Silverstone is known for their elegant and innovative chassis such as their Fortress and Raven series. Now these are premium offerings that appeals to enthusiasts, but today I take a dive into the other end of the spectrum with a budget friendly Micro-ATX chassis from Silverstone.
Credits to
Inter-Asia Technology for providing us the Silverstone PS09 for today's article. The Silverstone PS09 is part of the Precision series which focuses on value-oriented offerings from Silverstone classified as "High-Value Tower Chassis", what's more is that the PS09 is a silent chassis. With the SRP at RM189 this looks like a sweet deal indeed.
Specs
PackagingThe PS09 comes in a regular cardboard box that's printed full of info about the chassis itself. Right from the get go, users can know almost everything there is about the PS09 without opening it.
Out from the box, the PS09 is protected by two moulded Styrofoam that protects it from knocks and bumps and is covered in plastic as well.
You'll normally find these inside the chassis but I've extracted it to show what comes with it. Not much is bundled with the PS09, an quick start guide and a bag of screws with a single cable tie, that's it. Not that I expected much from a budget series chassis.
External Features
The PS09 is very light indeed but the construction seems solid enough for it to hold it's shape. Side panels are plain with some indentation at the back that doubles as a grip when opening the chassis with meshed ventilations at the side of the front panel. You'll also find the power button and the reset button right above the meshed vents Both sides of the chassis are identical. Being a mini-tower chassis, there are only two 5.25" bays at your disposal on the front.
Front panel I/O consists of two USB3.0 ports, a microphone and headphone jack.
A Silverstone logo / badge is also found at the front panel.
The side ventilations are filtered and may be removed easily for cleaning.
Turning our attention to the back of the PS09, you'll find a top-mount PSU opening, a knockout for an I/O shield, an 80mm or 92mm exhaust fan mount and four expansion slots.
A Kensington-lock is available right below the exhaust fan mount should you wanna secure the whole chassis to a table.
The expansion slots are secured with a single plate but Silverstone still lets you sink in screws to secure your expansion cards.
Not a whole lot at the bottom as well with four plastic feet for a little elevation off of the floor...
but you do get an SSD mounting point right at the front
Internal Features
Removing the side panels, you'll find the thin foam padding for noise suppression. There is a little flex to the side panels but it's not apparent when it's mounted.
The two squarish cut-outs on the foam are there so that the parts protruding from the back of the motherboard tray will not leave a mark. Both side panels are identical so no need to worry about which goes where when placing them back.
Note the large cut-out on the motherboard tray, this makes it easier to swap third party CPU coolers later on and rest assured that the motherboard tray is solid despite the big opening. The drive bays are void of any tool-less mounting mechanisms so best to get your screw drivers handy.
Removing the front panels can only be done AFTER the side panels are off. This is due to the clips that hugs the upper side of the frame.
Silverstone included a single 120mm intake fan at the front and note that one could add another 80mm fan at the bottom as well.
Cable management are all done on the inside as there are hardly any room behind the motherboard tray.
But it shouldn't be a huge problem as the 3.5" drive cage is mounted off-set towards the left so that al the cables can be tucked away neatly. Though I still would recommend getting a modular PSU when working with a small chassis like this. Oh BTW you can fit up to four 3.5" drives in the cage.
Right below the HDD cage is an empty space for fitting long GPU up to 14.1 inches and the aforementioned SSD mount.
I feel that Silverstone could've placed some more noise dampening foam on the inside of the front panel, all that space felt a little under-utilised.
And finally, the front I/O connectors which are standard for all chassis.
Assembly & Testing
As you can see, fitting components inside the PS09 is not a problem for the most part. Cables from my non-modular PSU barely caused any problems thanks to the space behind the HDD cage. I had to use the stock cooler as the PS09 only supports third party coolers up to 140mm, in which I do not have currently. The first 5.25" drive bay is a tight fit with the cables from my PSU getting in the way, this should not be the case with smaller or modular PSUs. The expansion slots are the break-off type so you wouldn't be able to secure it back after taking them off but the mounting mechanism is very solid if that's any consolation.
The only hiccup I ran into is that the PSU screw mounts deviated slightly from one of the PS09's mounting point so I have to be contempt with securing 3 screws for the PSU. Space is tight so plan your build a little before proceeding.
Closing up the side panels, the only apparent changes in the exterior is the DVDRW drive. I tilted the chassis this way to show that even with all the wires from my 700W non-modular PSU in the chassis, the side panel can be closed without having to force it and therefore, no bulging.
Here are the system components I placed inside the Silverstone PS09.
AMD PhenomII x3 710
Asrock 960GC-GS FX
Kingston Value RAM 1333Mhz 2x2GB
Sapphire HD7850 2GB
Seagate SSHD 1TB
Western Digital Blue 1TB
Huntkey ASPC 700W
Except for the stock cooler and the SSHD, much of it is the same as the setup on the
Nanoxia DS4 that I reviewed before so I'll place the test results in comparison to the data obtained from testing the DS4 as it was also a silent M-Atx chassis.
As usual, HWMonitor will be recording the temperatures while Prime95 and MSI Kombustor is used in the load tests. No over-clocking has been done to the CPU or GPU for this to simulate normal use.
Temperatures on the components are expected to be slightly higher in the PS09 due to the use of stock cooler and the single 120mm intake fan though as you can see, it's still acceptable range. I would definitely recommend adding an exhaust fan at the back for improved airflow. Note that the GPU temperature on load is tested on MSI Afterburner so it doesn't relate to real-world usage; a normal gaming session will spike the GPU temperature to about 75 degrees-C in the PS09.
Noise suppression is there but it is still audible because of the stock cooler, things will surely be quieter if I had a 120mm C-Type cooler so this test may be skewed to a certain extent. However, it is still quieter with the side panels closed.
Conclusion
The Silverstone PS09 is a simple chassis with the versatility of fitting high-end components. Although, not many gamers I know will select the PS09 due to it's reserved outlook but it will definitely be a great choice for someone's office or as a HTPC at home due to it's compact nature with noise dampening features.
Pros- Removable dust filters
- Light but solid construction
- Good cable management
- Very competitively priced
Cons
- Non-reusable breakaway expansion slots
- Only single 120mm fan supplied
Overall, in consideration of the price/performance ratio, the Silverstone PS09 is a great chassis. Have Silverstone decided to include an exhaust fan and solid expansion slots, it'll get a higher rating from me. A Tech-Critter Silver badge is hereby awarded to the PS09.
Killer Aesthetics
