SilverStone Sugo SG05: The Mini-ITX Standard Bearer
by Dustin Sklavos on August 19, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- SilverStone
- Mini ITX
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- HTPC
Noise and Thermal Testing, IGP
I'll admit I had some reservations about the cooling potential of the SilverStone Sugo SG05. While the 120mm intake fan more or less has a straight shot to the back of the case, the power supply comes installed facing downward (meaning the intake potentially competes with the CPU's heatsink), and the inevitable cable spaghetti may interfere with getting that air to the processor. As it turns out, I didn't have a whole lot to worry about.
Noise and thermal testing for the SG05 was done with ambient temperatures between 25C and 26C; it's pretty hot in California right now, and I can't exactly run the air conditioner during testing (just before and after).
The SSD is essentially passively cooled by being next to a giant vent, but that doesn't seem to be an issue. Meanwhile the airflow of the SG05 is able to produce excellent thermal results for the CPU; Cooler Master's Elite 120 may have a 120mm intake fan as well, but that fan is blocked by both the front ventilation design and the drive cage behind it. The SG05's intake has much less interference.
Fan speed is also quite good; the SG05 has a reasonable amount of headroom. Keep in mind that the only two cases beating it in thermal performance are both a good amount larger; in terms of volume the Prodigy is nearly three times the size of the SG05.
That copious size has another benefit for BitFenix's enclosure, though: it keeps the noise down. The SG05 runs pretty quietly, though, and an enterprising user could probably get noise levels lower by using a quieter intake fan as well as more aggressive fan control on the CPU's heatsink/fan unit. In fact, the cooler we use for testing has a switch on it for exactly that purpose.
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janderk - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
This is exactly what I wanted to say.If you aren't into heavy gaming (I just program) this thing will idle well below 50W and will hardly go over 150W if you load it.
The 300W supply will be much more efficient in this kind of usage. I wish the review had added the power used in idle and under load (with and without an additional graphics card). That would provide the curious with the right information if 300W is enough for them.
For those of us who care about the environment (or like saving on the energy bill) it is quite hard to find a low Wattage good quality power supply. Compliments to Silverstone to providing one. Hopefully there will be a 200W option next year :)
Metaluna - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
Just to add to this: More efficiency = less heat generated in the PSU for a given load. With these SFX PSUs being limited to 80mm fans, they can't really move much air without ramping the speed up to audible levels. It's even worse because these cases are more likely to be sitting on your desk close to your ears.That said, it really depends on the design of the specific PSUs, and since the power draw is so small anyway, any small differences in efficiency might not be very noticeable in practice. A good 450W will probably not be significantly worse than a budget 300W for example. I certainly wouldn't give up something like front panel USB 3.0 just to get the smaller PSU, for example.
batteries4ever - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
I am with the 300W fans, and would go even more extreme towards an external 200W brick...... and a smaller enclosure. enclosures are like suitcases, each size has its justification!RaistlinZ - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
I'm sorry, but your choice of PSU really isn't going to have one iota of difference on the global environment. Seriously.Zap - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
To paraphrase a common quote:"Every journey begins with a single step."
UpSpin - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
As always, great review.I also own such a MiniITX case, just with a different front (SG06). I run it with a quad core Intel CPU and EVGA GTX560Ti. Runs fine and silent. Silent but only because I modded the case.
The ODD isn't really worth the wasted space. I haven't used it at all since I own the case (1 year), but because some people still use DVD or BluRay they should keep it, maybe optional?
The 3.5" clamp is somehow stupid, better inlcude a few 2.5" holdings. (That's what I did) Make an open air construction and place it in front of the front intake fan. Then customers can add 3 or 4 2.5" HDDs, like 1 SSD, 3 RAID 1TB drives. Because the HDD holding is a lightweight construction, they don't block the air flow and get cooled fine. (I put 3 HDDs in a closed custom made shock absorbing case (tube) with a low spinning fan which blows air through the tube, thus I don't hear the HDDs at all. But such a construction might be too expensive for mass production)
But the really annoying part is the PSU fan. The fan is too small. In the current design most of the air must get blown through the PSU fan. The heated air from the HDDs, Mainboard and mainly CPU + the heat produced by the PSU must get pushed through the tiny PSU with a 80mm fan. That's idiotic. It's loud and reduces the lifetime of any PSU drastically. I had to replace the 80mm fan with a 120mm fan and made a custom case for the PSU, now it's silent and cool.
The case itself is very clairaudient because of the huge amount of air holes. This makes the noisy PSU even more annyoing and difficult to make the PC silent with standard components.
Because the PSU issue isn't solveable with the current design and default PSU cases, and the case is very clairaudient at all, Silverstone should redesign the whole case and optimize the airflow. Like putting the PSU at the front, reduce the amount of air holes but optimize the air flow, maybe put the mainboard on the side & GPU to the bottom (better airflow for the mainboard, GPU fan noise gets absorbed from the desk), or anything else.
It's difficult to build a small system which is both powerful and silent with standard components. For the money it's a great case, but if you want it silent, you have to mod it, which is the only real drawback I have. Once you've done that, you'll have a powerful PC in the smallest case possible.
Olaf van der Spek - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
Why doesn't the PSU take in fresh air via the top? Would seem like a much better design.Socaddict - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
I have the PSU in mine flipped. Didn't take any real work to sort out.hybridE4t - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
Having it pull air from inside the case then exhausting it will aid throughput of air through the entire case and lead to better cooling throughout, particluarly if your other fans are orientated to complement this push-pull effect. Not recommended for low quality PSUs but as SilverStone are supplying both the case and PSU the fact they've orientated it this way suggests that they're confident it provides a net benefit.Jumpman23 - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
I've been reading reviews on Newegg on the older version of this case with the 450W PSU and a lot of people are saying that the connector included in the PSU is wrong for slim optical drives and you need to buy a separate adapter in order for it to work. Is this still the case with this? If it is, it's a pretty big oversight.