Silverstone RL01B-USB 3.0 Case Build

Closely moderated reviews by forum members willing to share their experience and accept stiff peer review. Open only to registered forum members.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar

Post Reply
fastturtle
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 12:48 pm
Location: Shi-Khan: Vulcan or MosEisley Tattonnie

Silverstone RL01B-USB 3.0 Case Build

Post by fastturtle » Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:59 am

Just finished assembling the E3-1230V3 Xeon (see sig for details) and I'm very pleased with it.

Note that the SST-RL01 case is one of these Mesh Cases, so they don't dampen noise much at all even though they do help provide enough air flow. The case comes with a single 120mm LED fan in the front that I moved to the rear and replaced with a 120mm 1200rpm fan circca from the SST TJ08 case - circca 2006. It's old but still works and I like the noise from it as it's minimal - simple air flow whoosing through the grill.

The PSU mounts in the bottom of the case with a large filtered vent below . The PSU mounts include both directions and my PSU fan now faces down as it should. One of the major differences between this and other performance cases is the entire lack of side vents. The only vents in the case are the front mesh grill, bottom, on top with two fan mounts (120/140mm) and the customary rear vent. The lack of side panel vents is a plus as the design forces straight thru air flow and if you use a pair of slow 120mm fans at the top to exhuast the case, the other fans can be set to pull air air for maximum cooling. Another plus for the case is the front fan helps cool the hard drives as it's mounted right in front of the 5 tool less hard drive bays. The case includes 7 3.5 bays with a 2.5 inch bay at the bottom of the case for an SSD/Laptop drive that mounts a drive from the bottom.

An issue to be aware of is that this case does not have a removable motherboard tray and depending on the board, things can get quite tight if you have large hands like me. Silverstone states that the Max HSF the case supports is 155mm and although the Hyper T4 fits, at 152.5mm, it's tight.

As to the Front panel connections, they're long enough for the Audio ports to reach the favored Rear bottom location favored by most motherboards. Cable-Fu is a must even though there are no side windows or vents. You want maximum airflow and this ensures it. My cable-fu is lacking right now as I'm doing burn in but once completed, I'll take the time to route things better.

Updated the Post as I did not realize the PSU mount was configured for either direction. This also benefits my poor Cable-Fu skills
Last edited by fastturtle on Sat Mar 15, 2014 2:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

fastturtle
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 12:48 pm
Location: Shi-Khan: Vulcan or MosEisley Tattonnie

Minor Annoyances

Post by fastturtle » Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:08 pm

Finally solved a buzzing issue - turns out the Samsung drive was the issue.

The problem was a Misconfigured Windows Page File, had it on the wrong drive so moving it to the Seagate 3TB solved the issue. Due to the page file being placed on the drive, it constantly spun up/down due to it's agressive power management. Now that I've relocated the file, the problem has gone away. Annoying while it lasted due to the buzzing.

Another issue with that buzzing is discovered the side panels are very thin so any buzz tends to be amplified.

I'm thankful that I had relocated the LED fan to the rear as it's bright enough to be useful as a blasted night light. I'll be replacing it along with the front fan with something that has PWM capabilities.

Some Pics as Promised - swapped out the Radeon 5670 for the old Geforce GT7300 Fanless to benchmark it. Much slower performance but I can still play my Guildwars with it.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Post Reply