Customer Reviews

SilverStone LC13B-E Aluminum/Steel ATX Media Center/HTPC Case - Retail (Black)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been using this case for a couple of months now, and, while I would stand by the four star review (one star downfor relatively loud fans and no thought to cable management), I like it a whole lot better than I did at first.

After some small-fingered gymnastics to get a large gaming mainboard and a huge pci-e video card tucked in here with my non-modular power cables, the very last thing I wanted to do was open this thing up again, but I was getting tired of listening to my previously quiet cpu heatsink fan kick into jet mode halfway through a netflix movie. It was so loud that the fairly loud fans the case comes with became irrelevant.

So, I needed to work on the airflow. Since I was going to have to pull this big baby out of its space anyway, I decided to swap out the original fans and see if I couldn't get the airflow higher at the same time I was trying to get the noise lower.

Now, I originally put a KN8 SLI motherboard and an enormous video card in here without removing the center hard drive cage, but it was really tight all the way around. Bad idea - even though I had stuffed the excess power cables in there, it was too cramped and tight for the fans to move any air. Although the case is large, there really isn't very much headroom for the cpu cooler, so going with a completely passive one of those wasn't an option. Instead, I bought 2 80mm silent fans to replace the two rear case fans and also bought two silent 120mm fans for the front and one side of the case. Removing the center cage gave me enough extra room to tether my power cables to the reinforcement bar. Now, my heat sensitive cpu fan never gets above a whisper.

The case is solid and reinforced. I put a fairly heavy 28" lcd tv on top with not a groan or a strain or a whimper. If loud fans bother you, figure that into your costs. But the case itself is gorgeous and extremely well made. Setting it up could not have been easier. The PCI covers come right out - no cheap punch-outs. The cables are well-marked and seem to be of good quality.

Overall, I'm very happy with this case. I'd be happier if it came with quieter fans, but this is an amazing htpc case for the price.

I just finished putting this computer together yesterday, it is essentially the same components of my two year old workhorse, but now with Win 7, 2 new solid state drives and more memory for 64-bit. The ECS 570Slit-A ATX motherboard fit perfectly, the OCZ 1,000W power supply did too. I also put in 3 3.5" SATA HDDs with no problem.
The two 5" bays are being used by the DVD-ROM and a Ultra fan controller/USB ports that I wanted to have.
The 2 x 2.5" only one is being used for now with an ULTRA 2.5" dual SSD drive. It has expansion for two additional SSD's!
I could have added another standard internal HD but decided not to in order to store the extra wires from my power supply.
Putting this together takes time thinking about it: airflow, noise reduction, and more importantly wire distribution. I run some wires under the motherboard to minimize clutter: i.e: rear fan; front audio; on/off and reset switch wires, and USB.
I also used...and this is something I've been doing for a while...I use scotch brite pads to filter the air coming into the case. I used 4 pads total, and then used filter element white paper behind the slotted expansion doors. This not only blocks dust, but noise coming out. For anyone wondering about heat...I used heat controllers to keep an eye, but never have problems.
Overall, everything fits tight, but fits. I have two nvidia 7600GS video cards in SLI mode and they fit with room to spare.
If you're building from scratch, my advice is buy notebook SATA HDD or SSDs and insert them using the 2.5" dual bays from ULTRA which I also recommend, this way, you free the middle area for a fan if you need it (I did not) and it allows longer video cards.

This thing looks great as an HTPC and I read someone who said that this did not have a rest button: it does, but it's inside the panel, so what I say?!
Job well done to SilverStone!

After 2 months of research selected this case for all-in-one HTPC/gaming PC computer. Excellent layout, can house full size ATX board and 12" long PCI-e graphics cards(one hd cage will have to come out). Doesn't look Out of place on modern A/V audio rack. Excellent build quality, looking at another ITX silverstone case for smaller project.

The case is excellent for an HTPC, just finished my build with a core i7-760 and Asus motherboard. Some notes on the case that I ran into during the build...

I'm not sure how some of the other reviewers got 120mm fans into the case (of course I'm Dremel tool impaired), but so far airflow using 80mm fans is just fine. The side fan requires a slim fan with my motherboard, so you may want to note that. The included fans were noisy for my taste, so I immediately replaced them. If someone can help me out with the 120mm install on the case I'd love it since I would like to install a Corsair H70 CPU cooler eventually.

Drive bay construction is a little weird, since the drive has to "hang" over the front of the drivebay to sit flush with the front of the case. Because of this design the first set of screws are not attached to anything. This doesn't pose a problem with anything that I installed, but some small fan controllers or multi-card readers might have a problem. The quality of construction reminds me of the heavily built desktop pc cases of a bygone era (*sigh*). Also, remember this is a HTPC case and a usual tower type CPU cooler will not work. The specs say 130mm max, and mine is at a comfortable 92mm.

My only gripe with the case is the over indulgence with screws. Do not think that this is a "tool free" design. After a couple of more runs to the store to clean up my jumble of wires I'll post pics of the build.

Hope this helps someone!

I bought this for a HTPC build and didn't want a case that looked like a PC. Sure, I would have loved the Moneual MonCaso 312B case, but that is over twice as expensive as this one! The flip down cover is dampened so it slowly swings down...very nice touch. I built this with an Intel BOXDH57DD motherboard, core i3-530 processor, Thermalright HR-01 3U CPU heatsink (the stock cooler is garbage) and 40GB Intel SSD. I made a custom fan duct from the heatsink to one of the 80mm case fans on the back of the box and sealed off other openings to control the flow of air. I wish the supplied case fans were of the four pin variety as most new motherboards are more energy conscious.

I recently purchased this case to build my very first HTPC or Home Theater PC. I used a CoolMax 950W power supply (which is shown in the product photos as Customer Submitted Photo), Asus Crossfire II motherboard with AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE and dual Radeon 9470's and an SSD drive mounted in 3.5" bay and also one LG BluRay optical drive.

As for the case itself, its a great looking case and has a great feel to it with its Brushed Metal and cool Blue LED lights for power and HDD activity. I wouldn't recommend this case if you are planning on using aftermarket CPU Coolers since none of the coolers taller than 140mm will work. I stuck with the AMD stock Phenom II CPU cooler from the manufacturer. It performed better than any of the low profile aftermarket coolers I tried.
DO NOT buy this case if you plan to include multiple hard drives and optical drives AND you plan to use dual graphics cards. There is NOT enough room. I did have to remove the middle 3.5" Drive bay for needed room for cables to go as many others have mentioned in their reviews.

**I recommend that once you decide on what kind of CPU and motherboard you want, decide which CPU Cooler you plan to use. If you use anything other than stock, you should buy a case that will fit your Height dimensions of your intended CPU Cooler. If the CPU Cooler you wish to use is great for overclocking and is 160mm tall then don't buy a case that is 150mm in height from motherboard mounted side of case to opposite side. In other words, buy a case that will fit your chosen items other wise you may not have many options.

Needed HTPC, shopped a lot, and chose this case.

Parts:

Intel Q9550
DFI P35-T2RL Full ATX
4x1gb DDR2-800
XFX 5870 1gb (yes, it's overkill)
1TB WD Green drive
OCZ 550w Fatal1ty modular PSU
LG Blu-Ray Player/DVD+RW combo
nMedia 5.25 LCD panel
Scythe Kaze "Q" 3.5" fan controller
52-1n-1 3.5" Card reader/USB
Extra 120mm fan
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64 CPU cooler

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Let's get a bad things out of the way:

The screws that secure the drive cages to the case are very tough to get to - they're in a narrow space under teh inside front pip of the case. I have to use needlenose pliers to hold it in place while i use the screwdriver.. but now i'm a pro at it.

You REALLY should use a modular PSu for this case. Even with the few parts I'm using, and only have 1x SATA, 1x Molex, 1x PCE-I 6-pin cables, (other than the 24-pin and 8-pin for mobo power) there's not so much room to store the cable. I cannot imagine trying to shove more extra cables in there.

The front door is VERY nice, drops open very gently, but if your case leans forward even a tiny bit, it'll fall open. A little magnet would've been nice. But it can easily be removed, and wouldn't affect functionality. I may add a small piece of velcro, or perhaps find a way to tilt the panel back a bit more.

Slotted PCI covers. They're real covers, not snap-puts, which is nice, but having all those little slots interrupts planned airflow. Easily enough to cover with electricians tape.

Since i mounted my PSU with its' intake fan fan IN, to suck out warm air, the PSU mount holes on the case do not match up too well in this orientation. I had to mount using 3 screws.

No thumbscrews whatsoever, and it didn't come with any kind of speaker, even a cheap-o button speaker, so I cannot hear startup beeps. Both items are very cheap, so why not include some?

The blue light on teh front is quite small, but very bright. Unless you have your case low to the floor, it may be bothersome. Easy enough to dim with some tape or a dab of paint, Or just don't plug in the F. Panel connectors for it.

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The Good:

VERY solid, even without the brace in the center. A lovely finish on the front, and a nice paintjob. Minimalist look with the door closed; Just a single black button and the small Silverstone logo. Stand stereo component width, so it'll fit inside a home entertainment shelf.

Tall enough to fit my large-ish CPU cooler. At 5.8 inches, I really didn't think it would fit, but it does, with 1/4 inch clearance to the top panel.

Large enough to fit a full ATX, and a large PSU. Also lots of space for storage (see specs) The cages come out pretty easily, and go back in easily, other than the screw placement (see above). my Blur-ray drive SATA cable still clears the edge of the mobo. I had to remove the center drive cage to make my 11.5" GPU fit, but that also allowed me to secure a nice silent 120mm fan in the front using zap-straps. I was also able to set my fan controller back in the cage a bit so i could still close the front door.

It comes with 2x 80mm fans in the rear. Silverstone fans are better good, but I replaced them with 2 Gelid silent 80mm fans, and of course I hooked all three fans to the fan controller, with the two 80mm's on a single channel. It also has a space for a 92mm or 80mm fan on the left side but my CPU cooler is so large the if I wanted to put one one, i'd have to use a slim 15mm-thick fan. But again, its a pretty bog cooler.

The steel and rubber feet are high quality, have good grip, and provide a bit of clearance underneath, allowing some slight passive cooling. They're also strong, and won't break off.

Oh yes, the 5.25" cage sits atop a little space that nicely stores any unneeded front panel bales. In my case, the firewire cable.

The front door is slightly concaved, i suppose ti keep the weight rear-wards a bit to balance it. Though i can still close it adn it clears the tiny Bluetooth dongle i have plugged into my 3.5" card reader. I fit into the built-in front USB, the door would not close.

It stays pretty coo, is quiet, and nothing vibrates. I'm glad I didn;t cheap out on and HTPC case, as i had initially planned.


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Looking back at this review, i see that the "Bad" section appears larger. The 'bad' aspects of this case are really just nit-picking, and I felt like i needed to go into detail about the little quirks. i LOVE this case a lot - I shopped for about 3 weeks and looked at about 20 cases before deciding on this one. My other choices had goodies like color LCd screens, were twice the price. I am supremely happy with my decision to buy it.

Decided on this case for my HTPC project and I am glad I did. Received the case quickly from Amazon and began the build. It's made from steel and brushed aluminum, which is solid but also looks great. Has plenty of expansion slots. Oh, and the flip down door is great as it hides the external drive slots and makes the front of the case nice an smooth. Do not hesitate if you are looking to build a HTPC and need a case to match your other black components in your setup. Matches my Onkyo receiver.

The only negative is, like another person mentioned, is the brightness of the front power and hard drive lcd. So my fix: when the hard drive cases were removed inside for installation, I pulled out and dabbed the tips of the lcd's with a black sharpie pen. If you put on too much you can wipe it off. It dimmed them perfectly, and now they do not add unnecessary light to my viewing area, but still show the perfect amount of blue light.

If you need a heavy duty case with room for expansion, get this!

I was itching for a little nostalgia when I decided to go back to the desktop case land. There aren't many choices if you don't want a tower but luckily Silverstone makes this little beauty.

Into this case I packed:
650 Watt Corsair PSU
Asus Rampage III Formula Motherboard
EVGA Geforce GTX 470 Full Size Video Card
12GB G.Skill Ripjaws RAM
1TB Western Digital Black HD
Intel Core i7-950 CPU with stock cooler
Asus DVDRW

Let's not kid around about space here.. This is a high quality case but space is tight inside when you've got a full ATX board and a full length GPU. I had to do some careful wire routing and tying to make everything accessible. I also wasn't able to put my hard drive where I wanted. I had to put it behind the PSU or had I had an adapter - in a 5.25" drive bay. The 3.5" internal bays for me are all obstructed by either the motherboard or video card. Keep that in mind - you can really only fit 2 3.5" hard drives in here comfortably when its loaded. A 2.5" one is probably fine anywhere, though.

Despite that, I'm glad it's not any bigger because it works perfectly on my desk with an Asus monitor on it. I play games all the time and airflow is good and heat hasn't been an issue at all. The GTX470 screams when being pushed hard but that's par for the course. CPU has always been in good range. The 2 fans on back move a lot of air.

I love the quality of the case exterior. It makes me happy to see in front of me.

Highly recommended case for anyone wishing to relive a higher quality 90s computing experience :)

I just finished building an HTPC with this case and I'm very pleased with it. For one, it looks awesome in my audio rack, blends right in. The flip down door works perfectly. Construction is excellent for the money. Plenty of room and descent airflow. The dual rear 80mm fans are almost silent. I used a fanmate to slow them down a tad. Now they are silent.
My only complaint is the Blue Led's on the front. They are WAY to bright! I'm not kidding, they are blinding! If this case is in view they will drive you crazy. I carefully cut two round pieces of black electrical tape and poked a hole in each piece. Once in place you see just the right amount of light leaking through the tape.
I called Silverstone and they are aware of it. They don't have any fix yet.
One more thing, the side air filter vent has screw holes that are to small to mount the optional 80mm fan. You will have to drill them larger if you choose to use it.