Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
As far as installation goes, everything went as planned. Fairly easy to work with as far as a midtower goes; I installed the power supply first -- although without a crossbar at the top and tons of room at the back installing even larger power supplies should not be a problem at all. Motherboard is straightforward; nothing in particular and I had no problems fitting it in as there's lots of clearing on the side. I did end up replacing all the fans on the SilverStone KL-02 with a Noctua NF-S12 at the back and a NF-P12 in front, because in my opinion the 1200rpm SilverStone fans are way too loud (For my tastes, although they are within average for stock case fans) -- turbulence and motor noise is evident.
I just looked at the photo above and remembered that I forgot about mentioning the manual... well, it's printed on some really good quality paper, and the instructions and diagrams are pretty clear.
Anyways, drive installation is really simple -- the 5.25" drives are simply slide-it-in-and-go. The 3.5" internal drives are accommodated with a bracket to slide into one of four bays like a drawer in the drive cage. Four screws are mounted on the standard attachment holes on the hard drive; rubber dampeners are placed on both sides to reduce vibrational noise generated by the bracket and hard disk contact.
Two special installation mounts/rails are included to compliment the external 3.5" opening in front of the case. They are to be attached to both sides of the 3.5" drive, and then slid into the case like a regular 5.25" drive -- so it works with the tool-free drive clips in the SilverStone KL-02. It's not entirely tool-free, but it works quite well. I don't see me replacing or even taking out this drive anytime soon anyways.
The finished product. The window is large, nice, and clear -- I installed four lights into the case to create this gradient ambient lighting effect (More details here). Generally speaking, cabling is fairly easy with the areas I can sneak and run cables through around the power supply, along with openings in the motherboard tray to run cables behind the tray. Ventilation is decent for cases of this design and configuration; again there's nothing to really complain in this area -- everything is well within expectations in this regard.
Did the SilverStone KL-02 fulfill all my requirements? Well, no, but that's because my ideas are to aim for a case of perfection -- and that's almost impossible to achieve and I've yet to see a product gain ground in this area. So let's start off with how the case fell short of what I define as perfection: The SECC panels are thin, or they could have used aluminum instead and reduce sharpness of some edges. The window scratches way too easily. The mesh attracts too much dust, partially due to the placement of fan -- if the fan intakes air from underneath, it would reduce this issue. It's not entirely tool-free; and SilverStone did not even include thumb screws. The area behind the motherboard tray can be widened and more openings in the tray to improve cabling. And the front fan's contact design is not that great. But I'm listing all these imperfections only because I like the SilverStone KL-02 very much, and it's easier to finish off the relatively short list of bad things than all the details I want to discuss of how much I appreciate it. Most of them do not impede the every day usage of my computer at all. I can only put it in general terms because otherwise it would take too long. It's generally an excellent case with great quality with exception to some edges, lots of innovative ideas (Some not well executed, but they aren't the deal breaker), excellent looks and design, easy to install components, designed with user cabling in mind, and, well, what more can you expect? I'm not disappointed to say the least. While it's undeniable that it has its own flaws, all products do -- and what that matters to me is that I really enjoy the case, and it has not changed two months later. Let's put it this way -- I am not the kind that would simply use 'any' case for my main computer, but I know that this is the one of a kind that I will, and for the fact that, I already am.
Special thanks to Cheney over at SilverStone for making this review possible.
APH equal.balance Award | APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that aren't 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 7.5/10
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.
I'm using the SilverStone KL-02 for my main computer -- I really like it for its looks and ability to accommodate my components in a decent fashion.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
