SilverStone Precision PS14 Review (Page 3 of 4)

Page 3 – Physical Look – Inside

After removing the side panel, you can see the internal design of the SilverStone Precision PS14. To be consistent with the exterior, the interior of the case is also painted matte black. The paint is sprayed evenly inside the chassis. At bottom of the case, there is a power supply chamber with ventilation holes on top. Not only is it designed to shelter the power supply, the chamber is also the place for you to put up to two 3.5" HDDs. The cool air for the power supply can be blown into the case through the dust filter protected ventilation holes at the bottom of the case directly. If your SilverStone Precision PS14 is fully loaded with fans, graphics cards, and long radiators, cool air can be pumped by the fans of up to 240 mm radiators into the chassis through the air filter at the front panel, hit the graphics card, and be expelled out through the exhaust grille at the top panel. If the user only plans to use a small radiator or just a CPU heatsink with the top ventilation grille covered, the hot air can be expelled out through the rear exhaust grille on the back panel. A 5.25" drive bay is present in the product, though its low profile nature means it will not obstruct airflow. In addition, it is removable if you are not using it.

This photo clearly shows the details of the PSU chamber. The PSU is mounted horizontally, which should lower the center of gravity of the computer. Power cables can get through the back of the PSU chamber and be rerouted into the motherboard area through the two slots with rubber grommets. In the above picture, you can see there are four foam bricks to support the PSU. There are no dedicated ventilation holes on top of the PSU chamber to further enhance the airflow for the power supply. However, there is place for two 2.5" drives on the PSU chamber. The downside is the fact there is no cross airflow from the top to the bottom of the PSU. However, the good thing is the PSU chamber will not look too messy due to the holes. It is worth mentioning there is also a side windowed edition of PS14, so a clean looking PSU chamber is also important for this series.

5.25" drive bays have been on personal computers since early 1980s. Nowadays, USB flash drives and the Internet have practically replaced the need for these old drives. However, if you have some old games, you may still need the old disk reader. On the other hand, if you do not need the 5.25" drive bay, it can be easily removed. I like this design a lot, since it means the users can decide whether to keep the 5.25" drive bay or not. From the above photo, you can also see the inside surface of the side panels do not have any noise absorption material attached, which is not surprising considering its price tag. Otherwise, you can see there is a lot of open space in the Precision PS14. The case can fit graphics cards up to 401 mm long. For those long and heavy graphics cards, no accessory GPU holder for additional support is available in the PS14.

Upon removing the right side panel, you will see the other side of the basement chamber and the motherboard tray. Two 3.5" HDD trays are located to the left side of the power supply area for easy installing and removing of the hard drives. For the 2.5" drives, you just need to screw it on to the tray and use the clips to attach it to the left side of the motherboard tray. Regarding cable management, PS14 did a fairly good job here. Between the motherboard tray and the right side panel, the room for cable routing is about 15mm, which should be sufficient for most cables. According to the above picture, no Velcro straps are included, which would have helped for better cable management. By the way, there is one long opening to route the cable. Even though there is no rubber grommet on the opening, the metal is not sharp at all. There is no need to worry about the safety of the cable or your fingers during installation.

Generally speaking, the interior design of the SilverStone Precision PS14 is pretty good. All of the components you need for building a computer can be nicely accommodated and kept cool. The paint job quality of the interior is also good. More importantly, you do not to be an expert to route cables to do a good job, since there is big opening to allow easy cable connection from the PSU to the motherboard.


Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion