Dead Silence Black Edition - MATX cube

[the pokemon kid]

Hey guys,

I thought I would a short review of the Dead silence MATX cube case which I just bought. I cant be bothered with these long winded reviews so I thought I would try to bullet point most stuff to make it short and concise. It is my first review so I have probably forgotten to add loads of stuff.

 

The case I am looking at is the Dead Silence - Micro ATX cube case by Aerocool. This case is priced at £72 or at about $120. More details can be found here: http://www.aerocool.us/ds/ds_case%20index.htm

 

Specs of the case:

 

• Fits MATX and Mini ITX motherboards in horizontal orientation
• 265mm (W) x 411mm (H) x 381mm (D)
• Fits three 3.5" drives and two 2.5" drives
• One 5.25" front bay
• Front 200mm/180mm/140mm/ 120mm fan. 
• Rear 140mm/120mm fan
• Dual 140mm/ 120mm fan in the top with support for push/ pull in the top (must remove front drive cage.
• Fits up to a 190mm (H) CPU cooler 
• Fits up to 255mm graphics cards and can fit up to 320mm graphics cards if you remove from bay devices.
• Bottom mounted power supply with support up to 160mm power supplies.
• Windowed side panel available
• Comes in a range of colours from black/black, black/white, white/white, black/ red, black/gold and black/ orange.
• 2 x USB2, 2x USB3 and headphone/ Microphone in.

The good:

• The case is marginally bigger than the BitFenix colossus Mini ITX and has the ability of fitting a MATX or Mini ITX motherboard. Giving you a bit more flexibility with some part choices.
• Has a dedicated SSD drive cage next to the power supply. This drive cage is removable.
• 3.5" hard drive caddies are fairly strong and have mounts to fit 2.5" drives into.
• 3.5" and 2.5" drive cages come with rubber to help with sound dampening.
• The power supply has a dust filter on the intake.
• choice of either a stealth top panel for lower noise output or a mesh top panel for better airflow.
• The side panels are very rigid and do not flex when shook.
• Front and top panels are coated with a soft touch finish which gives it a professional feel.
• Motherboard tray has cut outs in it for cable to come through, these are well sized.
• Ability to have push on a 240mm radiator whilst still having a front drive bay device.
• A few colours to choose from, giving you a good amount of customize-ability.

The bad:

• The 3.5" hard drive cage isn't well optimized as there is enough room to fit one more drive into it whilst still having some room for airflow. (If you fit the hard drives in upside down then you are able to fit three!)
• There is enough space where the SSD bracket is to fit another 3.5" hard drive cage if you wish to run more drives. would be nice to see the ability to swap it out with a 3.5" hard drive cage.
• no ability to mount an SSD to the motherboard tray without drilling holes. this would have been a good opportunity for them to add one extra drive mounting point to the system.
• to be able to run all three 3.5" hard drives you need to sacrifice the use of a 3.5" front panel device.
• Top panel cover can be clumbersome to take off as there is no handle. I have found that I need to open the side panel of the case to push it open from the inside.
• Windowed side panel will pretty much only show the side of the graphics card. seams a bit of a waste.
• No hole in the motherboard for the 4/8 pin power cable to come through for the motherboard.
• Not a lot of space for the cables of the power supply. Can be difficult to install the power supply if using non modular power supply.

 

Conclusion

Overall this case is a great choice if you want a micro ATX system in a small form factor case. It is a good alternative to the BitFenix cases with a good build quality and the ability to horizontally mount a MATX motherboard. Priced similarly to the BitFenix cases it is a good alternative. The parts that let it down are the expand-ability of this case. It is well built but doesn't allow you to make many alterations to the actual layout of the drive cages. This would be a good addition to the case for the future.

[brownninja97]

crazy how people are now getting aerocool cases. anyways nice review.

[Thecrazyswede]

Looks neat, made me think of the caselabs S3 / S5 when i looked at the interior, but sadly with less rad support  : /

 

neat case for anyone that like the looks.

[the pokemon kid]

It is an interesting case really. Not many cases like this and I have found that the ITX motherboard solutions to be a bit lacking in places. They either seam to have loads of SATA connections in bad places or they have none in good places...

However, with a M-ATX system there is a lot more choice. 

Is there anything you would like to see added in a later review? I intend to do a review after I have built a system fully inside of it and have been running it for a short time. Only then will I be able to find the niggles with this case and the features which are most useful.

[Whaler_99]

Just to add - I just picked one of these up, Wanted to do a mATX build but had some requirements for 3.25 drives, SSDs, and good cooling to handle my 780. The DS meet these requires and looks very subtle. 

 

My main points about it:

 

- Really good build quality. The soft touch is very nice and easy to clean

- overall layout is excellent, with some forethought building the system is pretty straight forward

- Minimalist design, no flashy LED's or anything...

- Completely removable front 5.25 and 3.25 trays. Gives you lots of options. By pulling it out, was able to mount in a H220

- Remove the top cover, can easily mount your fans there, and replace the top, leaving more room in the case

- All the screws and such individually bagged and labled. Nice touch, esp for beginners, not trying to figure out which screw is for what...

 

And most of the points above...

 

Few more "cons" for me, but these are just more pain in the ass things, not something that should deter you...

 

- I put a 150mm modular PSU in and it is already tight. A 160mm long PSU would be VERY tight. Think about the cables you need before inserting PSU, as you will need to remove it to add any additional cables

- The mounting mechanism for SSD - while neat, you don't need any anti-vibration for SSDs... the tray they have for them could easily hold 4 instead of the 2 it does...

- 20mm front fan - while nice, a little anaemic I think? Swapped it out for a better, 25mm thick, 200mm fan.

- That second "mesh" top they include. Very nice to get, but why fill it with foam filter, to impede exhaust air flow? I removed the foam and just run the mesh grill. Still looks sexy.

 

Will post some pix once the build is done. Overall great case and VERY happy with it!

[the pokemon kid]

Something I will add to this! I was able to wedge in three 3.5" hard drives into the Hard drive cage. You need to mount the hard drives upside down but you can just about fit three in there! Once I have finished my build inside of it I will post some pictures up!