Cooler Master Silencio 652S Computer Case
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,795 words · ~8 min read
0:00
so a question i find myself asking is do we really need more quiet pc case
0:05
options and coolermaster's answer to that was uh yes we have the silencio
0:09
652s and we will send it to you please do a review please and all i could
0:14
really say to that is uh okay i guess so and while i'm randomly guessing at
0:18
things i guess my review of the lgg watch r is going to be coming soon so
0:21
stay tuned for that but first this video
0:31
cooler master's case mod world series is your opportunity to show off your
0:35
modding skills and win great prizes entries close february 7th 2015. click
0:40
now to learn more we'll start with a look at the outside i
0:43
quite like the aesthetic of this case the front door is hard to even see that
0:47
it's a door it blends in with the front of the case really well and cooler
0:51
master just overall hasn't attempted to reinvent the already fairly functional
0:56
wheel of quiet cases with simple elegant looks but has managed their own unique
1:01
spin that makes this more than a me too product the front door is lined with
1:05
noise dampening materials and reveals three five and a quarter inch bays
1:08
underneath and a removable cover for the two included 120 millimeter selencio
1:13
series quiet fans and some rather curious design choices first i noticed
1:19
that the bay covers and fan cover have a plastic patterned layer and another
1:23
plastic mesh layer that gives them a very pleasing appearance but they both
1:27
lack dust filters a bit of a given on mid-range to high-end cases these days
1:32
next i noticed that they might not need to be filtered anyway since the front
1:37
door includes no gaps to allow air to be drawn in through the front of the case
1:42
which means that for any filtration scheme to work it would actually have to
1:46
cover the side vents on the front bezel
1:49
so the third oddity i noticed then was that these also don't include any
1:53
filters so the overall impression of the front is that it looks really good but
1:58
leaves the primary air intake for the case completely open to infiltration by
2:03
dust a design oversight that is particularly confusing when cooler
2:07
master went to the trouble to filter the bottom of the case where only the power
2:12
supply takes in air by default let's move on though i o is well laid out with
2:17
anything vulnerable to being stepped on by a cat like power and reset buttons on
2:21
the front and everything else that is dual usb 2 dual usb 3.0 headphone and
2:26
microphone and this is a really nice touch an sd card reader on the top also
2:31
on the top is a vent exposure mechanism that feels a lot less like a bolted-on
2:37
afterthought than most silent cases looking at you define r5 and from
2:42
everywhere but the back appears to be just a stylized top panel very nice
2:48
from the back though we can see that there are two sliding pieces that lock
2:51
into place well yet are easy to remove if you know what to do the first one is
2:56
a solid plastic layer that leaves the top looking stylishly well vented just
3:00
like the front when you open the door and there's a second one that reveals
3:04
easy mounting for top fan so that's up to two 140 millimeter fans or a dual 120
3:10
millimeter radiator with fans the side panels use standard non-captive thumb
3:15
screws so be careful with them when you remove them and other than that their
3:19
only interesting features are the noise dampening lining on the insides and the
3:23
removable panel on the left that you'll need to remove two screws from then pop
3:27
off if you want to expose the vent that sits next to your GPU area moving to the
3:31
inside we find very solid construction overall but i expect this from cooler
3:36
master so they don't get massive bonus points for it or anything sucks to be
3:39
good at stuff hey guys so we'll continue the inside tour at the front the five
3:42
and a quarter inch cage can accept a two and a half or three and a half inch
3:45
drive in the bottom bay and is tool-less which is good but riveted in which means
3:50
no front triple rad mounting like the define r5 with that said i suspect most
3:55
people won't do that anyway so radiator support for the dual 120 millimeter
4:00
front fans would have been enough for me and it has that but the implementation
4:04
is really really bizarre kind of like they couldn't decide if and how they
4:08
were gonna do it so like i saw that with the front drive cages removed the red
4:13
could go on the inside here with the barbed side down only by the way which
4:17
means that most aios won't reach the CPU socket or even a graphics card in the
4:21
top slot at least that would have worked if cooler master didn't have the front
4:26
fan screwed into these threaded stamped mounts that would require custom screws
4:30
and very careful installation in order to do that then i noticed that it looked
4:34
kind of like there'd be room to put the red inside the front bezel only what no
4:38
wait not quite enough room so at this point i finally consulted the manual and
4:42
realized they expect you to buy an optional adapter to put a rat in the
4:47
front not a good solution but
4:50
given that the top and rear dual and single rad mounts are fine and how few
4:55
people need three radiators i'd have actually given this a pass still if the
5:00
air cooling fan installation method was really good and that's why water cooling
5:04
was difficult but it's not these front screws are partially threaded presumably
5:09
to prevent over-tightening of the fans but unfortunately due to tolerances in
5:14
manufacturing we end up with the opposite problem where my fans actually
5:18
had some wiggle in them even when they were fully screwed in a big no-no for a
5:23
silent case although in practice once we fired it up it didn't end up causing a
5:28
lot of vibration really any that i noticed moving on towards the back we've got the
5:32
drive bays that most normal people will leave in that i was initially going to
5:36
call over engineered for no apparent reason until i figured out that they're
5:40
actually surprisingly clever at the bottom there are three three and
5:44
a half inch bays that are screwed in and non-adjustable although you can install
5:48
two and a half inch drives in them if you want then the top four can actually
5:52
be adjusted by relocating this piece right here which allows the plastic
5:56
sleds to then also be resized these little wings to be lowered and ssds to
6:01
be screwed in from the sides in such a way that the SATA power connector
6:04
doesn't experience any unnecessary strain like most other solutions very
6:09
nice cooler master next to the drive cage there's a spot for a filtered 120
6:13
millimeter intake fan or another two and a half inch or three and a half inch
6:17
drive to be screwed in from the bottom of the case then moving further toward
6:20
the rear we've got anti-vibration rubber feet for the power supply an extra
6:24
auxiliary pci slot to go with the standard atx-7 three water cooling
6:28
grommets which i used to poke fun at but now use every day in one of their other
6:33
cases in our whole room water cooling setup and finally the third included
6:37
cilencio 120 millimeter fan at the top
6:41
we've got an aio dual 120 millimeter liquid cooler that we were able to
6:44
install facing either way thanks to the mounting slots rather than holes and
6:49
without losing access to any of our three five and a quarter inch bays very
6:53
nice the motherboard tray features a cutout for easy CPU cooler installation
6:57
yet another two and a half inch drive sliding grommet mount ample cable
7:02
management loops unexceptional but functional cable management holes with
7:07
equally unexceptional and actually
7:10
barely good enough spacing in the back of the tray to run
7:14
cables between it and the side panel if it weren't for the noise dampening
7:18
material on that panel they'd have been fine but as it was i had to do the push
7:22
down and slide in order to get the case closed up
7:26
so it's conclusion time the case accepts a ton of drives up to nine three and a
7:31
half inch and a two and a half inch or ten two and a half inch or any
7:35
combination thereof it looks great and is really well built but it loses some
7:41
marks for its open mesh that's masquerading as a filtration system and
7:46
poorly thought out front fan mounts so is that a recommendation for this
7:50
case not directly but the 652s is also
7:54
not a bad choice it just could have been a little bit better one change in
7:58
particular that i'd like to see on a v2 of this would be the ability to
8:02
completely remove the front door and stealth the hinge mounting points that
8:07
combined with the already excellent silence to high airflow transformation
8:11
that's possible on the top would turn this into possibly the best implemented
8:16
versatile case on the market maybe at
8:19
some point cooler master will start letting me look at this stuff before
8:22
sending me a finished product and asking me to review it so i can send them helpful suggestions like that but for
8:26
now we'll have to settle for just reviews and i hope you guys enjoyed this
8:30
one thanks for watching like if you liked dislike if you disliked leave a
8:34
comment if your feelings are more complicated than this as always there's a link in the video description to help
8:38
us out you can send us a monthly contribution if you want us to keep making videos you can buy a t-shirt like
8:42
this one if you want us to keep making videos and you can change your amazon bookmarks one with our affiliate codes
8:46
whenever you're buying cases like this or whatever else on amazon it gives us a
8:50
small kickback so we can keep making videos thanks again for watching and as
8:55
always don't forget to subscribe