Poor experience with the Silverstone SG13

Davehaslanded · June 21, 2015

So after watching Linus and Luke's great video about building a titanX powerhouse inside the ITX case; the Silverstone SG13, I decided to buy the case myself and transfer my current CoolerMaster Elite 130 ITX rig (Intel I5 4670, GTX 980, 1 x 500 GB SSD, 1 x 500 GB HDD)

All I can say is that the whole experience was a massive disappointment. The whole thing ended with me returning the case to Amazon and getting a full refund.

Problem number one: Case arrived with a slightly bent panel where the IO shield goes in. Easily enough fixed with a pair of pliers, but not great. A sign that perhaps the packaging isn't great if bumped about too much.

Problem number two: Cables coming from front power button had become detached in transport. Again this could simply be an issue related to the packaging, however I do not think it is. Looking at where the wires had disconnected, they were clearly very poorly attached to the front panel PCB. The wire was incredibly thin as was the plastic covering. There appeared to be little to no solder actually holding the wire in place. The fact that both the wires coming from the power button had become detached at exactly the same point does beg the question on quality control and construction.

Problem number three: All the adverts for this case suggest that it will house upto 3 x 2.5" drives (1 mounted in the bottom under the radiator, 2 mounted to the shelf on top) or it will house, 1x 2.5" drive and 1x 3.5" drive (2.5 inch drive mounted under the radiator, 3.5 inch drive mounted on shelf)

Here is the issue; there is absolutely no way that the shelf in the top front of the case is usable with any ATX power supply I have seen on the market. Linus and Luke were not able to use it with their build and I had no chance what so ever in getting a 3.5 inch drive mounted in the top of this case. Any cables coming out of the front of the power supply immediately go into the location where the drive would be mounted. Even if I didn't have a cable going to the graphics card, the Sata power cables and motherboard cables are simply in the way.

Annoyingly, I didn't realise that the front power cable was broken until I had already installed almost the whole rig into the case. When it got to the point of installing the 3.5 inch drive, and realising that it would not fit, I then decided to put the front panel back on, only then realising that the cable connected to the power button was still in the box. I decided to go for a full refund rather than a replacement as the whole experience left a very sour taste in my mouth, and because I had already had noticed that there was no way I could possibly put my rig inside it despite advertising otherwise.

Decipio · June 22, 2015

The cable problem has happened to me as well. I am currently waiting for a replacement from Amazon to see if the cables are in any better condition than my current SG13. The blue wire was broken when I opened up the package, and the white one broke almost instantly as I fumbled around with the case a bit.

This worries me quite a lot.

Davehaslanded · June 22, 2015

The cable problem has happened to me as well. I am currently waiting for a replacement from Amazon to see if the cables are in any better condition than my current SG13. The blue wire was broken when I opened up the package, and the white one broke almost instantly as I fumbled around with the case a bit.

This worries me quite a lot.

I'm kinds glad someone else had the same problem. I think there may be a real issue with Silverstone's quality control. I was also tempted by the RVZ02 when it launches, but while i was happy to buy a new PSU, CPU cooler and a second 2.5 inch SSD to replace my 3.5 inch HDD, i don't want to risk doing so, only to find out that the case is a mess.