SilverStone Grandia GD07 Review: Centering and Serving Your Media
by Dustin Sklavos on April 29, 2012 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- HTPC
- SilverStone
Conclusion: A Lot of Potential
SilverStone's Grandia GD07 is certainly a compelling option for users like me who use their media center PCs as 24/7 servers as well. That's a small niche, but I have no doubt there are other people who will look at it and find other niches for it as well. For what SilverStone was attempting with the GD07, they've largely excelled and even produced one of their easier-to-use cases. Yet there's definitely room for improvement here.
As I mentioned before, the drive cage is the primary culprit. There was obviously a lot of thought put into the design, but I think it still needs work. The two vertically-mounted 5.25" drive bays should be eschewed for dedicated 2.5" drive bays instead of just squeezing the drives between the other 5.25" bays and the top of the cage. Cabling SSDs in the GD07 is far more trouble than it has any right or reason to be. You'll also want to take care in mounting 5.25" drives to make sure they line up properly with the front of the enclosure.
I also feel like the interior black matte plastic face is a little chintzier than it needs to be. That's a relatively minor complaint given the otherwise attractive black brushed aluminum finish on the front door and the staid black steel build of the rest of the case. Getting rid of the internal fan grilles is a much bigger issue, and needlessly complicates assembly; those grilles were one of the things that made the GD04 at least a little easier to work with.
There's also the fact that the GD07 is frankly pretty large. That owes to observing the ATX spec instead of going with Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX (along with moving the drive cage to the front), but for me it's actually the difference between fitting the GD07 into my entertainment center or having to continue using the GD04 that has faithfully served me since I reviewed it so long ago.
Despite these issues, the GD07 is still a fairly well designed enclosure. Thermal performance is good, and noise is low with room to go lower provided your motherboard has decent fan control or you're willing to shell out for a separate fan controller. Looking at it, you should already know if the GD07 is something you can use or not. If you like the way it looks and it has the features you want or need, it will probably serve you well. Individuals looking for a good HTPC case may need to find something smaller, though.
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Chaitanya - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
Silverstone certainly makes some good enclosures.seanleeforever - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
nice case indeed. i have the GD05 and it sure shows the craftsmanship.However, i found the this review uses ITX MB in a ATX Case to be... interesting yet pointless. who in their right mind would use ITX MB in this case?
and for CPU coolers, you are just not exploring all the options (or even tried). allow me to copy and paste part of my reviews for GD05 (i have it config with 16G RAM +i7-2700+ SLI GTX 560TI)
...CPU cooler: cooler Master Vortex Plus. VERY IMPORTANT. this is the ONLY after market product that will fit EXTREMELY tightly in this case while giving you the option to have a disk drive. and with powerful setup, you know you need a cooler to replace stock intel cooler (as they are absolutely crap)....
bear in mind, you WILL BE able to fit CM s524 in GD07 since it is a bigger case and you won't run in the problem of having the disk drive blocking additional CPU cooler clearance.
seanleeforever - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
buy "you", i meant Dustin.Samus - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
FT01 owner 3+ years. Amazing case, doubt I'll ever replace it.After owning a number of Antec and CoolerMaster cases and replacing them every time I upgrade the motherboard, that has yet to happen with the SilverStone.
My only complaint is the proprietary 180mm fan's that were included with the case (sleeve bearing) both failed after 2 years and although 120mm fans can be installed in their place, I opted for replacement FM181 Silverstone 180mm fans, which are very expensive $25/ea.
Dustin Sklavos - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
Did you just not actually read the review?seanleeforever - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
yes Dustin, i did read the review. i don't any post comments before finishing reading. great review by the way.i understand where you are coming from: to have a standardized test bed, something to compare with. and since the ATX test bed uses H212 that is a bit to tall, you were forced to use ITX board.
However... the fact remains that, for folks who plan to use ITX board or mini ITX, the are not going to get ATX case.... is there value to measure the noise/thermal of mini ITX in a full ATX case? maybe,but it probably makes as much useful data as measuring how much towing power does a Ferrari California have (i.e. no one cares). i think it would be much more useful should you use the ATX testbed with stock cooler because that is much more likely situation.
on to the product itself. i see some of the problem with GD05 still reminds: unable to mount water cooling solution. also, could you comment on how many type of screws does this case have? the GD05 they had like 5 or 6 type of screws when it really should be 2 or 3.
anirudhs - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
The config you have is a gaming PC rather than a media center/server. This case is not intended for your config. A CoolerMaster HAF912 at $60 will be more suited.mepenete - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
It looks like a great case overall, but for me the price tag is a bit much considering its just for an HTPC.Origin32 - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
And just last week I ordered an Aerocool M40 because there wasn't a better case to put my HTPC/Home Server in. And that thing only has room for 3 or 4 harddisks, and then you have to get a little creative already. FMLcjs150 - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
I think you got it right, very good choice for people who use the media centre as a 24/7 server as well, but otherwise wholly unconvincedAs a straight media centre it is way too big.
Obviously everyone has slightly different views but here are mine:
1. Blu ray drive is a must - should be vibration dampened. Do not mind if full sized or slim line, slot or tray.
2. SSD + 2.5" HD is enough for me - I have a big NAS to download stored content to. Maybe 2xSSD would even better.
3. One expansion slot is enough, 2 would be nice, 3 is unnecessary, 4 is overkill. For a media centre what would you put in the expansion slots? IGP should be good enough now, but some would prefer a discrete GPU, sound card is an obvious choice, may be a TV tuner but that is it.
4. Silence is golden. 30db is already too loud because you can hear it during quiet sections on movie playback. Obviously not a problem if media centre is in different room.
5. Heat has to be controlled - obviously this causes an issue with the silence is golden concept!