A Closer Look - Outside

Out of the box, the SilverStone RM42-502 feels extremely sturdy, which tends to be a hallmark attribute of rack-mountable enclosures. It is painted black and offers a slew of mounting holes for the various ways of utilizing the chassis. By default, the RM42-502 is ready to be placed inside a rack.


Looking at the front, there is a little bit of design in regards to the various sized air vents centered around the SilverStone logo and a twist lock you may flip down to access cooling, IO, and drives. SilverStone also placed a magnetic dust filter inside the flip-down panel to keep dust and grime out of the interior. In the rear, you will be greeted by clear, unpainted steel. While essentially a no-go in consumer products these days, it still perfectly acceptable within the enterprise market.


Both sides of the chassis look identical, with screw holes for rails to be installed so that the server may be pulled out of a rack easily. Two sturdy handles come pre-applied and feature mounting holes to secure the RM42-502 inside a rack without the optional use of rails.


Taking a closer look at the front, the left half is meant for cooling, and SilverStone included a single 120 mm fan here out of the box. To the right, you will find the power and reset buttons, along with the two audio ports and two USB 3.0 and a USB 3.2 Type-C connector. The power button will light up white when the system is running, and an extra large HDD activity LED is also present. Two 5.25" drive bays with dust filter covers have been placed all the way to the right within the RM42-502.


In the rear, things are actually arranged like they used to be in the olden days. The PSU is on the very left, with the motherboard placed to the right. You will find two 80 mm fan-mounting positions, but again, SilverStone only includes a single unit by default. If you were to stand the chassis up, the PSU would reside above the CPU area, much like in PC cases from the early 2000s.