Silverstone PM01. Opinions?

[creasian]

I'm finally upgrading my processor/motherboard/ram this year, as last year I upgraded the gpu and monitor along with some small stuff like keyboard and mouise. Prior year was the psu to replace an aging one. I currently have the well aged Cooler Master 932, and after a lot of researching and thinking, I've settled down on the Silverstone Primera PM01. Also I'm getting the Matted Black, not the glossy, unlike my pcpartpicker link says.

 

The entire build with migrated + new components:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rRz4Gf

 

-I'm only going to be air cooling.

-Primary storage will be the m.2. samsung and a 1tb sata/6 samsung ssd. 

-I do not need a optical drive, or any drives as long as the windows 10 usb stick works out well.

-I do plan to buy aftermarket fans.

-I know the PM01-FX/RGB is  coming out soon, with tempered glass. I do not need any of that.

 

I plan to keep the option to mod in a side intake if I go ahead and SLI my 1080GTX next year. The non glass window works out best for this possible mod, and I don't see myself looking inside my case anyhow.

 

 

There are plenty of bigger towers out there. More expensive with more bling. But all I need is the best possible airflow for a possible SLI setup with only 1 SATA SSD for storage since the M.2. is going to be on the motherboard itself. The sleek and openness of the Primera just lures me in, and the front mesh is not an eyesore at all. That, and more expensive options such as the Cooler Master Mastercase Maker 5/t is more expensive for what seems to be absolutely no benefit for me. Maybe I'm wrong, and that is why I would like to ask all of you to send me your opinions on this particular tower for my planned migration/upgrades.

 

Can any other tower you all know of that is somewhat modernized reach or even surpass the Primera's air cooling ability? If so, I would love to hear it before I pull the trigger.

 

 

I am open to going bigger, but no smaller than a spacious mid-tower. Also, cubes such as the 540 didn't pull me in. Not against cubes, just seems like the Primera can do air cooling just as well and look better?

[shadowbyte]

tbh I'd just get a noctis 450

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146206

[ShadySocks]

I picked up a corsair C70 on amazon for $50. IMO you should just go deal hunting, and also cases are easy to tell their condition if buying used, unlike other components.

[creasian]

I did look at the noctis 450 because about every single review of the PM01 made very clear they are almost identical inside. However it seems, from kitguru, tomshardware, and bit-tech that the front mesh on the PM01 allows it to have superior cooling. I would love if you had any links that would say otherwise, since I do prefer the front panel of the 450 over the PM01.

[Inception9269]

18 minutes ago, shadowbyte said:

tbh I'd just get a noctis 450

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146206

As someone that has a noctis 450, I wish I went with something else. I do like the design of it and the aesthetics, and once fully assembled my build looks great, however the build quality of the case needs improvement. The side panels are straight up fucking horrible, it doesn't help that the screws are incredibly cheap, the thread end of the screws are cheap and wear out very quick, making the side panels more annoying as fuck. I came from a Fractal Design case where you could just set them and screw them in with zero hassles. I dread anything that needs me to open up my case cause I have to fight with the case to get the panels back on. In fact I can't even get the back panels bottom screw in, me literally spending like five minutes... trying to screw in a side panel screw. That's how bad I'm talking about. I think one of the tech youtubers that was using the case in a review or a build said that the screws were bad.

 

I love the Silverstone PM01, I'd strongly consider it if it wasn't for the fact that from all I've heard it sucks completely with dual rad support, there being very little motherboard clearance at the top of the case

[dizmo]

18 minutes ago, creasian said:

I did look at the noctis 450 because about every single review of the PM01 made very clear they are almost identical inside. However it seems, from kitguru, tomshardware, and bit-tech that the front mesh on the PM01 allows it to have superior cooling. I would love if you had any links that would say otherwise, since I do prefer the front panel of the 450 over the PM01.

I don't think you really need to worry about cooling too much. While yes, the PM01 likely has better cooling, it's not like the Noctis is going to be super detrimental. Most computers these days are fine with just one or two fans.

 

• Curious, why such an expensive motherboard and the 960 Pro drive? Is it for gaming or are you going to be doing a lot of video work?
• That RAM seems excessively expensive.
• Why such an expensive PSU?

 

[creasian]

2 minutes ago, Inception9269 said:

As someone that has a noctis 450, I wish I went with something else. I do like the design of it and the aesthetics, and once fully assembled my build looks great, however the build quality of the case needs improvement. The side panels are straight up fucking horrible, it doesn't help that the screws are incredibly cheap, the thread end of the screws are cheap and wear out very quick, making the side panels more annoying as fuck. I came from a Fractal Design case where you could just set them and screw them in with zero hassles. I dread anything that needs me to open up my case cause I have to fight with the case to get the panels back on. In fact I can't even get the back panels bottom screw in, me literally spending like five minutes... trying to screw in a side panel screw. That's how bad I'm talking about. I think one of the tech youtubers that was using the case in a review or a build said that the screws were bad.

 

I love the Silverstone PM01, I'd strongly consider it if it wasn't for the fact that from all I've heard it sucks completely with dual rad support, there being very little motherboard clearance at the top of the case

Which was why i was waiting on the revisions through the RGB/FX coming out end of this month or sometime in march since they did some work on the issue of the top space not accepting fans from the top. But then, not planning to do water, I realized how dumb i was and with actually not wanting glass since i might mod the side someday, the original pm01 seems to fit my needs so well.

 

 

[Inception9269]

13 minutes ago, creasian said:

Which was why i was waiting on the revisions through the RGB/FX coming out end of this month or sometime in march since they did some work on the issue of the top space not accepting fans from the top. But then, not planning to do water, I realized how dumb i was and with actually not wanting glass since i might mod the side someday, the original pm01 seems to fit my needs so well.

 

 

if they did fix the issue with the top space I'll definitely keep my eye on it.

[creasian]

22 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I don't think you really need to worry about cooling too much. While yes, the PM01 likely has better cooling, it's not like the Noctis is going to be super detrimental. Most computers these days are fine with just one or two fans.

 

• Curious, why such an expensive motherboard and the 960 Pro drive? Is it for gaming or are you going to be doing a lot of video work?
• That RAM seems excessively expensive.
• Why such an expensive PSU?

 

The PSU: I had a HX1000 back in the day for my dual ATI 7870's in Crossfire, along with a lot of other unneeded stuff. When I got my 780gtx HoF I  had originally planned to SLI, and given the sale the day I decided to go shopping the AX860 didn't seem like a bad investment. The HX1000 still works, long after that fan rattled itself to death and I had to take it apart and jerry rig in an aftermarket one.

 

Ram is getting more expensive, and still continue to. But I think i hit the wrong one, since I wasn't going for 3600mhz, but 3200, which i think is only 117. Sadly, I've chosen a horrible time to upgrade since ram is going way up due to "shortages". 

 

The 960 pro is replacing my aging 840 pro. It has 29301 of power on hours. It's time.

 

The motherboard is a up in the air thing. It's the relative tier I usually go at, and has the features I enjoy. That's why it's a code not something else, since I won't have any use for a preinstalled waterblock. I actually prefer gigabyte, but their last motherboard has somewhat rubbed me wrong and I wanted to give Asus a try. But I'm still holding off until Ryzen, so it's just a general placeholder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, creasian said:

-snip-

 

I'd just go with an EVGA G2. Though it sounds like you've already purchased it (most people mark it with $0 for cost if you haven't finished buying parts) so hopefully you enjoy it!

 

Yeah, that's more reasonable. $190 is a little out there for 16GB of Vengeance RAM.

 

I just don't think NVMe benefits most users enough to warrant the cost, especially when it comes to the Pro line.

[creasian]

9 minutes ago, Inception9269 said:

if they did fix the issue with the top space I'll definitely keep my eye on it.

All I know is that the revisions are... great for some and just downright quirky for others.

 

They fixed the issue with not being able to attach 140mm fans from atop the grill, have 5 or so colors for the LED, a tempered glass panel, and a flaming unicorn painted on the other panel. Literally, a flaming unicorn. But who knows, maybe they even did some work on the internal faux fanhub. Would love for it to be pwm controlled and not just voltage.

 

But seems this case doesn't have much chance of being outdone for it's performance/features at it's price. Kinda hoped for some real alternatives...

[creasian]

13 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I'd just go with an EVGA G2. Though it sounds like you've already purchased it (most people mark it with $0 for cost if you haven't finished buying parts) so hopefully you enjoy it!

 

Yeah, that's more reasonable. $190 is a little out there for 16GB of Vengeance RAM.

 

I just don't think NVMe benefits most users enough to warrant the cost, especially when it comes to the Pro line.

I will admit i am a noob at pcparpicker... I just figured i'd list everything the build will have, and note what i have already gotten, so people could get a clear picture. But yes the AX860 is a little over 2 years old now, and still going strong.

 

The ram is going up very quickly, to the point where i am unsure if it will remind me too painfully of the price fixing we had on ram 6-7 years ago. Least this time it seems for a legit reason, not just pure greed.

 

I'm delving into m.2. drives for the first time so it's more of a placeholder. When I got the 840 pro everything was brand spanking new and what is/shouldn't/can i'm sure has been ironed out. I'm not a "highest price" kind of guy, trust me. I actually found a caselabs merlin sm8 for 300 bucks, brand new after a 190usd instance price cut and I'm passing on it.

 

 

Just for the price, the pm01 seems like a great deal. I don't wanna give up the cooling I have in the Haf 932, but I know going down from 230mm fans to 140mm i will get more noise in return. I'm not exactly a fan of the front grill aesthetics wise, but it seems like the best option for what i want in return performance wise. 

[creasian]

So I went to my local Micro Center, and checked out what they had on display. Unfortunately they did not have the Silverstone PM01, but I did get to check out the most of the offerings from Corsair, CM, Fractal Design, and NZXT. Coming back from that trip, I am pretty set on the PSU shroud and at least 3 front 140mm fans. Unfortunately, given what they had to show me, I could only find one case that seemed to somewhat match the PM01, the CM Master Maker. The 5t is within budget, but from what I saw I would have gotten a useless for me handle, a red/black interior, and tempered glass for both sides. Also a VGA holder, but my Gigabyte G1 1080 doesn't really droop.

 

So the CM Master Maker 5. It's about 50usd more than the PM01, but the interior mods out to be roughly what the PM01 has. However it does seem to offer, somewhat, a path of adapting the inside to fit my needs unlike the PM01 if I sought some changes.

 

-Both have a very open front mesh, and x140mm fans.

-Both have a full psu shroud.

-The PM01 has a full single front mesh/filter, the Maker has 2 5.25 bay pop outs that looked filtered as well.

-The Maker seems to have an easier time with routine cleaning/access to popping off the covers.

-The CM master maker 5 has 10mm more clearance for the cpu cooler tower, 190 vs 180.

-The CM mastercase maker 5's front pop out panel seems nice for dampening sound when I want it to.

 

Any thoughts on the CM master maker 5?