Storage Drives: 4x Seagate ST12000NM001G 12TB 3.5" EXOS 512E SATA DRIVE (Plan to add 4 more down the line) It’s more cost-effective to buy a complete server these days. I had actually considered building my own but ended up buying an HPE server and building around it.

The CPU has a TDP of 80W and the Noctua NH-L9I is rated upto 65W. The case only has 57mm clearance for the CPU cooler and needs an additional 10mm if the cooler has a top-down airflow. Will the Noctua NH-L9I be ok? What about an AIO or should I stay away from them? What other options should I look into? Buy SilverStone TJ04-EW Mid-Tower Case Fractal Design Define R5 Case [Silent Case, Good Water Cooling support] Buy SilverStone DS380 Mini-ITX Case Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX Cube Case [Supports up to Ten 3.5” Drives, Great Room & Airflow] If we could not get an mATX Atom C3000 solution, the next thought was going big. Specifically, getting an Intel Xeon Scalable solution. We have dozens of Xeon Scalable CPUs to use, so this seemed like an easy option. Supermicro X11SPM TPF Overview Today we have an article that stems from a personal project. Ever since I first saw the CS381, even before our SilverStone CS381 review, I wanted to turn one into a ZFS storage server. Usually, these types of builds are extremely easy. This ended up being harder precisely because of the mATX form factor. In this article, we are going to talk about the thought process behind the build, and what you can take away from it. The particular system was planned as a FreeNAS build, but we are going to let this system run TrueNAS Core starting with nightly builds. You can apply everything here to FreeNAS today, or we expect TrueNAS Core in a few months as that is launched. Building a FreeNAS TrueNAS Core ZFS mATX Appliance VideoHere are some of the best mid-tower cases that support a decent number of hard drives and can be used for building a NAS, Server, or Workstation. SilverStone TJ04-EW Mid-Tower Case No responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information. The listed offers do not constitute legally binding advertising claims of the merchants. Beyond these 3.5″ bays there are two 2.5″ top drive slots, intended for SSDs. One can mount two more on the side of the chassis near the PCIe expansion slots if an extra fan is not used. Silverstone CS381 MATX Side The build quality of the case is solid and it can support CPU coolers up to 160mm in height, graphics cards up to 320mm in length, up to 240mm radiator, and an ATX power supply. The case features a transparent left side panel and has got removable dust filters for all intake fans including the PSU fan. Overall a high-quality case that can be used to build a NAS or a relatively powerful workstation. Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX Case Specifications During our review, we found that there were a few updates, but that system still works exceptionally well. SilverStone CS381 Front Drive Bays

I am planning my first build starting with 4 12TB Seagate EXOS drives. I am going to use the Silverstone CS381 case as I already have it. I will be mainly using it for archiving video and audio files but will also plan to use it for other tasks including a light Windows 10 VM and occasionally host a Minecraft server from it. The challenge here is that these chips felt a bit like no-mans land. We know that the eight high-speed cores offer excellent performance, but it is not exactly inexpensive, it is not exactly low power. We do not get RDIMM support for higher capacities for a server that could use that much power with enough memory. Maybe it was the fact that we had just done over two dozen pieces on the series, but I just did not feel this was the right fit for me especially given the lower-cost pre-built solutions out there based on Xeon E-2200 series. We are posting this SilverStone CS381 (SST-CS381B) mini-review today, as this has been a hotly anticipated product at STH. Ever since we first saw the Silverstone CS381 8-bay mATX case at Computex 2018, this is one we have wanted. This case fits a mATX motherboard, 8x hot-swap bays, and has 4x internal bays for SSDs. In this review, we are going to go over the case and show what we like and think can be improved. The front bottom corner is an expanse of solid sheet metal broken up only by the motherboard standoffs. You will likely need to remove drive cages or use a specific size screwdriver to get to some of the components. SilverStone CS381 Motherboard Standoffs Dec 22nd 2022 SilverStone Intros First SFX12V 4.0 (ATX 3.0 Comparable) PSU with 12VHPWR Connector (20)Up to 360mm Radiator Support, Sound Dampening Foam/Pads on Panels (Front/Sides), Illuminated USB Ports (White LED), Fan Speed Controller, Cable Routing & Management, Tool-Free Drive Installation, Removable Dust Filters (Front/Bottom), Swing Open Front Panel We are specifically using this Flex ATX Supermicro Xeon D platform with passive cooling because it has an onboard SAS controller with SFF-8643 SAS ports and a passively cooled CPU. Other features like the M.2 slot sit on the same plane as the motherboard. As a server motherboard made specifically for this type of application, one immediately notices a nuance of the SilverStone CS381. The entire front of the chassis on the motherboard plane is solid. SilverStone CS381 Standard Rear IO Airflow Your ram does not appear to be ECC memory, and I would strongly recommend it. You don't need to get something that is exactly on the QVL (the manufacturers usually only test a small selection of modules), but it should be similar. However, even though memory is generally cross-compatible as long as it meets the specs, that's not 100% guaranteed. The only way to be 100% is to get something off the the QVL. In your shoes, especially for home use, I'd just get whatever DDR4-2666 ECC memory is cheapest. Cooling is provided via two 120mm dual ball bearing fans with 70K hours of life rated on them. One can swap these out for a 240mm radiator. One can also add additional cooling on the side of the chassis so that a GPU can be cooled. SilverStone CS381 Rear Earlier we mentioned the 2.5″ SSD mounting points. These sit atop the chassis and allow you to fit two SSDs for OS or caching. We like this feature a lot and one can actually fit two more SSDs into the chassis on the side. SilverStone CS381 Top SSD Mounts

HBA is probably unneeded now. I'd probably keep an eye out for one, and snap it up if you can find one cheap, but no need for it right away.A high-quality silent computer case that supports up to 11 drives and offers the best value for your money. It is a spacious mid-tower case that supports up to an E-ATX motherboard and comes with all the essential features and goodies. The case is roomy and can support eight 3.5”/2.5” drives, two 2.5” drives, and a 5.25” drive, where you can also fit a 3.5”/2.5” drive. For cooling, the case comes pre-installed with two 140mm fans in the front and one 140mm fan at the rear. The fan speed can be controlled using the in-built fan speed controller inside the case. Perhaps this is a workstation chassis with great storage instead of a server chassis. Coming soon, we are going to do a build that will force the system to do both that we think is going to be excellent featuring the 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs, 192GB of RAM, a GPU, high-speed networking and more. It is taking a second full build, but now that we understand the chassis better, we are very excited. This is a classy-looking case with clever styling and has pretty good build quality. It can support CPU coolers up to 146mm tall and graphics cards or expansion cards that are up to 241mm long. Frankly, the case is not water cooling ready but somehow, you can put a 120mm radiator, replacing the fan at the rear. The case includes filters for the side and bottom to keep the dust from getting inside. Overall, an affordable and very usable mid-tower case for NAS, compact workstation, or server use. SilverStone CS380 Mid-Tower Chassis Specifications