Silverstone PS09 (SST-PS09B)

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

Packaging

The 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.

Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 Unboxing & Review

I liked the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 that I reviewed last week and I enjoyed reviewing and testing it. It seems that Nanoxia liked the article as well since they have it posted onto their DS1 microsite, and so I have another one of their chassis, (Thank you APES.my). Introducing the Deep Silence 4, the Micro-ATX version of Nanoxia's line of German Engineered silent chassis. At RM265 (SRP), the DS4 is placed in contention with Cooler Master's Silencio 550 but way cheaper to Corsair's Carbide 330R.

So without further ado, lets "Turn On German Engineering".

Specs & Packaging

As with the Deep Silence 1, the Deep Silence 4 comes in 3 colour variations, namely Dark Black, Anthracite and White. Spec-wise, it looks heavy for it's size but I suspect it's due to the excellent noise dampening materials inside.

The DS4 comes in full coloured cardboard box, which is atypical of Nanoxia. But it definitely oozes class. Depicted at the front is the brand and product name followed by a shot of the actual chassis and highlights of the features.

At the back, more features are elaborated and depicted.

And the sides will tell you the specs (as above) and the colour of the chassis. Once again, I have the Anthracite coloured model.

I figured that I'll cover the accessories that comes with the DS4, do bear in mind that most of these are found inside the chassis (except for the instruction booklet) so don't freak out if you can't find them the first place. You would get an 8-pin EPS extension cable, a 5.25" to 3.5" front bay converter and cover, 2x solid rubber grommets, a bag of various mounting screws, some cable ties and an instruction manual.

The DS4 is wrapped in plastic and encased in hard foam for transportation.

The Exterior

And here is the DS4 Chassis out in the open! Both side panels are solid and no, there are no windowed version for the DS4 at the moment (sorry to disappoint). The front panel is divided into two sections and covered with a sheet of brushed aluminium and flanking the sides are air intakes to feed the included 120mm fan at the front.

At the top of the front panel, you'll find the microphone and audio jack, a power button, two USB3.0 and one USB2.0 I/O. The ring around the power button glows green when the system is powered on with an embedded red HDD activity LED, which is the same found on the DS1, nicely done. However, I'm intrigued by the single USB2.0 header because it doesn't seem that space is an issue here.



You'll also find a fan mount for a 120mm or 140mm fan at the back of the top panel. Notice that it is currently closed with the sound dampening material with screws.



Only the top section opens up where you'll gain access to the two 5.25" drive bays, a reset switch and dual fan controller sliders. Note the noise dampening foam on the door and yes the bay covers do have dust filters.

Unfortunately though, instead of a door at the bottom compartment, you'll have to remove the front panel to gain access to the 120mm fan and the dust filter. Not the most elegant of solutions I'd say, especially when touching the front panel with your bare hands will leave a mark that's hard to be rid of. 

Another issue I found here is that the metal used here is quite thin especially where the wires for the front I/O are routed right above the two 5.25" bays. More bad news is that the top panel is riveted to the chassis, probably to enhance the structure's rigidity but in a small chassis like this, I can foresee problems with hardware installation. 

Though the dust filter and fan assembly is easily accessible and removable via clip mechanism. 

Here is what the back of the front panel looks like. I'm not liking the front panel I/O connectors at all.

Going to the back of the DS4, you're served with the usual rubber grommets, an I/O shield knock-out, a 120mm exhaust, four ventilated expansion slots and space for a bottom mounted power supply.

At the bottom, are four elevated feets with rubber dampener and a removable dust filter over the PSU intake vent. An SSD mount is also present here but the prospect of mounting one will mean that you'll need to access the bottom part of the DS4 to screw them in securely.





The Interior

Sliding off the two side panels, we'll see the bitumen-compound soundproof material that made the DS4 a silent chassis. Compared to the traditional foam type, these are more robust and will not lose shape when pressure is applied.

The DS4 has a classic all-black interior, simple and clean with a large CPU area cut-out for mounting third party HSF and well placed rubber grommets on the motherboard tray. But I noted that the motherboard tray is a bit wobbly and the rubber grommets comes off quite easily, not what I was expecting from Nanoxia honestly.

Modular drive cages is always a welcomed feature, especially when you want to fit long GPU or water-cooling solutions. As for the latter, you could fit 120mm radiators at the front and the back.

The PSU mount area is supported by four small foam feet instead of the usual rubber mounts. though it should be sufficient to reduce some vibrations coming from the PSU.

Up above that are the four expansion slots.

And right above that is the 120mm exhaust fan.

The back of the motherboard tray we have very few cable tie mounts.

And a very small gap for cable management. Once again, use of modular PSU is recommended.

Front I/O connectors are a standard affair, though these come in different strands and not grouped together as found in most other chassis leaving them looking messy and harder to manage.

And the fan controller connectors for up to six fans... I wonder where would one mount the other three given that the DS4 can support a maximum of only three fans. Generous but weird don't you think?

Assembly and testing

And so here is a fully assembled Deep Silence 4. Hardware installation was tight, which is mainly due to the size of the DS4 but that's a given. I have an issue with the HD-Audio connector being a tad bit short so I had to route it across the front of the motherboard and since there is very little space behind the motherboard tray, most of the excess cables gets tucked into the bottom HDD cage. The rubber grommets are small, thats a given, but they come off quite easily when I was routing wires through them.

I'll still place the sound emission results here compared to the results from the Nanoxia DS1 and the BitFenix Shinobi XL, but do bear in mind that the DS4 is only equipped with 120mm fans at the front and the top while the cooler is a CM Hyper 212+ with BitFenix Spectre Pro LEDs on push-pull config. The only component that stays the same is the GPU which I will crank the fan up to 100% speed to record the noise generated.

Temperatures will be recorded using HWMonitor. Prime95 and MSI Kombustor will help out in the load test. Everything is on stock settings so we're looking at what kind of noise and temperatures a normal gamer will hear and feel.

one last thing before the results, the components used :)

AMD PhenomII x3 710
Asrock 960GC-GS FX
Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Sapphire HD7850 2GB
Samsung HD 502J (HDD1)
Western Digital WD10EALX (HDD2)
Huntkey ASPC 700W

The performance of the DS4 really is commendable. Temps are very good on idle, only a few degrees toastier than the other two chassis. We do expect the system to get a bit hot as well on load but the DS4 did marvellously with the load temps despite it's smaller stature.

Do not be too alarmed with the GPU temperature on load as we're talking about the GPU being pushed at 100% with the Kombustor. Tested it with a game or two, the temps hover at around 70 degrees Celsius so it's definitely acceptable as a gaming chassis, just not recommended as a load testing system.

The noise performance is very quiet thanks to the bitumen noise suppression compound and foam around the inside of the DS4 as well as the use of lesser fans to ease the amount of noise generated. Though it's not by much compared to the DS1 it's a given as much of the components are almost identical except for the use of smaller and lesser fans.

Conclusion

Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 is a chassis that I have a hard time defining exactly how good it is. I do know the fact that if one is down-sizing there are going to be compromises, however some of these compromises shouldn't appear in a chassis like this such as the flimsy metal on the front cable route, the messy front I/O cables and the non-removable top panel. 

All that being said, the DS4's noise suppression is good and it's able to accommodate tall after-market coolers and long graphics cards.

Pros:

• Elegant looks
• Use of Bitumen-compound sound proofing material
• Modular HDD cage
• Included fan controllers
• Fits 160mm after-market coolers

Cons:

• Flimsy construction on some areas
• Lack of space behind the motherboard tray
• Access to front 120mm fan isn't ideal
• Messy front I/O connectors
• Use of foam as PSU support instead of rubber
• Top panel is not accessible 

I do have my qualms on the DS4, but the product is unique nonetheless as there aren't too many noise suppression M-Atx chassis out there... not to mention not all of them are as packed with features as the DS4 so it still deserves the Tech-Critter silver award.