Installation

Aside from all the screws you'll have to make use of, installing the CFP51 is easy.  The two side adapter panels can be pulled out to gain access to the mounting holes for the hard drives you plan to install.   There's no need to remove any screws to remove these panels as they are securely held in place via some rubber bushings.  The CFP51 supports up to four 3.5" hard drives and therefore, four were mounted on the unit for testing purposes.  What's nice is that even if you are utilizing all slots, there is ample space between each drive to help eliminate any potential heat issues.  However, if you choose to install a drive in the bottom bay, it will be slightly difficult to install because you don't have easy access to the mounting holes.

The CFP51 was installed on the AeroCool ExtremEngine 3T we reviewed a while back.  I was very pleased with the fit and the product will slide in and install with ease.  It is that well designed and truly built to be universal.  Once you power the unit, the blue LED's from the large 120mm fan will shine through the honeycomb style vents on the front, providing a nice effect.

**click to enlarge**

I must say that the CFP51 blended in perfectly with this chassis.  In fact, it seemed as if it was designed for it.  With that said, this product will certainly accent most cases quite well, particularly those with brushed aluminum front panels.

Cooling Performance

This product will also provide you with some added cooling as well and I felt it was appropriate to provide some cooling performance results as well.  It was tested with four hard drives installed, three of which spin at different speeds and also tend to run at different temperatures.  They consisted of an Ultrastar 36Z15 15K RPM SCSI drive (main OS drive), two WD 74GB 10K RPM Raptors and a Samsung HD501LJ SATA II 7200RPM 500GB drive.  Temps were measured using the excellent SpeedFan utility.  The results shown below were the average temps recorded both with and without the fan running.

I've found that under the right environment, the average running temperature for a hard drive is about 32ºC.  With the CFP51, you're looking at about an average of a two degree difference in temps.  Now, they did fluctuate by one degree, particularly with the one Raptor that was installed in the center mount.  Nothing too spectacular, but it does at least aid in cooling your drives. 

Conclusions

The new Silverstone CFP51 is not only a well-designed product, but also happens to be an accessory that can actually be quite useful.  I would like to emphasize on its design though because it will install quite easily on any case you own with three free 5.25" bays.  The fit was perfect, and I don't think anyone that purchases the product will face any compatibility issues, considering the overall dimensions are fairly standard.  Also, like all their products, a lot of emphasis was put into its quality.  I could not find any major flaws in its design in regards to its overall build quality.  It will also accent your case quite well, as it is designed to make a number of quality cases more aesthetically pleasing.  However, selling for roughly $50, it certainly isn't cheap and will appeal more to those running custom servers, those with large RAID arrays or those simply looking for additional storage capabilities.  The CFP51 will simply put that unused chassis space to good use as well as enhance its overall appearance.  EMHz Recommended.

More information on the new CFP51 can be found on the Silverstone Website.  The product is available in silver or black to compliment most modern setups.

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