A Look Inside
With the right side panel removed, we get our first look at the interior layout of the CS382. Starting at the top of the case, we see the interior mounting bracket for the 5.25″ drive bay, along with the top 120/140mm fan mounts. Do note that if you want to utilize both top fans, you need to make sure that if you populate the 5.25″ bay, that you have room for your connections, etc., as there is not a lot of room here. Additionally, there are no cable routing holes found in this section, so routing any edge-mounted USB or audio cables will require the use of other cable management options in the case.
A large CPU cooler opening is found on the motherboard tray, which is very useful for cooler installation or replacement when the motherboard is already installed in the case.
The bottom portion of the case is occupied with a power supply shroud with a cable routing grommet, to keep things tidy.
The main feature on the interior of the CS382 is definitely the eight-bay, hot-swap drive cage, and for good reason. The benefits of this drive cage are somewhat offset by a few factors that I consider to be negatives – thankfully none of which are deal breakers. Overall, the inclusion of this drive cage allows for quick and easy installation and replacement of 3.5″ or 2.5″ drives without the use of tools once the system is in service. Two PCBs offer both SAS-12G or SATA-6G connections, as well as dual drive status LEDs for each drive.
Dual 92mm PWM fans are attached to the backside of the drive cage, and are powered via standard 3-pin fan headers on the backside of the aforementioned PCBs. I’ll expand on these fans a bit later, but boy are they loud.
Also found on the backside of the drive cage are two SATA and two Molex power connections for powering both the drives and fans, as well as eight SATA data connections for connecting the PCBs to a motherboard or disk controller.
To help keep cabling in check, two pre-installed Velcro straps are provided.
Just below the hot-swap drive cage is another single 3.5″ mounting option if you need an additional spot to install another drive.
Taking a look behind the left side panel of the case you can see the option for two 2.5″ drives just above the cutout on the motherboard tray, as well as multiple cable routing tie-down positions. Here you can also see the mounting bracket for the additional 3.5″ drive location towards the front of the case.
