SilverStone DS380B Overheating

[JasonS]

I am using the SilverStone DS380B case, an AsRock C2550D4I (With ECC RAM, not that it's as relevant to this question) and with seven drives mounted in the chassis. I am using the stock fans that come with the case, two intake fans that blow over the side of the HDD's and one exhaust fan at the back of the case. I got a SMART warning that one of the drives was too hot when doing some intensive writes, so then I looked at them all and saw that one drive was at 61C and two more were at ~55C. I immediately stopped the process that was running and the HDD's quickly cooled down. Fortunately I haven't found any permanent damage (I have another drive in standby in case) but what I was wondering: where would you recommend I go from here? The case doesn't have more fan slots. I can buy three better fans if that would help very much, or is just poor design of the case? I've read a couple places now that people have had this problem in the past running a NAS in this case.

 

[nojohnny101]

what drives you are running? (i ask because if they are 7,200RPM, that would be relevant).

I have the same case and board. It is now my backup box that I replicate to as an offsite backup so I'm not worried about overheating with it.

If I remember correctly, there is a senior member on here that has the same case and ended up taking a dremel to it to provide more cooling. I think he cut a couple of slots in the back of the hard drive cage and it helped. You could do that. It's too late and I'm too lazy to find the thread, but hopefully he'll see this and post.

I think better fans would certainly help. You're right to say this case has had cooling problems.

 

[JasonS]

Yes, some of them are 7,200rpm drives, which Looking back is one of the big things I would have changed with my builds.

I'll try better fans and see if that helps, I just know it's definitely worth the money to keep those cool and will buy another case if need be.

 

[nojohnny101]

yea maybe just try better fans and see what that does. Steps beyond on that would be taking a dremel to it which I believe would definitely help you get those temperatures down. But if you don't want to go that route, a new case it is.

 

[Linkman]

Isn't this the case where some users have used cardboard or something similar to close up some of the case vents in order to direct air from the fans through the drive cage?

 

[colmconn]

I've got 3x3TB WD Reds and one 4TB Seagate drive that came from a USB enclosure in my DS380B (I only have the stock fans) and even when they're idle they run very hot (55C+). The simplest solution I found to keep the drives at a reasonable temperature (<=40C) is to leave the front door on the case open. If I could do it over again I would never buy that case.

 

[Nick2253]

If I remember correctly, there is a senior member on here that has the same case and ended up taking a dremel to it to provide more cooling. I think he cut a couple of slots in the back of the hard drive cage and it helped. You could do that. It's too late and I'm too lazy to find the thread, but hopefully he'll see this and post.

That was me. Here's the post where I talk about it: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/photo-files-corrupted-randomly.36519/page-2#post-224091

I've tried pretty much everything I could think of, including adding plexiglass dividers, custom fan shrouds, and sealing extraneous gaps to force air where I want it, but cutting the slots was by far the most effective thing I've done. Like I said in the post, I bet drilling a bunch of 1/4" holes would be about as effective, and would probably look better, but I went the dremel route because it was faster.

 

[Stux]

Link to a forum thread talking about making a cardboard baffle for the ds380

https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=43802.0

 

[rosabox]

I have the same case.
I knew it needs some modding, before I bought it.

Here is what I've done:
Replaced all three fans with Noctua NF-F12 PWM fans.
Removed the dust filter on the side fans, cut out the "fan grills" and replaced with some nice black fan grills like this http://www.frozencpu.com/images/products/main/fgc-02_2.jpg
Cut out the back "fan grill" and replaced with a nice silver fan grill.
Did the "cardboard mod" using a sheet of plastic, hot glued to the side of the side fans. I cut a gap in it, where the CPU heatsink is.

The fans are actually running 800 rpm (almost silent), ambient temperature 23 C.
ASRock C2550D4I:
CPU 32 C (C2 active)
Mobo 43 C
HDDs:
4x SAMSUNG HD154UI 24-28 C
2x SAMSUNG HD203WI 28-31 C top two positions
1x Hitachi HDS5C3020ALA632 31 C third from top
1x TOSHIBA HDWE160 36 C bottom position, 7200 rpm drive

This is under very light usage, almost idling.