Design & Features

This standard looking case does have some hidden gems.  Let's have a detailed look...

The Outside

I would like to start off with the front end of this case.  It is very clear that the aluminum door panel is what makes this case slightly more expensive than a majority.  It is of the highest quality with a superior finish to match.  On the sides of the panel you'll find some steel mesh vents that not only serve a purpose, but add quite a bit of pizzazz to its design.  The front of the chassis is quite uneventful.  On the top center you'll find the rectangular power button.  Under it, there's an acrylic strip that is illuminated in blue for power.  The bottom center is accented with the Silverstone logo. 

One nice feature of the KL01 is that the front aluminum panel is actually removable and you can easily invert it via the clever spring loaded hinge.  All drive bay covers are made of aluminum mesh and blend in very well with the rest of its design. 

Nothing much to brag about the rear of this case.  It is as standard as they come, with no notable features worth highlighting.

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Personally, I like the location chosen for the front I/O expansion ports.  They are located on the top front of the chassis for convenient access.  That small button you see to the right is not power, but the reset button. 

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The KL01 is available with or without a side window.  For those who purchase the window version, it is rather large and covers roughly the entire side panel.  For a case this small, it is certainly quite lager than normal. 

The Inside

While this case certainly does look quite normal on the outside, it is when you actually dissect its interior that you'll notice the thought put into its design.

So let's get right down to its most impressive and unique feature not found in budget cases in its class...its hot-swappable features.

Not only does this small mid tower feature a hot-swap SATA drive option, but even the front intake fan is hot swappable.  There's a small circuit board on the fan cage itself that makes contact with the pins on the PCB mounted on front of the chassis.  All internal drives are easily removed via swap-style adapters for easy install and maintenance.  However, note that the case only ships with one CP05 adapter so only one drive will be hot-swappable.  After some research, I found no additional info on the CP05 and not a single place that actually sells it.  With that said, I decided to shoot a quick email to Silverstone for more information.  The good news is that they are planning on releasing this kit some time in October and is expected to sell for only $4.99.  At that price, it would be a wise to purchase a few to make all your hard drives hot-pluggable for ultimate convenience.  After all, this is certainly its most impressive design feature.

Note though that this is considered a budget case.  With that said, the drive adapters are made of plastic so you want to be careful when removing or mounting them.  I work daily with high-end HP servers and they are certainly not made of thick, high-quality steel that can take plenty of abuse.  As long as you're extra careful with them though, you should not have any issues. 

Moving on, the next thing your eyes will glance on is the drive cage.  For a tower measuring in at only 17.01 inches in height, it sports a total of five exposed 5.25" bays, one of which can be easily converted to a 3.5" bay via the included adapters.  Under it, you have a removable internal drive cage that supports a total of 4 hard drives.  That's plenty of storage for a case of its size! 

Now, this is where I would like to take a moment to go into more detail on the internal drive cage.  Despite my frustration, I will try and keep this short...

Going into each and every review conducted here, I like to do some research of my own to see if I find any relevant info that will impact the article in any way.  Sometimes, this is not possible because the product may not be available on the market yet.  However, if it is, I like to try an find some consumer reviews to get an idea of what their findings are, primarily any Q/C related issues.  This is where I usually get extremely frustrated.  People are quick to put down a product without both the experience or proper evaluation of the product they have purchased.  With the KL01, I found a couple of negative comments regarding its lack of support for extended high-end graphics cards.  This is completely false.  The main feature of the KL01 is its high level of flexibility.  Upon careful inspection, you'll find that the internal drive cage, along with all the tool-less drive bay adapters, are removable via screws.  For those with large expansion cards, you can easily configure this case to support them by moving the internal drive cage further up.  There are plenty of options available when mounting each an every drive.

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The inner rear of the chassis is also fairly standard.  There's a large Silverstone 120mm exhaust fan and the expansion slot covers do not sport any thumb screws or tool-less design. 

Next:  Install & Performance