SilverStone WS380-E Workstation Case Review

Unlike cases designed for gaming the WS380-E is quite skinny and is designed to conform to the rack spec of “units” (U).  A “U” is a standard height used to determine capacity in a server rack and often shown as a multiple of 2.  1U and 2U servers are often custom designs while 4U and larger can handle standard desktop/workstation hardware.  The SilverStone WS380-E is a 4U chassis with a default configuration to be a pedestal tower. 

The front bezel is a triangle mesh and made from plastic.  Along the right side (which could also be considered the bottom) there is a thin ventilation strip for interior ventilation.

Turning the case around shows a very different design from your standard PC case.  You’ll find a similar ventilation strip along with two 80mm fan positions at the back.  The mesh used on enterprise hardware is considerably smaller than on PC cases.  I suspect this is to reduce EMI but more so that nothing big can get inside the case.

The datacenter environment is 80% clean room and 20% wild west.  You will find the techs working in these facilities to be highly skilled but under extreme pressure to ensure that things are done quickly.  This can often lead to cables being flung around, screws being lost and stuff being shoved into places it doesn’t belong.  So, having smaller openings can help prevent accidents in such harsh conditions.

Here is a closer look at the 80mm fan locations and the very elegant stamping used.  You’ll find the PSU location at the top of the chassis and can support standard ATX power supplies or can be fit with a dual hot swap unit such as the Gemini 1300C Platinum featuring dual 1300W redundant PSUs.

Expansion slots number eight allowing the WS380-E to support four dual slot GPUs.  Unlike on the desktop the server grade GPUs are limited to dual slot coolers and may come with a blower style fan or could be completely fanless.

To the right of the expansion slots, you will see four threaded screw holes.  These are to support the optional RAC45-FC-801 external fan cage used for cooling server grade GPUs without internal fans.

The SilverStone WS380-E is delivered supporting a standard tower configuration and the feet can be turned inwards to be more compact.  From here you can clearly see a number of small posts embedded into the chassis panel.  These are where the optional rack mount rails attach making this case rather versatile when it comes to installation options.