SPCR

Does anyone have any idea when the silverstone gd04 is coming out? Looks like a killer HTPC case, getting antsy.

viewtopic.php?t=54670

Silverstone guy says September.

Really looking forward to this one as well.

I'm done with towers. I'm putting this thing on top of a smallish file cabinet under my desk.

In case Silverstone guy checks in...

Is that case going to come with a riser card of sorts?

I saw in one of the pics, where the auidocard was fitted above the PSU.

For a video card like mine (GTX275). It will be almost impossible to use the vidcard and the last PCI slot (for soudcard) on a m-ATX mobo without frying the soundcard.

and it makes less sense to use a PCI-X soundcard, as this would block any air intake into the vidcard.

Thanks!

aztec, the GD04 does not require the use of any riser cards. You simply plug the cards directly to motherboard slots just like a regular case. The test rig we used for the GD04 had two Radeon 4870X2 in CrossFireX so it'll fit and cool your GTX275 with ease.

The audio card you saw from our Computex demo was just a daugther board from ASUS's Xonar HDAV1.3 sound card, which plugs to the main card via a ribbon cable and not directly connected to the motherboard. You can see details for this card at the following link:

http://usa.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=wIxyLFT9vTWHLHk8

Hi!, I'm going to mount my first gaming microATX-HTPC and Silverstone GD02 is perfect, good-looking and only 36cm depth but I want a dedicated powerful GPU like gtx275 to play 1920x1080 and everybody have told me that GD02 has poor ventilation with only 2x80mm fans and perhaps it's true, powerful GPU's are hot.
Is it really worth wait to GD04? GD04 will be more cold than GD02? Anybody with a high gaming rig and this case could post its experience?

The config for gaming htpc would be:
CASE: Silverstone GD04 ETA??? Silverstone GD02???
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz Box Socket 1156
cpu cooler:???
motherboard:Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 Micro ATX Socket 1156
RAM:Mushkin Essential 10666 DDR3 1333 4GB 2x2GB
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA2
POWER SUPPLY: corsair hx620 OR Scythe Kamariki 4 650 W Plug-in
dvd: Pioneer DVR-216DBK DVD SATA Negra
GPU: Gainward gtx275 golden sample
2XMicrosoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller

Any advice?
Thanks in advance!

GD02 should have no problems accommodating one GTX 275 with room and cooling capacity.

GD04 will have better cooling than GD02 especially for the CPU area so if you think you may upgrade (or even overclock) to hotter components in the future, a GD04 will be a better choice.

For CPU cooler, I would suggest using the retail box cooler that comes with the Core i5 750. The GD04 was designed with Intel or AMD retail box CPU coolers.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/ ... 4&area=usa

Pics and info are up on the Silverstone site.

Nice. Round buttons would still have been my chice.

Hmm, any chance this could be modded to accept more 3.5" HDDs? It suits me perfectly but I need space for at least three drives.

There seems to be some space in front of the PSU. I have a Coolermaster 4-in-3 module that I would love to put there...

Weiman wrote:Hmm, any chance this could be modded to accept more 3.5" HDDs? It suits me perfectly but I need space for at least three drives.

There seems to be some space in front of the PSU. I have a Coolermaster 4-in-3 module that I would love to put there...

Why get hung up on such details? If the case is perfect for you, go for it and transition to two bigger drives or put in external eSATA/USB/NAS storage. More drives in the case just means more noise and vibration to deal with anyway.

Well the drives I have are already pretty big and pretty darn quiet
The smallest is 500GB so that could be replaced by a 2.5" drive.. But I would like to place all the drives next to the side fan. Especially the cage on top of the PSU feels less than ideal when it comes to cooling.

Anyway I might buy a GD04 if/when it's released (for a decent price) in Sweden and see what's possible.

metaljukebox09 wrote:Hi!, I'm going to mount my first gaming microATX-HTPC and Silverstone GD02 is perfect, good-looking and only 36cm depth but I want a dedicated powerful GPU like gtx275 to play 1920x1080 and everybody have told me that GD02 has poor ventilation with only 2x80mm fans and perhaps it's true, powerful GPU's are hot.
Is it really worth wait to GD04? GD04 will be more cold than GD02? Anybody with a high gaming rig and this case could post its experience?

The config for gaming htpc would be:
CASE: Silverstone GD04 ETA??? Silverstone GD02???
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz Box Socket 1156
cpu cooler:???
motherboard:Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 Micro ATX Socket 1156
RAM:Mushkin Essential 10666 DDR3 1333 4GB 2x2GB
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA2
POWER SUPPLY: corsair hx620 OR Scythe Kamariki 4 650 W Plug-in
dvd: Pioneer DVR-216DBK DVD SATA Negra
GPU: Gainward gtx275 golden sample
2XMicrosoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller

Any advice?
Thanks in advance!

I have a GD02 with a GTX260 and a Q9550s. The graphics card is right next to the left side, drawing cool air directly from the outside and exhausting through the back. I think the GD02 is better than the GD04 for GPU cooling in that sense. Stressed with Furmark and set to top out at 85C my 260 only speeds up the fan to 50%. The 275 doesn't put out significantly more heat. In a GD04, it seems you would have the hard disks blocking some of the intake air, although I don't know if that's significant.

Silverstone's NT01-E CPU cooler sits around 5mm from the exhaust fans in the back and seems to do a good job of cooling my Q9550s.

Edit: Q9550s@3,4GHz/1,12v gives core temps of 56,57,60 and 61C under Prime95 load.

According to SPCR's review of the i5 750, the 750 draws only 7W more when stressed w TMPEGEnc, so you should have no problem there either. The GD04 has two 120mm fans next to the CPU, but due to the DVD drive placement you can't get a large CPU cooler right next to them.

That said; if the GD04 had been out when I bought my new system, I would have bought that, skipped the internal DVD drive and bought an i7 920 + Ninja Mini. I actually knew the layout of mobo, psu and the two right-side 120mm fans in the GD04 exactly just from seeing a pic of the front panel with the DVD drive moved to the right... Simply because I thought that's the layout the GD02 should have had. Or... not exactly Move the DVD to the left side and make the case high enough so the cables clear the PSU. That leaves the CPU area completely free for a huge heat sink next to the 120mm fans.

Another note: In a GD02 you need a max 140mm long PSU. 150mm might still fit, but any longer and the DVD drive will be in the way. The GD04 doesn't have this problem.

SST Guy: It would probably be helpful if the Silverstone product pages for these two cases had pics of the case mounted with an NT01-E cooler and a standard length DVD drive. The space for CPU cooler is cramped and/or oddly shaped, depending on how you look at it.

Sunrise, thank you for the tip on showing NT01-E in our chassis. I'll put in a request for that.

If you are considering the GD04, I would definitely recommend using the retail box cooler that comes with the CPU. You may find that there is no need to change it because the default cooling configuration for the GD04 is really (as good as our Fortress FT01 mid tower).

Looking at the dimensions of the case and certain motherboards it looks like it might just be possible to squeeze a slim optical drive in and still have a 120mm cooler. I'm not sure how much space there would be for the cables though.

I hope someone in Europe starts selling it soon.

SST Guy: any idea when it will be released in Europe? According a local retailer (Sweden) none of their suppliers have it in their assortment yet.

We added a photo of our NT01-E CPU cooler installed in the GD04 with an optical drive mounted. There should be enough room for a 190mm deep optical drive when NT01-E is installed. We also recommend the cover on the NT01-E be removed for better performance.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/ ... 4&area=usa

The case has a lot of room for storing cables actually, we even recommend a few of our own non-modular cabled PSUs in our manual and on our website.

The initial shipment of GD04 in black color has already arrived in our European office, but the quantity is very limited so I am not sure if every country there will get it now. The second shipment is scheduled to arrive in about two weeks with both colors available. I would recommend that if you really want one to please contact your local SilverStone distributor/reseller for one. Sometimes they don't automatically order from us if they don't hear from their customers.

Thanks, that should save people some gray hairs.

Here's a pic of how it fits in a GD02. Unless you have a <8-9cm high cooler, it needs to be off center to clear the DVD caddy. There is room for something larger here as long as it has the right shape.

i was thinking (hoping) this cooler would work

http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-LOW-7000_sil ... Cooler.htm

I have been wondering why cases like this, that are clearly aimed for HTPC use, come without an integrated IR receiver. Silverstone has several models with "optional" VFD/LCD/touchscreen, but with quite a large premium on the price and not really that useful (they tend to be too small to provide any advantage, VFDs have too few characters and rows, LCDs have poor contrast etc). With small and affordable cases like this one I don't really miss the display, just the IR receiver.

First review is up on Newegg. Very positive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811163158

I've got a full GD04 review coming up soon. So far it seems like a very nice case.

Still working on the review, so please if you have any special questions or details/clearances about the case you want me to check, just drop me a PM.

SST Guy wrote:We added a photo of our NT01-E CPU cooler installed in the GD04 with an optical drive mounted.

Is it possible to mount the NT01-E closer to the 120mm case fans? Or even possibly against the case fans?

I'm a bit of a newbie on quiet builds though I've built a few computers in the past. I chose this case for my first "quite" build and put in quite components though I did power it with a new Core i7 860 with the stock cooler which has been fantastic.

Core i7 860
Gigabyte P55M-UD2
Gigabyte 4650 (with an annoyingly loud fan)
4 GB RAM
Samsung 500GB, single platter drive
Enermax Modu82+ 525

The net net is that the case was great, easy build and is very high quality. Little bit bigger than I was hoping for but that has advantages too. I've disconnected the loud GPU fan and there is enough ventilation in the case that it doesn't get above 60C playing Blu-Ray or Hulu. My system runs very quiet but I do hear the 3 case fans which I wish I could control from the mobo but they are hooked up to the PS with the included cables so they're always running full speed. Even so it is quiet to my ears and more importantly to my wife's.

All in all I'm only pulling in 70W or so at idle which I'm quite happy with compared to my previous computer.

Finally, only gripe I have was that the screws for the case that were supposed to be included were not which complicated my build. However after some email with Silverstone they mailed me the screws.

Bought it from Amazon which had free shipping, no tax (for me), and slightly cheaper than Newegg.

Jipa wrote:I've got a full GD04 review coming up soon. So far it seems like a very nice case.

Still working on the review, so please if you have any special questions or details/clearances about the case you want me to check, just drop me a PM.

Jipa - I've just pm'd you asking about the exact depth of the case.

Just in case anyone else here has one to hand that they can measure, the new HTPC build that I'm planning will need to go in a really confined space - the cabinet is only 35.5cm deep. The GD04 is the shallowest matx case I've found, and is listed as only 323mm deep. I reckon that only leaves me about 3cm for cables from the back. So can anyone measure for me whether the 323mm an exact measurement from front to back?

Also, the motherboard I/O section and the PCI cards section look recessed by about 1.5 cm. Is that about right? 1.5cm will make a difference

If you can confirm on these measurements, it would be VERY helpful

EDIT: I meant to ask, even if there is enough room for cables, would 3cm behind the case be enough for airflow? The cupboard is about 35.5cm deep, 30cm high and about 80cm wide inside. so very little airflow at the back, but at least they'll be space above and to the side, and I guess we would have to leave the front doors open. I am planning as low power a build as possible though - probably a 785g motherboard and either an Athlon XII 240e or even a sempron 140. Hopefully it'll be low power enough not to generate too much heat!

& I just wanted to say, I've been lurking and reading the reviews and forums on SPCR for some time now, but never got round to signing up. It's a great site!

The review is finally out!

http://metku.net/index.html?path=review ... gd04/index

I hope moderators won't mind a bit of an ad. All and any feedback is always welcomed, also feel free to drop any further questions either to the review comments of my PM.

It's such a lovely little case.

nice review!!

x2 on the great review.

looking at the pics, i'm trying figure out how to fit a cpu cooler that has a quiet fan...

Thanks!

And depending on the motherboard layout, you'll need a pretty damn low cooler to fit there.. Personally I use optical drive so rarely I'd just leave the whole bracket away and slap something like Mini Ninja in there.

This case is a sure winner to be the basis for my first HTPC. Thanks Jipa for a very informative review.

I've been wondering if it would be possible to place the Silverstone NT01-E with its fins turned to the right where the 120 mm case fan is. That way it would get free cool air running through it.

Anyone any ideas whether the NT01-E can be used in this way?

I read that GD05 is the same case with a plastic front. Any idea when that will be released?

tsanga wrote:I read that GD05 is the same case with a plastic front. Any idea when that will be released?

My guess is that you will start seeing GD05 in retail either late this week or next week in US.

Other regions should follow in about two weeks.