Silverstone RL05 - A very... well-positioned... case
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,366 words · ~6 min read
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the $69 case Market is loaded with great options maybe $69 is just a great
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position for both the case manufacturer who doesn't have to worry about choking
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their profits and the customer who gets everything they need at the same time
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maybe it's just a good place to be when you want a satisfying experience for
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everyone so come with me let's see what this case at this price point has to
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offer and what I'm going to offer to it
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tunnel bear is the simple VPN app that makes it easy to browse privately and
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enjoy a more open internet to try tunnel bear for free check out the link in the
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video description starting with the front of the red line 05 there are two
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plastic cutout tabs that function as buttons for both power and reset on the
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left hand side these tabs have a decent if rather stiff tactile feel on the
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right hand side we have dual USB 3 ports and both headphone and microphone jacks
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then we come to the PS resistance the killer feature at this price point the
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USB type-c connector at the top of the case wow such beauty you can stick your
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cable in either way I can't wait before we move on note that the
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case does come with red accents like the name would imply but I went with black
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on black because that's more my thing and there are a couple more things
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to note here at the front once you remove move the front bezel you can see
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the USB cables for both the type- C connector and the type a front
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connectors are permanently attached to the front but having one of them at the
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top and one of them at the side makes it so that once you've managed all of your
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cables the front panel gets a little hard to remove which wouldn't matter
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except that unless you take it off you can't access the included and poorly
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mounted fan filter I get it it's better for the USB signal for them not to be
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removable but I still think there's room for improvement here okay I'm sorry I
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swear this doesn't normally happen but I seem to have started a little bit
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prematurely and forgotten the case the left panel has a large window cutout to
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reveal all of your glorious components for the world to see and the right side
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panel is just plain old metal moving on to the bottom of the case you have
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another fan filter this one easier to access under the power supply just
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behind the stamped on spray stencil made
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in China logo good thing that's on the bottom which brings to the top of the
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case do you see the problems here there are actually two main ones one of them
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is the positioning of the ventilation aesthetically it's pleasing because it
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goes right down the middle of the top but functionally it's a little
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frustrating because it goes right over the top of your motherboard this makes
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the installation of 140 mm fans more difficult than it needs to be and it
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also makes the installation of a radiator essentially impossible let's go
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back to the 140 mm fan thing for a moment though say you wanted to water
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cool you bought a dual 120 or 140 mm fan
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AO liquid cooler and put it in the front of the case instead of the top not a big
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deal while I don't personally prefer this approach there are plenty of cases
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out there where this is the most optimal position what now frustrates me is the
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spare 140 mil Silverstone fans that are left over where do you put them they
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don't fit in the back of the case so the top I mean kind of the fan filter up top
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is mounted through the 140 mm mounting
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holes already you can make this work
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rather well by just mounting each fan with three screws instead of four but
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that makes cleaning the filter a little Annoying this also could have been done
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better let's move on to what I think is the strongest aspect of the R5 the
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interior the main compartment of the case rocks a great looking basement
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cover two SSD mounting points on top of the basement cover although only one of
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them has a convenient cable cutout rendering the leftmost one a little bit
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more difficult to wire up cleanly looking upwards from here I really like
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what they did with the cable management on the right side of the motherboard
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this cable cover looks better in my opinion than the bunch of floppy rubber
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grommet cutout holes that have been present in every case since the 800d
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that being said I wouldn't have minded the aformentioned floppy rubber grommets
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for the cable management hole up top or the header and SSD connections down at
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the bottom bottom moving to the back of the motherboard tray there is a
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well-sized and correctly placed CPU mounting cutout two more spots for
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mounting ssds although it must be noted that for the four possible SSD positions
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there are only two included trays which to be fair is just as much or more than
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most people who will buy a $69 case will probably need then below that there are
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two hard drive bays and the power supply that sits up on some foam feet to get
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elevated from the floor and this is important I know lonus has personally
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suffocated a power supply with the fan facing downward on a carpeted floor
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tragic which leads us to the bottom line the R5 is a very solid case with tons of
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features to boot at a rather aggressive price point but one that doesn't enjoy
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the luxury of existing in a vacuum One fierce competitor also at $69 is the
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fantex eclipse P400 it comes with a
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magnetic external fan filter at the top rail mounted fan filters elsewhere a
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proper easy to remove front panel and an RGB light controller to name a few
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features a USB type-c connector is pretty sweet though so which $69
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building experience do you think will be a more pleasurable one let me know in
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do so make sure to use offer code LT to get 10% off of your next purchase all
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right guys if you liked this video tap that tap that like button down below if
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not dislike it whatever no big deal get subscribed to see all of our beautiful
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content if you want to see more case videos click up here this will be uh a
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recent case video that we've made on the anties go there for a laugh it trust me
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it's kind of funny uh if you want a t-shirt check that link out video description down below if you want to
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buy something like maybe this case check out that Amazon Link in the video
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description down below and I'll see you next time