SuperMicro Gaming S5 Special Edition Chassis Review

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Interior

The interior of the chassis has been treated with the same powder-black finish as the exterior, giving the S5 a nice uniform look. There’s a large CPU cooler mounting cut-out at the back and eight rubber cable routing grommets to help with cable management.

There’s a good amount of clearance above the motherboard for 3 x 120mm or 140mm fans and most slim radiators will fit too, but keep in mind that motherboards with large VRM cooling may cause issues with thicker or larger radiators, so my suggestion would be either a slim 240mm radiator in the top, or stick with a 120mm AIO in the back.

The PSU can be mounted standard or inverted to take advantage of the bottom air vents. There are four thick rubber pads to help reduce any vibration from the PSU. There’s also two additional 120mm fan mounts in the base of the chassis, although you would have to take out the bottom hard drive section to use the one closest to the front of the chassis.

There are three modular hard drive bays in the S5, each can be removed and configured separately to suit your needs. Need more storage space? Leave them in. Need more GPU clearance? Take them out, you get the idea. All the drive trays are tool free and easy to use and you’ll find 3 x 3.5″/2.5″ trays in the bottom caddy.

Four dedicated 2.5″ trays in the mid-section.

Three more 3.5″/2.5″ trays at the top.

As well as two tool-free 5.25″ drive bays; certainly no issues with storage space here!

There’s a single 120mm fan pre-installed in the back of the chassis, but you’ll find another 2 x 120mm fans in the front; this certainly adds value for money and will also provide a good amount of airflow overall.

There’s seven expansion slots, each fitted with a solid cover. The covers are reusable and each comes fitted with an easily accessible thumb screw.

The rear 120mm fan is fitted with a fan blade guard, always nice to know there’s a reduced chance of excess cables getting jammed in there.

There’s not a huge amount of space behind the motherboard for cable routing, but it should be just enough for a chassis of this size.

There’s a removable back plate for the storage bays, which could help with cabling and also has cutaways for easy access to any connectors.

My main concern is the size of the routing grommets, as they’re quite small, but the saving grace is that there’s quite a few of them, as well as several cable tie loops to help keep everything in order.