1 Flares 1 Flares × Enthusiast users with a constrained budget often have to make compromises in regards to quality, building a PC around a chassis that emits a lot of fan noise due to thin panel design and the inclusion of low quality fans.

It seems that quite a few cases have been released recently and while this might seem a bit repetitive it does at least allow us to compare the cases quite well. Today's case is the Cooler Master Silencio 550 Chassis which is trying to be slightly different to your standard case but at a price that...

Goodsound levels – pretty quiet; Looks good when cleaned; 3.5″ HD ‘dock; Plenty of space for extra hd's; etc; Well built and pretty solid

Will never look as good as it does in the pictures; Airflow is not that competitive with other cases; Very heavy case

June 27, 2011 by Lawrence Lee Product Cooler Master Silencio 550 ATX Tower Case Manufacturer Cooler Master Street Price ~£65 Being one of the largest PC case makers, Cooler Master has a seemingly endless selection ranging from relatively small budget models to enormous EATX server towers and...

Quiet out of the box experience; Acoustic damping foam; Extras: SD card slot; hard drive dock most components; Removable hard drive cage to facilitate long graphics cards; Looks great; Affordable

Could use more airflow; Fans are clicky and too slow for most users; Foam creates clearance issues; Hard drive dock lacks an ejection mechanism

Fancy a gamer case with LEDs, huge spinning fans with lasers and glow strips, elaborate colours, side windows, big plastic front panels Go read another review then. This is one for the enthusiasts, the professionals and the silence nazis.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: Cooler Master's Silencio 550 claims to be prepared to take on powerful hardware, but in our experience it struggles to cope with a high-end Core i7 980X processor and a Radeon HD 6970 graphics card.

When I mention the Cooler Master Silencio 550, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the movie "Mulholland Drive". In the film, there is an eerie theater by the name of Club Silencio.

In developing a chassis, companies like Cooler Master have to decide whether the focus will be on cooling or noise, because it's extremely difficult to have a chassis excel in both.

I'm always skeptical of marketing hype, so my first stop was the factory specs, and I found something refreshing: detailed factory measurements! I hope this becomes a standard, at least with non-budget cases.

Sleek; elegant look; Sound insulated; Roomy internal spaces; Lots of video card room; Hot Swap hard drive bay; SD card reader; USB 3.0 front panel I/O port; Filters on both air intakes; Built solid; Almost a full inch of back panel cable space; Internal removable hard drive cage; Comes with two...

SD card reader instead of more I/O USB ports; USB 3.0 from front panel has to be run outside the case; Larger video cards requiere removing the internal drive cage; Only two 5.25" bays -Door is not removable and only opens right to left

This new chassis from Cooler Master aims to keep your components quiet

Dust filter; Decent internal space; Nice understated design

Cables difficult to install; Back panel fixing is difficult; Not that quiet

In accordance with ASUS philosophy of presenting new devices in short periods of time, not long after the first Fonepad, new models, Fonepad Note 6 and Fonepad 7, have been announced. Unfortunately, f...