Big, sturdy and silent. A bit like Michael Clarke Duncan. Probably wouldn't suit someone who wants to stuff it full of 2 graphics cards, 8 sticks of RAM and 4 hard drives, but for most people wanting a well built, silent, spacious case, this is the one.

The Silencio is a nicely thought through chassis, it's nothing new in terms of new technologies though. That's said, it's by far sufficient enough for what it needs to accomplish. You can house a fairly high-end selection of PC components inside the chassis whilst keeping the noise levels down.

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.

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.

This case is very nicely constructed, easy to work on and provides more than adequate drive bays, cable routing options, etc, plus SD card reader on the front looks good (ie, not cheap!). The problem with this "silent" case is that the front large fan makes a lot of noise.

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

Cooler Master's Silencio 500 midi tower certainly lives up to its name. Because its side panels are covered in sound-isolating foam and it has two very quiet 120mm fans, it's the ideal case for anyone who wants to build a PC that doesn't sound like a vacuum cleaner.

This is a big ATX case, but not insanely big like some of the alternatives are. Plenty of drive bays with quick release mechanisms, and the modern standard layout for air movement (PSU at bottom). Fans are large & slow, for minimal noise - for me, silence is everything.

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

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.