| SilverStone SST-GD06B HTPC Chassis Enclosure |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Dan Ferguson | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 11 January 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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SilverStone SST-GD06B HTPC Enclosure Review
Manufacturer: SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd. Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by SilverStone In this article Benchmark Reviews gets to evaluate a HTPC case from SilverStone's Grandia line; the GD06. With these smaller cases, space is always an issue. This is becoming increasingly critical as high definition content becomes ubiquitous. Not only do we want to view our new content in more pixels than our brain can even process, but we want to upscale the old content, or view it in 3D, and do it upside down, right side up and inside out. While you're at it give me dish, cable, recording, streaming, email, gaming and the kitchen sink. Oh...and it needs to fit in a single box on my entertainment system. Well, SilverStone is at least trying to provide the box, the rest is up to you. They've expanded on past models to fit even more powerful toys inside your HTPC. Read on to see how model SST-GD06B crams the performance you demand and puts it on your shelf. When I build an HTPC I'm usually facing one big choice: Either go for performance at the cost of size, or go for space at the cost of performance. If Sure, you could probably fit alot of stuff in an HTPC case if you bought nothing but custom products. Slim cards, small power supplies, high-capacity SSDs, etc. This approach may help keep things small, but it will cost you big bucks and the small size will still limit your performance, especially when it comes to video processing. So if you're looking to use readily available parts and not spend a premium, then you're back to the choice, space or performance. I've done builds going both routes. Sometimes the shelf-space is the main design factor because I've got the TV, I've got the shelves, and I've got to stick a case on that shelf. I can always do it by going with slim and half-height components, but that puts a cap on performance due to limited selection. Some other builds I have to design around a particular function, say 3D Blu-Ray. So I start with the parts then try to find the smallest case that will fit. Then I've got my mini suitcase HTPC and I'm trying to find the least obtrusive spot in my living room to place this beast.
Well, Silverstone's GD06 is meant to address this exact problem. Fit full-performance, standard parts into the smallest space imaginable. They did a decent job with the GD05 allowing three hard drives, a full size video card and 4 + 1 expansion slots. Well, they went a step further with the GD06 to keep you on the leading edge of technology in your living room. Check out the features and specifications in the next section to see what they've done, then read on to take a closer look. We'll evaluate the performance of the GD06 based on the ease of build, included features, appearance, the performance provided, and the overall value. SilverStone GD06 Features
HTPC Chassis Specifications
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Comments
Besides all that, the case is very quiet and love the hot swappable bays. Plus, I like the clean look of the front. It has a very high WAF.
1. If you buy the modular 500w Strider PC that Silverstone sells you HAVE to mount the PSU fan up. Checking at the install pics the reviewer was able to put his PSU fan down where there is a vent. With the modular Strider the location of the power cables made that impossible.
2. Screws. Little screws. No thumbscrews for case. Just screws. Totally agree with reviewer on this.
3. Mount for hard drive/SSD is lame. I ended up sticking my main drive into one of the two hot-swap bays.
4. I actually did not install a DVD drive as I rarely use one and have a stand-alone Blu-Ray player on my entertainment center. This allows you to install up to 120mm height cooler. Not enough for a Hyper212+ or the other tower-style heatsinks, but a Gemini 2 fits fine. I have an external DVD drive if I ever need to use one.
I always find it funny when I see a case that uses the same cheap $2.59 filters I used on some of my 120mm fans in my current builds. I only used those filters because there was nothing else handy, I wonder what SilverStone's excuse is?
1) No place to put a card reader. Surely, a card reader is essential for HTPC.
2) The front door is unnecessary and a liability. Better to have easy access like AV receivers. A big problem is door blocks the USB ports, where one port will most likely be used to plug in a wireless keyboard/mouse transceiver. Such a transceiver must face the front in order to have adequate range. So why have a door block it?
3) Why a need to have hot-swap trays for HD? Who asked for such a thing in a HTPC? It is better to have 2 5" openings for 2 optical drives.
4) One must be able to install a standard size PS of any design.
I have seen better HTPC case design of the same size.