Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
Overall, the installation went well. There is sufficient information included in the manual to make the installation process easy for anyone from beginners to enthusiasts. I chose the Scythe Fuma cooler, because it is pretty quiet, and I wanted to try and make the computer as quiet as possible. Since there was very little reason to cable manage the front from an aesthetic perspective, I did not really bother putting too much effort into it on this side. For the most part, I have already mentioned the struggles I had with installation on the previous page, which was the bad design of the PCI covers that can easily fall out when only wanting to remove a couple of them and the cable management hole for the motherboard connectors being badly located, making it hard for the connectors to reach the far side of the motherboard. A couple of the screws were really tightly screwed in from factory, meaning I almost stripped them when I attempted to remove them. Other than these, I did not really have any other significant issues with installation.
As for the completed build, I can already tell all of you are admiring how strikingly modern and fancy this case looks. Jokes aside, I like the simple, more traditional look of the SilverStone Kublai KL07. The single light for power is enough, and it has been a refreshing change to have a completely closed case without any windows or bright LEDs blinding me. It is less exciting to show off to other people, but ultimately this is not the aim of the case. The main aim of the case is for silence, which is best achieved with less noise emissions, but a good case design can help. Overall, with the components I had installed, it was nice and quiet. On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is silent and 10 is a jet taking off, I would score the overall sound at 3.5/10. The included fans were also fairly silent, each scoring in at 3.0/10, since they are all the same.
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As always, here at APH Networks, we take the intended purpose for the product into consideration. For the SilverStone Kublai KL07, the intended purpose is for quiet operation, in which it does well in. The Kublai KL07 offers quite a few different features for beginners and enthusiasts alike. The build quality is great with steel construction, making it really solid, especially with the more traditional rectangular design. It also has many cooling options for either large air coolers such as the Scythe Fuma I was able to install, or up to a 280mm radiator in the front. It is not for custom water cooling though. Regardless of having no window, the internal layout is open and spacious allowing for large graphics cards and unobstructed airflow. The building process is simple, and the manual has sufficient information regarding installation. Unfortunately, there is very little room for cable management, and the frame makes it difficult to use one of the openings with cables that have large connectors. Screws are screwed in too tightly from factory, and there is very little room on the top for either fans or radiators. The top panel pops off, but there are no holes for cables to be able to mount anything in the top, making the entire area almost unnecessary. If they include a top area, it should be easy to cut some holes to make it useful. These issues are small and easy to avoid once you know about them. There are enough cooling options to not have to use the top area, it would just have been a nice addition in my opinion. Overall, the building process was good, except for the slight annoyances listed above, as well they do not infringe on the main aim for this case, which is silence. As for the price, it comes in at $85 USD at press time, which is a pretty reasonable price. The main attraction of the SilverStone Kublai KL07 is for silence, which it achieves, and building in it is a good experience. Overall, the Kublai KL07 is a good case, and is pretty loud and insistent on reaching silence -- no ironic puns intended.
SilverStone provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.1/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
If you are looking for a quiet and simple chassis, the SilverStone Kublai KL07 might just be the one you are looking for.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
