ValantarThe Alta is pretty cool, but it is 2.5x the volume of this, so it's not quite in the same class :) How is the Era treating you? Those were pretty universally panned in reviews from what I saw - really pretty, but terrible thermals compared to the SFF competition. Really like the design though, I hope they make a v2 at some point.

Footprint of Alta G1M isn't that different to this SUGO and I have more than 3,5 meters of empty space above my desk, better put it to some use I don't really want to upgrade from this case, but apparently the future of GPUs is 3 slot or so. Alta also allows me to get rid of the AIO, when the time comes

Era has been fine, I'm running 3900x, RX6600 Fighter, 64GB G.skill RAM and 2x 980 PRO SSDs. SF750 as PSU and Celsius S24 AIO paired with two Noctua NF-A12x25 fans, in the rear I have NF-A8 PWM as extra intake. It's quite quiet and temp aren't terrible after setting sane fan curves in UEFI. Fans only ramped up during the hottest days of summer. Got the cobalt blue version really cheap (60€) and added the oak top to it, looks really nice on the desk

ValantarThat illustration photo looks like it's with an AR12 cooler though (120mm tower, 50mm deep fin stack), judging by the U-shaped cutouts in the side of the heatsink, the overall size, and their stated 172mm cooler height.

I ignored the image because it's take from an oblique angle and hard to get useful alignment/spacing from - but agree it looks like a 120mm tower based on the fan size.

Ignoring the image I just did the calculations using numbers I'm 100% confident in - the dimensions of parts as officially stated by Silverstone, the ATX spec, existing hardware from Silverstone to confirm where they take their official measurements from, and boards/coolers I had lying around to physically measure. I won't bore you with the math but the key takeaway is that the 280mm length Silverstone state is the maximum external dimension including the GPU slot screw tab covers. You can work backwards from the official drawings on silverstonetek.com to work out the internal face-to-face clearance down to the nearest mm, assuming the internal steel is 0.8mm thick.

ValantarAlso, what do you mean "24-pin cable diameter"? Are you assuming a rounded/bundled cable? Most SFX PSUs either use ribbon-style cables, or in some cases individually sleeved wiring (like the higher end Corsiar SF series).

Yup. Corsair's newer unbundled cables would work, Silverstone, BeQuiet, Seasonic, Thermaltake, Coolermaster would not as they're either bundled or moulded together. You'd have a workaround at least with some of the moulded cables as the individual strands can be carefully pulled apart to increase flexibility/reduce bend radius. I did that a lot making custom cables for my mining rigs.

ValantarI see AIOs or 2x120mm rad custom loops as the best solution for this case

Given the thermal constraints of a 12L case, I think top-down cooler would be my first choice but I'd definitely consider a 120 AIO over a tower cooler as a second choice just for ease of building and maintenance. You're not realistically going to be picking this case for a CPU pulling >100W. At least, not without spending silly money on custom cooling - at which point this entry-leve budget steel Silverstone case is already the wrong choice. More expensive cases using PCIe 4.0 risers for a sandwich design achieve better layout and thermals in a smaller space, those cases just cost far more (Ghost S1, Dan A4 SFX, NCase M1 etc)

Chrispy_I ignored the image because it's take from an oblique angle and hard to get useful alignment/spacing from - but agree it looks like a 120mm tower based on the fan size.

Ignoring the image I just did the calculations using numbers I'm 100% confident in - the dimensions of parts as officially stated by Silverstone, the ATX spec, existing hardware from Silverstone to confirm where they take their official measurements from, and boards/coolers I had lying around to physically measure. I won't bore you with the math but the key takeaway is that the 280mm length Silverstone state is the maximum external dimension including the GPU slot screw tab covers. You can work backwards from the official drawings on silverstonetek.com to work out the internal face-to-face clearance down to the nearest mm, assuming the internal steel is 0.8mm thick.

Did you find a schemtic drawing somewhere? To me it looks like the 280mm number exclues the GPU retention bracket.

Edit: Silverstone makes good manuals! Page 20, they show 85mm of clearance from the motherboard edge to the inner front panel, i.e. the internal length is 170+85mm or 255mm, with an SFX PSU overhanging the motherboard by 15mm+connectors and wire bends. That seems quite feasible to me, almost regardless of socket placement (at least with any board with DIMMs along that edge of the board). That also quite conclusively tells me that the GPU retention bracket is excluded from the 280mm number, as there's at least 20mm of overhang for that front panel. Clearance from the CPU (socket or IHS is unclear, but it's not the motherboard PCB or case bottom) is 107mm for SFX PSUs or 85mm for ATX PSUs, so that would likely be your limitation for top-down coolers. Sadly not enough for an NH-C14s, but the L12s would be a good fit. The Dark Rock TF2 without the top fan should fit - likely a snug fit, but doable.

Chrispy_Yup. Corsair's newer unbundled cables would work, Silverstone, BeQuiet, Seasonic, Thermaltake, Coolermaster would not as they're either bundled or moulded together. You'd have a workaround at least with some of the moulded cables as the individual strands can be carefully pulled apart to increase flexibility/reduce bend radius. I did that a lot making custom cables for my mining rigs.

I don't think moulded ribbon cables would be an issue unless they are very stiff, and that varies a lot between OEMs. Just pre-bend them before installation, and it should work fine. Also, the ribbons are necessarily split at the connectors, so again I don't see this being much of an issue. (unless they for some idiotic reason made a single-ribbon 24-pin, which I have never seen). Will they unbend and touch the heatsink? Sure, probably. Is this an issue? IMO not.

Chrispy_Given the thermal constraints of a 12L case, I think top-down cooler would be my first choice but I'd definitely consider a 120 AIO over a tower cooler as a second choice just for ease of building and maintenance. You're not realistically going to be picking this case for a CPU pulling >100W. At least, not without spending silly money on custom cooling - at which point this entry-leve budget steel Silverstone case is already the wrong choice. More expensive cases using PCIe 4.0 risers for a sandwich design achieve better layout and thermals in a smaller space, those cases just cost far more (Ghost S1, Dan A4 SFX, NCase M1 etc)

This doesn't have an airflow layout particularly suited to a top-flow cooler though - it might work if you set it as an updraft (given that the intake fan is aligned with the motherboard PCB, while the exhaust is above the I/O), but you'll still to some degree be fighting the exhaust fan or severely limiting your cooler mass. A top-flow cooler with the fan set as downdraft would likely perform terribly unless you set the unfiltered rear fan as an intake, which is hardly ideal. And I really don't think a tower cooler would be obstructed enough to lose performance if mounted like this. Will it be cramped and in the way? Absolutely. But a decent 120mm tower has more thermal mass and fin area than the vast majority of top-flow coolers, which will result in better performance as long as airflow is sufficient.

ValantarEdit: Silverstone makes good manuals! Page 20, they show 85mm of clearance from the motherboard edge to the inner front panel, i.e. the internal length is 170+85mm or 255mm, with an SFX PSU overhanging the motherboard by 15mm+connectors and wire bends.

Nice, so that's 20mm extra to play with; Still too tight to mount a fan on the front side of a tower, but should be enough room to bend the PSU cables sharply and clamp them in place so that they don't touch the heatsink.

The top-flow cooler on the CPU works perfectly with my ideal airflow setup of GPU fans acting as intakes and front/back fans acting as exhausts. The split direction exhausts plays well to a top-flow CPU cooler spitting out hot air in both directions and having the front as an exhaust also avoids recirculating 25-30W of waste heat from the PSU. It's a triple-win IMO.

Doubtless there's plenty of ways to make cooling in this case work, including cramming a larger tower in there, but as you hinted at in an earlier post, it's going to make assembly and maintenance a chore compared to the cleanest option - a 120 AIO, and they're not even that expensive any more.