SilverStone GD04 HTPC Case
I’ve used Silverstone HTPC cases in the past (the old LC-10M) and thought it was a great case for the price. Here’s the GD04 reviewed at Anandtech, where the reviewer finds some faults…and the commentors find some faults in the reviewer. Ah, good times.
The GD04 is remarkably attractive if you’re into that minimalist look (I am); there’s a sister GD05 model that has a full 5.25″ drive bay instead of just an opening for the optical drive tray, but rather than have unsightly electrical tape covering up the activity LED on the drive I opted to bury it in the case with the GD04. Otherwise the two models are functionally identical, so a lot of what’s said in this review will likely apply to the GD05. This case has also been around for a couple years but doesn’t seem to have been refreshed by SilverStone; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
Yes definitely, the comments
Yes definitely, the comments is where the action is in the Anandtech review of the GD04.
They went to town on that
They went to town on that noise floor and comparison issue. I’ve always considered 26 decibles to be good starting point. I imagine that number popped in my head from either reading so many reviews or maybe something from http://www.silentpcreview.com/.
I used this very case for my
I used this very case for my HTPC… I loved the small form factor… it’s even smaller than my Denon receiver! It’s also whisper quiet (though I replaced the fans with PWM ones). I know many people want more storage in their HTPC but I prefer to keep most of my media on the network. In this case I just have an SSD drive for OS and 2x 2TB drives for Recorded TV. Everything else is on the network. I also love the fact that the optical drive is somewhat hidden.
There are a couple improvements I would make to this case however. It really needs a built-in IR receiver and it needs to hide the buttons/ports on the front under some kind of cover.
Other than that I can’t think of anything… this case is awesome!