SilverStone Precision PS07 Case Review Redux
by Dustin Sklavos on September 20, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
- MicroATX
Revisiting the SilverStone Precision PS07 was definitely a worthwhile endeavor, even if the performance results don't immediately bear that out. There's some extrapolation that has to be done, and some dots that need connecting, but SilverStone's assertions that this case was still competitive and was in fact well acoustically engineered were both correct.
Where things get interesting is the way the micro-ATX market stratifies. Despite the fact that they're all hanging out in the same price neighborhood, the PS07, the Corsair Obsidian 350D, and the Fractal Design Define Mini all serve very different purposes. Of these three primary competitors, I think the Define Mini has the hardest time justifying itself, owing to Fractal Design's continuing struggles to achieve competitive thermal performance.
The PS07 and 350D may superficially look like they're competing with one another, but the 350D is a larger enclosure and is very clearly engineered more for water cooling. The PS07, in contrast, leverages a strong but specific air cooling design. This is the essential dichotomy that we're running into: SilverStone's airflow designs are typically excellent but you basically sacrifice any kind of liquid cooling outside of a 120mm CLC on the CPU. SilverStone will pay lip service to the idea of putting a custom liquid system in their cases, but it's obvious that it's an afterthought.
I'm tremendously bullish on the PS07 as an excellent mid-tower option for the majority of users. One micro-ATX board, one video card, stick an SSD and a hard drive in there and put a cheap tower cooler on the CPU: presto, an incredibly well rounded system.
So now that we have a more modern appraisal of both the PS07 and its eventually lineage in the Raven RV04 and Fortress FT04, an unfortunately unpleasant pattern does essentially emerge when we do a "State of the Union" in the case industry. In my estimation, there are three manufacturers that are driving things forward the way Antec used to in the days of old: Corsair, SilverStone, and NZXT. BitFenix is running fourth, but they don't really directly compete with these three because they've pretty much locked up the budget market.
SilverStone is continually demonstrating an expert understanding of designing air flow in their enclosures, but their designs still suffer from two fatal flaws: overcomplication, and a lack of forward thinking. They have the airflow thing down pat and continue to innovate there, but these cases are often needlessly complicated to work with. At the same time, they ignore the industry trends toward CLCs and away from 3.5" storage at their own peril.
Moving back from the macro to the micro, for more modest builds the Precision PS07 and its fancier sibling, the Temjin TJ08-E, continues to be one of the best options out there. The $79 price tag is totally reasonable, and if you choose your components intelligently (and inexpensively!) you can be left with a very quiet, solidly performing system.
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cragAT - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
This is my current case. I only had two minor issues with the build. The first being the space available at the top of the case due to my wanting to install my secondary HDD in the 2nd drive bay (SSD is attached to the bottom of the case, makes for a very clean and cool interior, easy to overclock). The second issue was the lack of space behind the motherboard tray for extra PSU cording. I either need to upgrade to a SLI setup or switch to a Modular PSU for my next upgrade. I also love how the inside looks, black and red on white is a very pleasing color combination.themie - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
alrighttrburnham - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
I have the previous version of this case, and it is wonderful. Being able to fit a Micro ATX board in there is great, especially considering the case is relatively small. Even at full load, I barely hear any noise coming out of there. The only complaint I have is that cable management is a little tough in places (as seen in some of the photos in this article) and there is no windowed version.jabro - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Great follow-up! I know you don't like to revisit past reviews, but this mini-review shows that it can be worth while in certain circumstances.You mentioned two changes for the "new" PS-07, thicker steel and better fans. Do these changes apply to both the black and white PS-07 models? (I believe that there was a difference in fan quality between the white and black models)
Do you know if the TJ-08e is also being updated with a thicker steel design?
emilyhex - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Looks great, I like the white.just4U - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
me to.. I'd like to see one of the DVD/Blu-Ray makers come out with a White model though.. preferably like the old Panasonic slot loading (tray-less) models.bobbozzo - Sunday, September 22, 2013 - link
Even if you found a white drive, it probably would have a different finish (less glossy, ...)marc1000 - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
I know that for testing purposes a big and hot GPU is more usefull thank any small one. but for any real-use scenario for people wanting a silent+small+fast system (in that order), installing one mid-range GPU from the current 28nm generations would be a lot better.just get any of them with a dual-fan open-air cooler and be happy, as this layout is FAR more silent than any blower-like cooler used in high-end GPUs. They also consume around 110W of power on average if you use vsync to limit the refresh rate (the 140~150W values are only on the most stressfull tests, something we do not do on the real-world for very long), so it will not throw too much heat in the chassis.
I have a pretty crowded Micro-ATX case, just installed a Zotac GTX660 (the smallest possible) and it seems to be dead-silent - but I believe that any Radeon7870 with dual fans would be as silent as this one. Of course there is some noise on the system, but it is absolutely easier on the ears than the sound of coolers from the past.
I know this doesn't apply to benchmarking, but I wanted to share some thoughts on micro-atx builds. I see no reasons to go full ATX other than "bragging rights".
DanNeely - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
One of the GPUs used in testing was a GT 450 which is an ~ 100W midrange card. (For thermal testing being obsolete isn't a problem and maintaining hardware continuity in testing is valuable.)marc1000 - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
Good point, DanNeely! I was looking only at the gtx560 results! I believe the gt450 is really similar to gtx660 in thermal output! of course the performance delta is a world of difference, but I believe gpus with real-world draw around 100W are the perfect companions to micro-atx cases. and right now this class is really high-performing-midrange.http://anandtech.com/bench/product/609?vs=660