Cooler Master Silencio 650 review
Like most cases these days, the Silencio 650 uses thumbscrews on its side panels so the removal of these panels is a breeze. Just like the front panel, the side panels are lined with a layer of noise-absorbing foam. The panels feel light but give a sturdy feel.
As you can see, the case has an all-black design, and even all Molex and other cable connectors have a black color. The interior of the case supports Micro-ATX and ATX motherboards, it's roomy enough for CPU coolers with a height of up to 168mm and graphics cards of up to 268mm (434mm if you remove the upper HDD cage). There's room for up to three 5.25" devices, up to 7 + 1 (X-Dock) 3.5" HDDs, 2 + 1 (X-Dock) 2.5" HDD/SSDs and 7+1 expansion slots.
By default, the case has two 120mm front intake fans and one 120mm rear exhaust fan. If you desire more cooling you can equip the case with a 120/140mm top exhaust fan, a 120mm bottom intake fan as well as a 120mm fan to improve air circulation in the removable HDD cage.
Cut-outs to aid you with cable management are located right next to and under the motherboard plate, these cut-outs feature rubber grommets. Additionally, there are also two smaller cut-outs located above the motherboard area.
The CPU area features a massive cut-out to enable you to replace your CPU cooler without having to take the motherboard out of your case. Another nice touch is that the motherboard standoff holes are labeled, so you don't have to guess which holes are for mATX or ATX.
An optional 120/140mm fan can be installed in the top of the case, and next to this vent there's a layer of noise absorbing foam. Fans of watercooling may be a bit disappointed due to the lack of support for a large radiator.
As mentioned before, the case has three 5.25" bays, of which one is occupied by a hot-swappable 2.5/3.5" storage disk bay. This X-Dock is installed with regular screws so it can be removed without having to damage your case.
The two freely available 5.25" drive bays use a tool-free installation mechanism. It's very convenient to use, and it can easily be removed if you prefer using screws instead.
The storage area consists of two cages, a removable cage with room for four 3.5" disks and a fixed cage for two 2.5"/3.5" disks plus one 3.5" disk. All 3.5" disks can be installed tool-free, for 2.5" disks you need to use screws.
One of the unique features of the Silencio 650 is its HDD selector switch, it supports two HDDs and is designed for users who use a dual-boot configuration. In the picture below you can see the PCB where the two HDDs plug into.
While there are seven storage bays, the case only has two trays that support 2.5" storage devices like SSDs.
After removing four screws, you can take out the upper HDD cage to make room for graphics cards of up to 434mm. The bottom of this cage is lined with rubber to reduce vibrational noise.
The HDD cage can also be rotated 90-degrees, this makes cable management harder but makes it a bit more comfortable to add a new disk afterwards.
The power supply is mounted in the bottom and if your PSU isn't too large you can also install a 120mm intake fan in the bottom. The power supply rests on rubber pads to prevent vibrational noise.
To the rear of the case, we have a 120mm fan, seven PCI slots, and a vertical PCI slot.
While the left side panel is covered with an egg crate shaped foam, the right side panel uses a thinner, flat layer of noise insulation material that is easily damaged. To provide a bit more wiggling room for cables around the storage bay, no noise insulation is located in this section.
While there's some working space behind the motherboard tray for cable management, I would not call it very roomy.
To end my tour of the Silencio 650, here's a picture of the HDD selector PCB. The rear side has one Molex power connector and two SATA ports. This Molex connector also provides power to the fan controller.
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Added: December 25th 2012
Product reviewed: Cooler Master Silencio 650
Reviewer: Thomas De Maesschalck
Score: 9/10
Page: 3/4
