price nearly equal - Lian-Li PC-Q25B vs. DS380

[vandycamp]

So, due to space limitations, I've narrowed down to these two popular cases. The Lian-Li would actually fit just a tad bit better so I checked prices. Both on Amazon and Newegg the price is about $120 with mandatory shipping of $9 (no Prime shipping available). Right now on Amazon the DS380 is $150 with an instant $5 off for some reason, basically putting it only $16 more than the Lian-Li. Given that, would the DS380 be a better choice since it also supports a fair number of drives more than the Q25B?

[danioj]

So, due to space limitations, I've narrowed down to these two popular cases. The Lian-Li would actually fit just a tad bit better so I checked prices. Both on Amazon and Newegg the price is about $120 with mandatory shipping of $9 (no Prime shipping available). Right now on Amazon the DS380 is $150 with an instant $5 off for some reason, basically putting it only $16 more than the Lian-Li. Given that, would the DS380 be a better choice since it also supports a fair number of drives more than the Q25B?

 

This will come down to personal preference. Both cases are used extensively by members of the forum. I myself use a DS380 for my backup server and I love it. I did have to mod it slightly to keep temperatures under control but once I did then life has been good for years now. The Q25B was often seen as the goto case for a SFF build and has allot of support from some of the more experienced users garycase being one!

 

Check out the following threads for some further information:

 

DS380: https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31967.0

DS380 + ASRock Board: https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=32647.0

Lian Li Q25B: https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29670.0

[garycase]

As Daniel noted, it's largely a matter of personal preference.

 

These are both excellent cases ... in my opinion the Q25B has a slightly better "feel" (just seems a bit better made); but the DS380 is still excellent and has a few advantages over the Q25B: 

 

(a)  It supports more drives -- 8 5.25" drives vs. 7 for the Q25B; plus it still has room for a few 2.5" SSDs internally;

 

(b)  ALL of the 5.25" drives are hot-swap (on the Q25B only 5 are hot-swap; the other 2 are mounted on the bottom plate of the chassis and you have to manually deal with the cables);

 

©  The hot-swap bays are accessible from the front, so you can change drives without any need to open the chassis.  On the Q25B you have to remove the side panel -- a trivial thing, since it just pulls off; but nevertheless not as convenient.

 

The DS380 has one notable disadvantage:  the airflow through the drive cage is relatively poor, compared to the Q25B.  HOWEVER, there's a VERY simple modification that you can do which completely eliminates this disadvantage -- it's been well documented by Daniel (complete with pictures), so just have a look at his mod. 

 

Bottom line:  If I was buying another mini-ITX case my choice would most likely be driven by where I was going to put the server.  If the side panel was going to be easily accessible, I'd likely go with another Q25B;  if not, I'd use the DS380.  EITHER is a good choice.

 

[garycase]

Incidentally, I would NOT let price be a factor => there's not enough difference to really matter ... especially when you factor in the total cost of the system.

 

Also, no matter which case you buy, use an SFX power supply.

 

[mr-hexen]

Don't forget about the Lian-Li M25, another great choice if it can fit within your space requirements.

[vandycamp]

Incidentally, I would NOT let price be a factor => there's not enough difference to really matter ... especially when you factor in the total cost of the system.

 

Also, no matter which case you buy, use an SFX power supply.

 

Totally agree. When I posted this originally I was thinking along the lines of "Well the Q25 is cheaper but after shipping they'd be almost the same so is there a difference?" Or something like that  So I'll just pick the case that will be better for my needs. I shouldn't need and won't have easy access to the front panel. I attached two pictures that show a cardboard cutout I made to the DS380 dimensions just to be sure it would be a good fit. It's tricky because the top is curved so it just just fits. The second picture is with the sliding door closed. One worry I have is there is no circulating air in there. I can leave the door open when the server is on of course but that's not ideal. Maybe a small fan up there? Also, hot swap isn't important to me (should it be?) so does that mean I could fit 12 drives in the DS380?

 

 

[trurl]

... One worry I have is there is no circulating air in there. I can leave the door open when the server is on of course but that's not ideal. Maybe a small fan up there?...

Judging from your photos you will definitely need some way to get air into and out of there regardless of which case you choose. My PC-Q25B is in a cabinet and I have installed fans I got from here: Cabinet Cooling - Coolerguys

[garycase]

Definitely agree => you should add a fan to the cabinet to ensure you have reasonable air circulation within the cabinet.

 

[danioj]

Definitely agree => you should add a fan to the cabinet to ensure you have reasonable air circulation within the cabinet.

 

I would also add that IF you are going to be putting this case in a confined area (as indicated by your photos) then because of the "better" airflow management of the Q25B then (despite my love of the DS380 case) I'd be leaning that way!!

[garycase]

In addition to the better "stock" airflow in the Q25B  (I think the DS380's fine with the modification Daniel has documented elseware r.e. directing the airflow better);  there's another advantage of the Q25B ==> From your picture, it looks like the side panel is MUCH easier to get to than the front panel.    With the Q25B, that means you could access the drives very easily without the need to remove the case from your cabinet -> just pop off the side panel (very simple -- no screws involved); and you could then add or change drives as needed.

 

[vandycamp]

In addition to the better "stock" airflow in the Q25B  (I think the DS380's fine with the modification Daniel has documented elseware r.e. directing the airflow better);  there's another advantage of the Q25B ==> From your picture, it looks like the side panel is MUCH easier to get to than the front panel.    With the Q25B, that means you could access the drives very easily without the need to remove the case from your cabinet -> just pop off the side panel (very simple -- no screws involved); and you could then add or change drives as needed.

 

That makes a lot of sense and pretty much nails it for the Lian Li for me.

Not to turn this in to a build thread (please direct me to go start a new one if necessary) but some thoughts...we currently live in a 27ft Airstream and travel full-time so this machine will be a workhorse multipurpose computer. It will be a NAS that streams movies and music, a backup destination for our MacBooks (since we can’t always count on being able to back up to the cloud due to variable connectivity issues with wifi and cell), a VM that can maybe run decent modern games via HDMI in the cabinet that goes to our 32” TV (since the server will be in an overhead cabinet I’ll want wireless keyboard and mouse, any issues?). And maybe other fun things I’m forgetting ?  Based on that, this is what I’m thinking for parts:

 

Case: Lian-Li Q25

 

Power supply: SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G 450W SFX12V

 

Motherboard+CPU

this is my big open item because I think what I need is a combo that can support 6 SATA ports plus an M.2 cache drive. The ASUS Mini ITX H97I-PLUS seems like a good fit but I would like 6 SATA ports on board since I was considering a basic license and would prefer not to add a card to expand the number of ports. Thoughts?

 

Cache drive: Samsung 850 EVO - 250GB - M.2 SATA III Internal SSD

 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) 1600 MHz Clock Speed DDR3

 

GPU: I don’t need to start with one but I wouldn’t mind so the system can be “done-ish” on day 1, would love recommendations in the $150 range.

 

Drives: Seagate 8TB Archive HDD

[garycase]

This little guy has 8 SATA ports; supports ECC RAM (definitely what I'd use); and will give you plenty of "horsepower" for a bit of gaming with a 5th gen E3 Xeon.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813599009

 

I'd use something like the E3-1275, although you could use a somewhat lower-end unit if cost is a significant concern.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH3Z95667

 

The 1275 has excellent integrated graphics (P530) which does quite well for modest gaming; and the CPU scores over 10,000 on PassMark (10216 to be precise).

 

If that's too pricey, you could look at the E3-1225v5, which has the same P530 graphics, and still scores a respectable 7268 on PassMark for about 2/3rds of the cost.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH3ZC0476

 

As long as you use a CPU with integrated graphics (not all Xeons have this, but both of the ones I just suggested do), you'll still have an available PCIe x16 slot to add a higher-end graphics card, should you decide to do this at a future time.

 

 

[Qtrmeg]

I don't think the E3-1225 v5 has hyper threading so you'd need to move up the E3-1245 v5 for integrated graphics. One thing I noticed was the E3-1245 v5 actually has a higher Passmark than the E3-1275v5, (10303 vs 10216),