Features

**click to enlarge**

Pulling off the single piece cover revealed a Spartan but functional interior. I doubt this will be the kind of case you end up stripping down and working on every other week, but it’s roomy and is laid out pretty well. The only major item here was the 60mm exhaust fan over the I/O slots…seeing as that’s part of a computer that can have lots of changes I don’t know that putting the fan there was a great idea. I will concede that there doesn’t seem to be much else of a place to mount it though.

Visible in the above picture are the three fans, one 80mm side intake, one 60mm exhaust, and an empty 60mm slot on the top. This chassis being aluminum, I found that it was easy to accidentally bend that third fan mount, so if you get one of these watch out for it. The strap holding down the motherboard headers is reusable, and you can also secure other cables with it.

**click to enlarge**

This is a feature I which we’d see more of. The front panel header cables are removable, so if you aren’t using one, you can pull it out and keep your cables neater. This is a nice touch.

The two screws on the top of the drive cage will allow you to remove the whole assembly, easing the installation of your hard drives. On the second and third picture, note the small notches cut into the side of the frame. This allows you to get at the bay cover screws with a full size screwdriver. The bays also have supports on them, which makes installing the drives a little easier. This isn’t a tool free chassis by any stretch, so that’s a nice feature to have.

**click to enlarge**

I found this little slot to be an interesting addition to this case. If you’re using any kind of lighting in this case, you may not have a spare PCI slot to install a switch. Silverstone has included this mounting slot to take care of that problem. I wish this was included in more chassis…I never like losing a PCI slot!

Installation & Testing

**click to enlarge**

The SG01 is not likely to be a hardcore gaming rig, so I opted for a little more realistic setting. I moved my Windows 2003 Server system into this chassis, and set it up on my desk. I don’t need a monitor or keyboard on the rig, as I Remote Desktop into the machine anytime I actually need to do something on it. It’s up and running all the time, so I let it run a week and took a measure of the difference between the internal temperature and the ambient air. Load was achieved by running Prime95 and Folding@home simultaneously. Both probes were on the same meter – one probe hanging out the back of the SG01 and down the back of my desk, and the other placed in a spot just in-between the processor and the rear vent, away from any fans and below the power supply. The system specifications are on the first chart, and the results of my temperature testing are on the second.

I was surprised to see that the cooling system was able to maintain at ~5 degrees over ambient…that’s normally what we see from full size ATX towers, not a compact mATX box. When you figure that another 60mm fan can be thrown into the SG01, the cooling potential of this box should be pretty solid.

Next: Conclusions