TECH ONE REVIEW: Chassis

As one of the big player in the PC DIY scene, SilverStone's uniquely designed chassis has been endorsed by many hardcore PC enthusiasts who looks into PC chassis that offer not only for the looks but also its functionality and build quality. With their Raven series and Fortress series being the mainstream choice for years, SilverStone has finally decided to come up with a new series for their chassis lineup, the Primera Series.

We have the latest Primera Series PM01 from SilverStone with us here today, mighty thanks to SilverStone Technology and Inter-Asia Technology for providing us with the PM01. With no further adieu, let us proceed with the review to see what kind of quality and features can we expect from the PM01, costs? RM399 on the SRP.

Specifications

Model No.	SST-PM01BR-W (black with red LED + window)
	SST-PM01CR-W (matte black with red LED + window)
	SST-PM01WA-W (white with blue LED + window)

Material	Plastic outer shell, steel body
Motherboard	ATX (up to 12" x 10.7"), Micro-ATX
Drive Bay	External	None

	Internal	2.5" or 3.5" x 4, 2.5" x 5
Cooling System	Front	3 x 120mm / 140mm fan slot (includes 3 x 140mm LED fan)
	Rear	1 x 120mm / 140mm fan slot (includes 1 x 140mm fan)
	Side	--
	Top	3 x 120mm fan slot or 2 x 140mm fan slot
	Bottom	--
	Internal	--
Radiator Support	Front	120mm / 240mm / 280mm / 360mm x 1
	Rear	120mm / 140mm x 1
	Top	120mm / 240mm / 280mm / 360mm x 1
	Bottom	N/A
Expansion Slot	7
Front I/O Port	USB 2.0 x 2 USB 3.0 x 2 Audio x 1 MIC x 1
Power Supply	Standard PS2(ATX)
Expansion Card	Support graphics card up to 16.5", width restriction - 6.88"
Limitation of CPU cooler	180mm
Limitation of PSU	240mm
Net Weight	9kg
Dimension	220mm (W) x 571mm (H) x 560mm (D), 70.3 Liters

Unboxing

The PM01 comes in a very unusual looking box, rather staggering compared to the usual minimalist design from SilverStone that we've seen in the past.

Protection has been done well as usual, with the chassis flanked in between 2 pieces of foam as shock absorbent and plastic wrapping to prevent damages during shipping.

Accessories

The accessories included are rather simple - 2 pieces of fan extension cable, a pack of screws and the user's manual for the PM01.

The PM01 bears a slight resemblance to NZXT's Phantom series chassis at first glance, but you'll soon notice the offered features are much better as we proceed through the review. There are 3 versions of the PM01 available - glossy black, matte black and glossy white, the unit we have here in our lab is the black glossy finish version that comes with a large windowed side panel for hardware showcase.

The front panel comes with a large meshed grill to maximize air intake at the front of the chassis, much similar to the airflow design of both the Fortress FT04 and Raven RV04. However, removing both the front and top panels can be a little tiresome as it requires unscrewing of 4 pieces of screws from the front panel, only to be able to access the edge to remove the top panel that requires removing another 4 screws.

A large meshed grill at the front also meant a huge amount of dust intake as well. SilverStone has taken that into account of course, by having a large piece of dust filter at the front to minimize dust intake.

On the top of the chassis is where you'll find the front I/O with 2 x USB 3.0 port, 2 x USB 2.0 port, audio jacks, and both power and reset button on the side of the top panel.

SilverStone is one of the few brands that makes very versatile chassis for water cooling setups, and those traits can be seen here on the latest Primera Series PM01 that is able to support not one, but two 360mm radiators - with one at the top and another one at the front of the chassis. The mount can be improved by moving it further away from the inner section of the chassis, which will provide extra clearance for tall memory kits.

Here is the view of the bottom view of the chassis.

It's good to see that SilverStone has included a dust filter for the PSU grille to keep dust bunnies from reaching your PSU, but the rather thin, soft padding on the chassis feet makes its glossy surface prone to scratches.

At the back of the chassis, you'll find the rear fan grill that supports both 120mm and 140mm fan or radiator, and the use of plastic head thumb screws here avoids scratching the glossy side panels.

Some of the notable features of the PM01 are its pre-installed stand-offs for faster and easier installation, spacious interior and cutouts specially tailored for the best possible compatibility for components and water cooling setup of up to 3 radiators ( 1 x 140mm and 2 x 360mm). Things could be even better if SilverStone were to consider using thumb screws on the PCIe expansion slot to make swapping hardware easier.

PSU shrouds are a long going trend to those who wants to make their system looks clean and SilverStone has stepped up their game with it built directly onto the chassis for that better aesthetics.

There's also a slide cover on the PSU shroud that is removable in case if you need another 360mm radiator for your system.

If you're thinking to spice up your system with some LEDs, SilverStone got that covered as well with built-in LEDs that is well positioned to make your system shine.

The magic behind the motherboard tray of the PM01 - velcro straps included, fan hub for cooling fans, plenty of spaces for cable management and more.

The pre-installed fan hub is able to support up to 10 fans running simultaneously and the compartment for PSU has plenty of spaces to keep the PSU cables well hidden for a clean and neat cable management.

Storage drives wise, the available options will pretty much suffice for majorities of the users, as you can install up to 3, 3.5" HDD and 2, 2.5" HDD/SSD which are then mounted on the back of the motherboard tray.

Here's a proof of our claim of the PM01 being an excellent chassis for custom water cooling setup, with a RayStorm Pro Ion AX240 Water Cooling Kit from XSPC.

Performance Test

Test Rig Configuration
CPU Cooler	be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 / XSPC RayStorm Pro Ion Ax240 Water Cooling Kit
CPU	I7 4790K @4.6GH
Graphics Card	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero
Memory	Kingston Savage DDR3 16GB kit
Primary Hard Drive	Crucial M500 120GB
Power Supply	be quiet! Straight Power 10 600W PSU
Chassis	SilverStone Primera Series PM01
Display Monitor	Dell U2312HM

Moving on to the performance test, we ran a few stress test with the setup that we've prepared as above. These involves the CPU stress test utility Prime95 with the option 'In-place large FFTs' while GPU stress test utility FurMark with its Furry Donut stress test for maximum heat output from both the CPU and GPU.

The test conducted consists 4 different scenarios:

Without side panel + Water Cooling Kit
With side panel + Water Cooling Kit
Without side panel + Air Cooler
With side panel + Air Cooler

While the direct airflow isn't as strong compared to what a pair of AP182 on FT04 and AP181 RV04 can deliver, but he pair of 140mm LED fans were able to deliver a considerable amount of airflow to the interior of the chassis and the difference in temperature as we've observed are pretty much negligible.

Verdict

The SilverStone Primera Series PM01 offers a lot of great features, and good cooling is just one of them. It's a great choice for both air and water cooling as it's spacious enough to be able to fit in a decent custom water cooling kit, as what we've done with our XSPC RayStorm Pro Ion AX240 kit. You may even consider going all out for a monstrous setup with dual 360mm radiators, one at the top and another one at the front but you will have to remove the existing fans at the front panel.

Despite having tedious unscrewing work to be done during installation, SilverStone did manage to compensate for that with other features that convenience their users such as the velcro straps for easier cable management, built-in fan hub for the ease of powering cooling fans; as well as a PSU shroud, tool-free 3.5" drive bays, removable 2.5" drive brackets, and built-in LEDs that allow users to cut through few corners to build themselves an aesthetically pleasing system.

There are drawbacks for having a glossy surface for a PC chassis as it's prone to scratches but that is something rather subjective which we won't be bothered by too much. The SilverStone Primera Series PM01 is without a doubt, a good value chassis when one takes into account for both looks and functionality; at a pretty decent price of RM399, it is worthwhile to recommended.

Pros

Great features and build quality
Able to provide a decent amount of airflow
Excellent cable management design (velcro straps, PSU cover)
Comes ready with built-in LEDs and fan hub
Dust filters are removable and very easy to clean
Water cooling friendly design

Cons

Hairbreadth distance between the chassis feet to the floor makes it prone to scratches
A lot of unscrewing work required during installation i.e removing front panel, removing top panel, installing PCIe expansion cards, etc
Clearance issue with memory stick if you're using a radiator with more than 32mm thickness

Fractal Design's Define chassis is renown for its minimalistic Scandinavian design, especially for both its Define R4 and R5, which has been a popular choice among minimalist PC enthusiasts community. Define S and Define Nano S is introduced this year as the new successor of the Define series chassis and with many thanks to Fractal Design and Sun Cycle Malaysia, we'll be looking at the Define Nano S in today's review.

The Define Nano S is Fractal Design's latest offering for mini ITX form factor motherboard and as what the company claimed, provides excellent support AIO liquid coolers and custom water cooling kit.

(The Fractal Design Define Nano S retails at RM339)

Specifications

Unboxing

Fractal Design has been shipping their PC cases in the environmental friendly cardboard box with the line art and anatomy of the case itself can be seen on the box over the years and that goes the same for the Define Nano S.

The protective measures are well taken as we can see that the Define Nano S comes flanked in between 2 pieces of foam to absorb any potential impact that could damage the case during shipping.

The sexy obsidian like and minimalist design characteristics of Fractal Design's Define series cases has been a favorite of PC enthusiasts who love minimalist PC cases.

Although the front panel of the Define Nano S is made of plastic, Fractal Design gave it a classic brushed metal texture finish on the front panel which heightened the aesthetic in overall.

Fractal Design has included a thick noise dampening material under the front panel to cancel out the noise caused by fan turbulence to mechanical vibration, produced by the front panel fan for a quieter operation. Do bear in mind that dead silent operation is not guaranteed though, as there will still be noise leaked through the intake vents on both sides of the front panel.

Upon removing the front panel, you'll find a large piece of dust filter attached to the front of the case and by removing the dust filter, you'll find the mount for front intake fans or a 240mm / 280mm radiator.

At the front I/O panel, you'll get the standard audio jacks for both microphone and headset, 2 x USB 3.0 port, power button and reset button.

The top of the case comes with a removable panel covered with noise dampening material to keep the noise level down to minimal.

Need some beefy water cooling setup with 240mm radiator, 360mm radiator or perhaps 280mm radiator? That's definitely not a problem for the Define Nano S. Fractal Design is one of the company that is aware of memory clearance issue, as the top mounting were made to have distance between the inner section of the mounting holes and motherboard tray for that additional clearance for tall memory kit., thumbs up for Fractal Design!

Another dust filter can be found at the bottom of the case, one which is long enough to cover the entire bottom part of the case to minimize dust intake.

Case feet with shiny metal ring is an additional point to the aesthetic, especially if it's a minimalist case like the Fractal Design Define series case, Nanoxia Deep Silence series, etc.

At the back of the case, you'll find the lovable thumb screws, 2 x PCIe expansion slot and a 120mm case fan installed. The slidable fan mount is a good design that allows you to easily make space / clearance for a radiator at the top.

The inside of the Nano S is surprisingly spacious for a chassis made for ITX form factor motherboard, capable of holding a graphics card of 315mm in length, a water cooling kit with 240mm radiator.

The Nano S as you can see here, fits only an ITX form factor motherboard and it has the stand-offs pre-installed for the ease of installation.

You'll also find these rubber grommets to keep cable management clean and well hidden, cutout for

The removable drive mount included, which you can mount a 3.5" or 2.5" drive with ease.

There are also modular pieces of 2.5" HDD/SSD and 3.5" HDD mount available behind the motherboard tray, in case if you need more storage for your system. - Fractal Design got your back.

The pre-installed velcro straps here gives you the freedom to route your cables any time you want without having to go through the trouble to unhook those zip ties that usually comes with a conventional PC case.

There's plenty of spaces behind the motherboard tray and the rest is assured, you'll definitely won't be having any cable management issue even with a non-modular power supply.

We can actually see that there's still some spaces for another 240mm radiator at the top of the case after a Bykski 240mm radiator water cooling kit is installed.

Performance Test

Test Rig Configuration
CPU Cooler	Bykski Watercooling Kit with 240mm radiator
CPU	I7 4790K
Graphics Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 770 SC
Motherboard	Gigabyte H87N-Wifi
Memory	Kingston Savage DDR3 16GB kit
Primary Hard Drive	Crucial M500 120GB
Power Supply	SilverStone ST60F-P 600W PSU
Chassis	Fractal Design Define Nano S
Display Monitor	Dell U2312HM

Verdict

While the Fractal Design Define Nano S does actually offers a decent cable management feature and support for watercooling kit, the choice of reservoir of the water cooling kit used is something you mustn't overlook if you're planning to build a watercooled system with the Define Nano S. In our case, the cylindrical reservoir from the Bykski watercooling kit that we use affected the clearance for graphics card in which, limits the choice of graphics card for the system.

Noise cancellation is another feature of the Define Nano S which Fractal Design has done a really good job in, but just like most silent chassis we've seen to date, some sacrifice on the cooling performance is unavoidable.

For what the Fractal Design Define Nano S can offer, RM339 is definitely a steal and we find no reason to not recommend it to the SFF enthusiasts who are really into liquid cooled mini ITX system.

Pros