Legit Case Reviews
SilverStone Grandia GD05 HTPC Case Review
| Manufacturer: | SilverStone |
| Product: | SST-GD05B |
| Date: | Thu, Jun 24, 2010 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Shane Higgins - |
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Final Thoughts and Conclusions
SilverStone has a nice
case on their hands with the Grandia
GD05. It is very well built and has a nice finish all the way
around. With the shallow depth of the case it will fit in any place you
can put a standard set top DVD player. Not having an LCD or an LED display on the front might be a turn off for some users, but those that have had an HTPC before either find themselves using it all the time or never. If you are one of those that don't like to have any illumination coming from the front of your PC the SilverStone GD05B is right up your alley. The case is rather simplistic, but it still manages to have a clean and modern look to it that will fit almost any living room's decor.
As mentioned in the body of this review we only bumped into one negative
on the Grandia GD05 HTPC case. The major flaw with this HTPC chassis is that the fans need to be removed in order to clean the filters. Having to pull the system out and taking it apart to pull the fans to
clean the filters is poor design. Granted, if the system is high off the
floor and in a cabinet this may not need to be done very often; if it is sitting
low and close to a floor you could be doing it a lot. This shouldn't be an issue
for all SFF and HTPC cases as many are on audio racks or TV stands, but we would have liked to have seen a slide out fan filter for ease of use.
Some readers might also desire a 3.5” drive bay for a memory card reader or for multimedia panels for remotes or readouts. The lack of the 3.5” bay can be worked around, but for an additional $30 as you can buy a bay adapter. This model that we found is a bit pricey, but it was one of the only ones that we could find that was available, believe it or not. If you know of a less costly version swing by the forums and let us know.
Currently the Grandia GD05 can be found for $89.99
plus shipping. That is not a bad price for a case that holds this
much, looks this nice and in the foot print that it has. Most of the HTPC
cases in this range use only low profile cards; with the Grandia GD05
the options for cards, power supplies and CPU coolers for that matter
is much greater, and the cases that do use full height cards are 4 to 5
inches deeper. If you need a ton of bling and are looking for a black HTPC case that has all the critical features you need with room to expand then be sure to give the SilverStone Grandia GD05 a closer look.
Legit Bottom Line: SilverStone has done very nice job with the Grandia GD05. It is a classy looking HTPC case that supports full size parts in a small foot print. All while being easy on the wallet.
Questions or Comments? View this thread in our forums!
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| Review Index |
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Page 1 - SilverStone Grandia GD05 HTPC Case
Page 2 - Retail Box and Packaging Page 3 - External Impressions Page 4 - Inside the Grandia GD05 Page 5 - Installing parts into the Grandia GD05 Page 6 - Intstallation Continued Page 7 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions |
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