After migrating my old NAS hardware to the HL8, I wanted to share some feedback on the case.
Overall, I love the case itself. I had been in the market for quite a while looking for a better case, but nothing fit the bill until I saw the HL8. And so far, I have not been disappointed. Please know that this feedback is intended to help make the case better; consider it constructive criticism.
I’m coming from the Silverstone DS380 running Unraid. My biggest issue with that case was the cooling of the hard drives. During parity operations, the HDDs would overheat, and I have lost a few drives, presumably due to the overheating. In the end, I disabled parity checks to save my hard drives.
Hardware:
- Motherboard: Asus P10S-I
- Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1275 v6
- Memory: Crucial Standard 32GB DDR4 DIMM 2400 MHz (2x16GB) (CT2K16G4DFD824A)
- HDD:
- 1 x 6TB WD Pro/Plus
- 5 x 10TB WD Pro/Plus
- 1 x 10TB Seagate Ironwolf
- SSD:
- 2 x 1TB WD Red (Cache Array)
- RAID Controller: Asus PIKE II 3008-8i PCI Express 3.0 12Gbit/s
- CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i
HL8 Feedback - Room For Improvement:
- Flex ATX Guru 500w Power Supply: Overall, this seems like a fine power supply, except for the noise. It’s much louder than anything else in my system at idle. It seems to be mostly the fan, but as this sits in my office while I work, it’s borderline unbearable. I really wish the case was slightly taller and would support SFX Power Supplies. I was previously running a Corsair SF450 in my DS380, which supports SFX power supplies, and it was near silent at idle, so this is a big change for me.
- CPU Cooler Height: The CPU cooling is not as good as the DS380. I would say it’s adequate, but my CPU does run warmer in this case. I really wanted to use the Noctua NH-L9x65, but with the SSD brackets installed, it’s just a bit too tall. I wish the SSDs could be mounted elsewhere, leaving much more room for CPU cooling. Maybe adding more height to the case to support an SFX power supply would allow for mounting SSDs next to the power supply instead of to the left of the HDD cage.
- Power Button: As posted in other topics, the power button leaves a lot to be desired. My button was delivered with the solder joint broken, which rendered it useless, but that happens, and 45Drives was quick to send me a replacement, all the way to The Netherlands. My main issues are:
- Power LED Combined into Single Connector: My motherboard has a pin between the + and - terminals, but the PLED connector on the power switch is a single connector. Most cases I’ve seen have the PLED +/- connectors as independent connections for this purpose (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). It’s not the end of the world; I just didn’t connect the PLED, as the button is on the back of the case where you can’t see it.
- Cheaper Plastic Housing: Pops out of the hole quite easily. Others have super glued their power switch in place as the cables push against the button when you close the case, causing the power button to pop out. The button uses a friction/clipping system vs. a nut and thread, which would have ensured the button stays in place.
- Non-Standard Hole Size: All power switches are either 12mm, 16mm, 19mm, or 22mm. The hole size on the HL8 is 15.875mm. The issues stated above are exacerbated by the inability to replace the button with your own. Instead of allowing me to buy my own high-quality metal power button with thread and nut, usable PLED cables, for €10 off of Amazon, I had to pay import fees on a replacement power button of lower quality of the same amount, €10.
To reiterate, I absolutely love this case; it’s nearly perfect for its use case. I’m even fine with the higher price. I’ll be in the market for a FlexATX power supply that’s actually quiet (although I haven’t had any luck so far). I’m going to attempt to find another spot for the SSDs so I can get a bigger CPU cooler installed (I don’t want to overheat the SSDs either). And I may attempt to make the power switch hole size slightly bigger with a reamer in order to install my own switch.
