client and Broadwell-EP server) and moving through Zen+, Zen 2, Zen 3 and Zen 4 made the actually usable transfer speeds faster and faster.
Using more modern ethernet adapters that have hardware acceleration like RDMA in a home environment is a bit tricky since when using Windows Microsoft arbitrarily blocks this feature and it only works if the SMB Share Server is running either Windows Server or the Windows “For Workstations” add-on you can get in the Microsoft Store. The connected clients using the SMB shares can be regular Windows Pro or Enterprise variants.
6:35 I've been fond of downdraft coolers like the noctua L9x65 or even better the C14S to get some cooling on the VRM and RAM without needing a massive ammount of case flow, and they often dont interfere no matter the orientation. unless you're ITX
IcyDock does indeed make some pretty nifty products. Got 2 of them myself in my v12n host at home.
Ya I learned in the instruction manual that the drive bay structure must be slid out somehow to fit some motherboard and then slid back in after install.
which cpu and mobo is that? 20w idle at wall is something i want to know
R9 7900 (non-x) + ASRock Rack B650D4U-2L2T/BCM
@@Evan-cu7kp thanks!! will keep in mind this combo for a future upgrade. 4 ram slots, ecc support and 10gbe is a good starting point!
Icy Dock has some slick accessories, you should do a whole video just on them. I'm really digging that case too.
This is so interesting now that I have attempted to build a NAS. Mine only has 6 mechanical HDD, but there is a 5 1/4 bay, and plenty of space on the inside for upgrading in the future.
I just got a relatively old 6 bay Antec case. Most of the stuff I'm using I'm trying to do with second hand stuff as its cheaper. But stuff like this is really interesting now that I'm getting more hands on. When Wendell says pretty nice its less of a 'oh yeah that'd be nice' and more of a 'yeah that fixes that 1 issue i was having' XD
Ive recently been designing my own 3d printed cases for a home NAS, and looking at this it has like exactly the same layout i came to the conclusion for for micro atx. Pretty cool, that price is really high for this it feels. Guess they are chasing that margin for business customers and don't want to compete with the other boys.
Icy Dock's stuff is really cool but after ppl on TH-cam started talking about them, their prices seemed to go up quite a bit. If money wasn't a concern, of course I'd go with Icy Dock.
love those kioxia drives
I wanna see you do fileserver using m.2 drives on expansion cards, they're probably going to be the easiest to get going forward, and more reliable than consumer hdds these days imo. My next fileserver is probably going to be setup like that.
These kinds of videos are great Wendell
When will you be restocking the "teaching sand to think" t shirts?
I am hoping I am as excited at the end of this video. I have been searching the last 3 or 4 days to build my own NAS/SAN. I can't find anything with these features not in a rack mount.
12:43 Keep in mind that we should eventually see 128GB UDIMM sticks(both ECC and non) for DDR5 for up to 256GB in 1DPC configuration for AM5, I'm going to be waiting for these to come out before i buy the 96GB sticks.
I feel wrong having my main 7950X server with 4x16GB non ECC but my portable backup server with 4560GE has 4x32GB ECC, and that 3200MT/s ECC was cheaper than that 64GB of DDR5(when built around the time of AM4 launch)
I have a cooler master n300. with a 5.25 to 3.5 converter i can fit 12 3,5 drives in it, in a standard atx case size. one drawback, no hot swap, you have to remove from the inside.
my upgrade will be an innovision S46524 Series with a used epyc modo from ebay.
Would not have believed this case to be sth for Wendell/L1, pleasantly surprised! :)
Yes, more of this! I still love the other stuff. 😀
Oh my gosh i need that U.2 Pcie card for my Define 7 unraid Machine 😍
Putting the external bays inside the case is not something I've thought of, pretty good compromise. Using that 4-bay U.2 seems pretty salty on that AM5 platform though - WTB more PCIe Lanes, PST! Wendell if you didn't catch it NASCompares covered a JONSBO N5 which looks more attractive to me. Really interested what your thoughts are on that. I need to update my blog on your forums still, but I went with 3 x 8-bay SATA backplanes from Athena power - $65 each versus the absolutely insulting prices Icy Dock is stabbing people with. I'd like to see just how many thousands of dollars you just flashed at us during this video. Their NVMe enclosures in particular are saltier than the Pacific.
Pretty good compromise? it's a terrible build for me.... hotswappable U2, SATA drive inside the case almost a huge nightmare...
"Putting the external bays inside the case is not something I've thought of, pretty good compromise"
Are you actually insane? Those bays are WAAAAYYYY overpriced. There are plenty of add-in sleds, trays, and other gadgets which would accomplish the exact same thing for a comparatively tiny fraction of the cost. What are you even thinking?
BTW... If you're going to just throw it away, I'll take some of that extra money you seem to have too much of. I'll send a hauler right over, just tell me where.
Also, double-sided Velcro tape is a thing.
@@TheChadXperience909 If you read the entirety of my original post, I did mention how crazy ID products are priced. The compromise I was referring to was you're essentially turning a normally external bay into an internal backplane. I personally wouldn't use it in this configuration, but I thought it was at least novel.
I totally agree. I would personally prefer triple the amount of pcie lanes. Not a fan of AMD 4004 epyc cpus.
That flexiDOCK MB024SP-B is SAWEET!
Only wished it the Hot-swap backplane used sff-8643 to reduce the amount of cable spaghetti. Most everything else is really cool for a home/lab/nas.
"Deepcool just got on the state department's naughty list *sighhh* (video hard cuts)
Yeah, me too man, me too.
Check.out the cmmv 8845 board. Has 4 network ports 2 sata 4x2, 2 minisas and one sata port. Itx form factor.
I'm seriously considering it and connecting it to a supermicro sas expander backplane for 24 drives. Mounting it with my switch in a 9u wall mount network chasis
Looks like a nice case... hope I'm wrong but from what I gather Silverstone doesn't have any suppliers in Sweden. Would love to get that case!
This with a good Erying mATX board, some breakout cards and a few IcyDock things, You could created an amazing home lab or just masterful NAS.
Was also hoping to see an actual build configuration using the front bays
This case is crazy good but man 250€.... Im gonna stay for my free out of the landfill fractal R4 for a while I guess, or a Jonsbo N4 which is a lot of compromises
maybe because the case already had enough 3.5 hdd space, but would've been nice to see if icy dock had something that converted the 5.25 or the bottom slot to another 3.5. went on their site f or a dell 5.25, but wasn't the easiest to navigate or they just didn't have what i needed.
Im building a replacement for my home server on the AM5 platform. I'd like to see something about good and reasonable motherboards for this, both mATX and ATX. I have an NIC, so the built-in ports are dead-weight.
Would the Icy Dock MB852M2PO-B fit in the slim optical bay to give you 2 x hotswap M.2 bays? It's about 30mm longer than standard slim driive, and how to secure it?
About Epyc 4004 - I don't see BIOSes for regular boards to support epyc 4004. Its a first time as I remember when AMD making something strange like Intel - separating support of "desktop" xeons
What's happening with multi mode U.3 bays? The ones that allow you to have any SATA, SAS or U.2/U.3 drive with a single connector? Is that dead in the water for the CXL based SSDs?
i love that case. it looks fun.
@2:58 Wendel says 9.5in optical drive for DVD. Are there no blu ray 9.5 optical drives?
Icydock have nice tricks but they are very expensive. It's hard to pay more for the enclosure than the disk you put inside...
Amen. Yeah, I used to buy some of the initial Icy Dock stuff, but it's gotten TOO EXPENSIVE, and it is out of my price point now. Seriously, I'll just turn off my system, and swap stuff manually to save the money. No more than I would do it, it doesn't make the Icy Dock stuff any more affordable by trying to think of a way to justify the high prices.
Question: Does the Intel 905p fit into the PCIe card U.2 bay thingy?
Love the idea of Icy-Dock products but never actually went as far as purchasing a single one. Reason - with a few minor exceptions, they are not offering the entire solution. They offer a dock, but you are on your own on how you are going to connect it. I would feel much better if I could buy the dock, the PCIe card, and the cable, from the same vendor, all qualified to work together.
I just ordered this case for a home nas, and you almost had me on the icy dock but that price....😢
Yeah, I used to buy some of the initial Icy Dock stuff, but it's gotten TOO EXPENSIVE, and it is out of my price point now. Seriously, I'll just turn off my system, and swap stuff manually to save the money. No more than I would do it, it doesn't make the Icy Dock stuff any more affordable by trying to think of a way to justify the high prices.
Icy Dock with Kioxia drives is like a fine suit, I don’t own (-8
Hi @Level1Techs (And Everyone Else :) )
I really like this case, it seems to fit my wishlist perfectly :)
I only have one question i would like answered, if possible :
I would like to put a 5 1/4in LTO tape drive for backing up the server in the 5 1/4in slot.
What NAS OS could i use that would allow me to have an LTO drive as a backup device ?
I currently use Xpenology, with 7x 4TB drives. (+1 Hot SPare), but am looking to change to a new mATX case (more expansion slots than ITX) with larger drives.
Any OS help would be much appreciated :)
Love the your videos, very helpful, and insightful, and to the point ;)
I've been very interested in this case for a low-power storage+virt server (unraid/truenas/proxmox )since it came out, but I'm a bit skeptical regarding build quality (eg plastic drive trays), noise and air flow, especially at the drive backplane. But there are almost zero alternatives in this size, with hot-swap and black interior finishing.
When you put the disk bay into a cd drive bay do the drives get adequate airflow? I'd be a bit worried given how hot some server ssds can get. I used to have my ssds hidden at the back behind motherboard in my tower case and once i saw them hitting 70C under load i immediately moved them to the front so they get airflow from fans.
It might finally be time to replace my Fractal Node 804. I just wish Icy Dock's stuff was cheaper; a lot of it is literally just metal and plastic...
Wooooooo! Homelab baby!
I just built a Plex server and blu ray ripper in a Silverstone fara 313. Managed to get 5 3.5 and the 2 optical drives in it. This case would have been a lot easier.
Great video :) Thank you for sharing it with us!💖👍😎JP
6:49 -- ❤ Icy Dock cheat codes
"If SATA will do ya..." oh I just need storage for solo film/video work. SATA will bust that nut fine and 6 extra drives will be mint.
What about the 2 mini sas to m.2? Gives 8 sata connections
Very good design but very expensive too. We need cheap Chinese case like that.
I'm so confused. Did Silverstone re-purpose model numbers? This chassis is many years old....
Awesome accessories and case
If love to see a similar case but full tower and not from Silverstone cause they're hard to find in many markets and when you can, they're overly expensive - just like the icy dock
Looking for a 2 post chassis where i can toss a some u.2 drives in via an icydock... like 6 15tb ssds
Whats the advantage of using an am5 epic in this config rather than a regular am5 processor?
Can't wait to shove an N100 motherboard in there after I blew my budget on icy dock accessories!
So cpu and case are ready for massive home storage but the storage itself isn't I bought those 20tb exos drives but I know they won't age well and no one has made a similar storage sata ssds which age gracefully and die with end user having a lot of headroom for replacement.
Is there any way to fit an ATX motherboard? even if it is removing the psu cage
i just wish it was easier to stuff a ton of u.2's in a plain old home system. and it really isn't. icydocks got the capability to do it from the drive side, but getting all the pcie lanes to do it.. not so much.
and that sucks.
Don't they also sell nvme mirror raid for the slim optical slot ?
is that board usb 4/thunderbolt?
at 16" high, this thing is just begging for a rail kit and some rack ears. Homelab needs more desktop / rack cases. Even without that, we could put on a shelf in a rack. it'd take up 5U, but....
I can't find a UK distributor for Athena Power.
any ITX case with 6~8 bays for minimalist nas?
Question was a brain fart (Are there fan-mounting options for the eight front 3.5” HDD bays? Installing 7.200 RPM drives in there will get quite toasty if the one 120 mm fan in the back of the case is the only way of moving air through them. And 7.200 RPM enterprise drives like the Seagate Exos models are commonly a great deal regarding price per capacity and performance.)
Didn't you watch the video!? Its right there! 2:15
its got mount points for 2x92mm on the front
No idea how I missed it. Maybe the CS382 melted together with the CS381 in my memory, the CS381 doesn’t have any front HDD bay fans. Then it’s great that SilverStone improved that design.
"being able to shove drives, places where they don't belong"
May be there is some "cheap hack" for home user to connect 8 pcie4 m.2 to x16 pcie5 slot? Building low noise low consumption nas - for now its am5 with 4 bifurcated drives + 2 mobo slots
I wonder if icydoc will allow RMA on all the drool your leaving on the gear lol
ROMED8U-2T or 570D4U-2L2T/BCM should fit no problemo.
A pity there is no room for pump+reservoir 🤥
How well do those M.2 => SATA adapters work? I've read that they have problems when you're trying to write to multiple drives at the same time, like in ZFS. Curious if anyone has experience with them.
i got the delock 8x sata m2 adapter. got 6 drives on it, all stripped. 3x12tb and cursed 2x4+1x8. peak 400-600mb read write between both pools.
What motherboard is that?
genoad8ud-2t/x550
sadly AM5 doesn't idle sub 20w especially not dual ccd