The proof of the pudding is in the eating!

Looks nice. First USB Type C port I've seen.

Is there any test on the stock fans?

Model: APA1425M12

Likely it should be the same fan used onto their AR-07 cooler (different frame) and RL05/PM01 cases (though I don't think you may find any serious, in-depth review of these products too).

Wow - it is an homage to the P180.



Is there a top grill? Edit: No, the top is solid, with the slots along the corners.

Well, actually the top is completely detachable, you may have it either closed and foam padded or, on the contrary, wide open with a magnetic dust filter (albeit I didn't found a clear image around about how much clean that would turn out).

Luca.

http://hwready.it/recensioni/silverston ... 32340.html

A couple more reviews, in English this time:
http://www.hardwareasylum.com/reviews/cases/sst_kl07
https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cas ... 7_review/1

Personally, I really don't like the rear PSU filter access, I have the same problem with the Corsair 400Q and Phanteks Eclipse P400S. Looking at it though it might not be too hard to modify to have the filter come out the front, just need to find a replacement filter that is longer and bend the clip in the middle out of the way. Time to go look at filter mods...

Edit: Another review published 1/30/17. https://play3r.net/reviews/cases/silver ... se-review/

Despite my dislike for the rear filter access I ended up getting one of these. I wanted either this or the Fractal Design Define C and the price, extra HDD mount, front USB-C, and including 3x 140mm fans pushed me to this one.

First thoughts: this is significantly quieter than the P180 it replaces (Rev B which was not modified) and I like it. A lot. It was easy to work in with plenty of space for my needs. It has good clearance and most of the cables were easy to run. The fans seem very smooth to me, even when ramped up fairly high, no noticeable vibrations or bearing noises. Running Prime95 the fans didn't need to ramp up at all so the airflow seems to be pretty good. I am using a Mugen 5 with an i7-7700K and can't hear it unless I am running a stress test. I hear air noise more than the fans when I am stressing the system, the inlets/outlets aren't as open as I would like, but still better than the P180 inlet grilles. I am not sure if removing some of the internal vane/baffles would help or not and I am not bothered by it enough to do anything about it.

Cons: Filter access isn't ideal and the HD audio cable is about 10 cm too short. I had to route it above the motherboard to get to the lower left corner, it also has to run across the top 2.5" SSD slot which might be an issue in the future. I would have liked an extra 1/4" of cable space behind the motherboard tray but it was sufficient although re-installing the rear panel was a pain. As the reviews note, the expansion slot cover mechanism is a pain. As long as the case is laying down it works, but good luck getting the slot covers in if you have it vertical. My slot retention bracket also arrived bent. It still functions though.

I am still considering changing the bottom filter orientation but I won't mess with it till I figure out how often I need to change it. I may also modify the front door to have a hinge or magnetic mounts rather than the clips. Neither problem is a huge deal, the audio cable was much more annoying.

This issue can be solved with an inexpensive extension cable, Akasa make one which is available from sources such as this US vendor.

It can be solved that way, and I will do that if it ends up being an issue down the road, but it shouldn't be an issue to start with. Almost all of the motherboards I have seen recently have the HD audio connection in the lower left corner of the board so this should have been anticipated and designed for. That's why I mention it and why I called it out specifically.

Maybe a little off topic...

I don't know about you guys, but I stopped using front case audio jacks. Seems like the shielding isn't up to the task compared to the rear jacks directly mounted on the mobo. Noticably higher noise floor. I bring it up because I don't see any shielding on the Akasa cable. How is it on the KL07?

What makes this not an option for me is the lack of external drive bays.

Absolutely all cases have their front audio connectors placed in the front or top area, so the connector on the motherboard should be placed close to the other "front" connectors (power, reset, LEDs, etc.). A general problem with motherboard designs.

That would certainly be better but given what actually happens and that most other cases accommodate this by having long enough cables, it is still an issue with this case.

I may be mistaken but as I understand it part of the reason that the audio connections are where they are is so that they can be on an isolated part of the motherboard which reduces interference and improves sound quality. There really isn't anywhere else on the board that they could maintain that isolation.

I think you're correct about the reason, but it could be feasible to have the leads drawn in an isolated path along the bottom edge of the board.

Not perfect because it's not mATX.

I'm done unnecessarily wasting space with mid-towers.

Define Mini C is the only superb option right now.

my friend was not impressed.. his Positive: good air flow and space, a lot for hard drives.
Negative: plastic parts more than he can live with and threads he had to align with taps and adjust. according to him "Chieftec" was much better made.

Thanks for sharing!


How much did he pay for them?

well, didn't ask the price of that but it is far below than this

I was just looking at some reviews, it seems that KL07 has the best sound insulation ever for a mid-case.

And airflow is excellent too with pre-installed 3 140mm fans.

Here is a pretty good in-depth review of the KL07, which includes lots of data from other cases on the market too:
http://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/2970-silverstone-kublai-kl07-case-review

The main issue with this case in the UK is its pricing, at around £80 to £85 it struggles to compete against the cheaper competition such as the Fractal Design Define C and Phanteks Enthoo Pro M. And the results of reviews don't seem to bear out that it is exceptional in terms of either its cooling performance or its quietness. If I were looking for a 'perfect' case right now it wouldn't be this one. Sure I would have to pay around double the price but my pick would be the Be Quiet Dark Base 900 because of its three 140mm PWM fans and the integral PWM fan hub.

That GamerNexus's review of KL07 didn't give it a completely glowing conclusion, because it wasn't the best at either cooling or quietness in its factory configuration. But usually to be best at either, the sacrifice made would be detrimental to the other spectrum of performance metric, which admittedly is not difficult to achieve. If you look closely at the test results, the KL07 is quite remarkable in that it isn't far off top cooling performance but still competitive with many cases when it comes to noise. That means you can easily tune it (by slowing the case fans down a little more) to achieve top class quietness with still mid-pack cooling performance.

Silverstone do seem to have much thicker foam in the KL07 than most other cases. The question is how effective is it in reducing noise. Interestingly a couple of months ago HardwareCanucks published this video on YouTube PC Case Sound Dampening - Does it ACTUALLY work? where they attempted to measure how effective foam really is. The case used in the video is the KL07 and yes, they did remove all the foam to see what the difference was. In short: according to HardwareCanucks the foam does reduce noise but in measured terms maybe not as much as might be expected. However some say that they notice higher frequency noises are much more reduced by foam than lower pitched sounds so it might not be just a question of reducing the volume of noise but also improving the quality of what noise there is.

HardwareCanucks' test result is inline with ours. The foam's effect on noise reduction is slight in either volume or pitch. With the KL07, there is more to perceived noise reduction than just foam padding. The vents on the front and top were also designed to direct noise away without compromising airflow.

Are its fans (APA1425M12) on-par with BE QUIET SILENT WINGS 3 in terms of noise?

Hardware Canucks' noise floor isn't low enough to show a significant result.

Foam does little to absorb noise as the thickness isn't an appreciable fraction of the noise wavelength. 1kHz tone = 34cm wavelength. 10kHz tone = 3.4cm...so perhaps 0.5cm foam can have a little impact here.

Where foam helps is if it is a buffer between two panels and can dampen vibrations. Also why mass loaded vinyl works - the added mass helps dampen panel vibrations.

They should be considering both run at 1000rpm max.