A closer look

The front of the case looks absolutely stunning. It is made completely of aluminum. The bottom is covered by a large steel mesh air intake, the power and reset buttons are diamond cut and have a very solid feel. Above that there are the two available 5.25 inch drive bays. The front also has one firewire, four USB, a microphone and a headphone input.

The back of the case has a cut out for the power supply and mainboard back plate. Right next to that one of the two 12cm fans is placed. The has a standard grill on the outside to maximize airflow and reduce noise. The four slots for the mainboard are below the fan. The covers are screwed on, eliminating the need to break anything out. It should be mentioned that all the openings here have sharp edges, so you might want to watch out when installing the mainboard I/O plate. Silverstone decided to go with normal case screws instead of thumb screws. This is something I missed, considering the price tag of this case.


One side of the case has a square air vent to let air into the case right under the graphic card. This is good for cooling, but expect dust to enter through the vent if the PC is placed on a carpet. The feet of the case are the exact same you would find on any OEM case. These feet are the only thing that is made out of plastic. When the case is empty not all four feet touch the ground and I was able to tip the case a bit left and right. The paint job of the entire case is just about average as there is no visible difference compared to much cheaper OEM cases. Over all quite disappointing once again.


Both sides of the case can be taken off the case. The back of the panels is not painted in black and look quite normal. One could think these panels belong to a cheap OEM case. Nonetheless, the panels are straight and fit perfectly one the case.

The front is held in place by five screws and I was amazed at the quality of the front. The amount of aluminum used is incredible. The front alone weighs just about as much as the rest of the case. The steel mesh in front of the fan has a removable filter to prevent dust from entering the case.


The drive bay covers are held in place by one screw on each side. While the front is made of very solid and thick pieces of aluminum, the drive bay covers are made of 1mm thin pieces. They bend quite easily and do not fit perfectly into the drive bays. You will have a hard time trying to line them perfectly. These flimsy drive bay covers ruin the perfect look of the front upon closer inspection. This is definitely not worthy of such an expensive case. Another big problem is the way these covers are held in place. A unused 3.5 inch drive bay cannot be used for a hard drive, because the covers reach so far into the case. Considering the size of the case, space is an important factor.

The mainboard tray can be removed by unscrewing the side panel, and removing an additional screw. The tray is made out of steel and has a very solid feel. There are a number of holes to screw in the mainboard stand offs.


The two included fans are 12cm. They have a rotational speed of 1200rpm and are 21dBA loud. Both of them come with 12V Molex connectors. This is fine for the fan in the back, but almost every mATX mainboard has a fan header toward the bottom of the board, which could be used for the front fan to regulate the speed and noise according to the case temperature. The use of a 12cm fan in the back is perfect for water cooling kits like the Aquagate Mini R120.