Cooler Master Silencio 550 Chassis Preview

Andy Ruffell / 14 years ago

Quick Look
Just a little teaser for you:

Packaging:

Keeping things simple, the case comes in a standard cardboard box it is maybe a bit larger we were expecting.

On the front of the box you can see a product picture and a large title.

Bundle:

The contents are pretty much standard or at least for most cases released in the last few years. It contains enough HDD mounting rails, a few cable ties and the normal packets of screws and motherboard supports.

The screws have been separated into bags which is a nice touch although the labels are a tad confusing and require you to read the User Guide this brings me to the User Guide which feels a bit thicker than the standard case guide but it is as usual in many languages.

Also included was a stand off socket manual’ as Cooler Master has created a socket’ to help install the motherboard supports. This allows you to use a screwdriver to tighten up the motherboard supports

Exterior:

This is quite a nice looking case from the outside. Each side is a matt black which is fairly reflective and shiny.

Both sides are exactly the same and there is nothing to tell them apart. This is fairly unusual for cases as we normally see some fan intakes on one of the sides at the very least.

From the front of the case we initially see a near-mirror finish with a Cooler Master logo at the bottom.
Opening the front up you can see the optical drive bay panels as well as a 3.5 hole. At the bottom we see a fan/air intake grill. This panel can be removed for cleaning.

Interior:

Taking a look at the case from the main side we can see a few things of interest. Firstly, the locking system used to secure the optical drives in. Which is similar to other Cooler Master cases and even Bitfenix cases. There are only 2 locking devices as the 3^rd bay is already taken up with a 3.5 hard drive dock there is also no need for them on the other side.

The hard drive bays are both mounted perpendicular to this but the top 5 can be removed for access to the fans. These both use the HDD mounting rails and so do not need any screws or locking devices. This does keep things simple.

We can also see the motherboard CPU backplate hole, allowing access to the backplate of the motherboard from the other side without removing the motherboard which is brilliant for those of us using various CPU coolers.