SilverStone Sugo SG08 Mini-ITX Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on May 13, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- SilverStone
Noise and Thermal Testing
I've mentioned before that when testing cases, I usually have a decent idea of how things are going to work out. That's a little less obvious with the SilverStone Sugo SG08. I think it's reasonable to expect that the CPU is going to run unbelievably cool with the 180mm fan bearing down on it, but the GPU has no active airflow outside of its own cooler. Smaller enclosures oftentimes also use the actual bulk of the video card to cordon off individual cooling regions, and that may very well happen here.
The Sugo SG08 was tested with the fan at both its low and high settings, and I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say the high setting is largely unnecessary.
Ambient temperatures during testing hovered around 23C.
Exactly like I said, the CPU thermals are pretty tough to beat. This was never going to be an issue with the SG08. It's worth noting that a small pocket of heat can build around the drive cage, though; there's no active airflow in that region either, just ventilation. For the most part I doubt that could ever become a serious issue; external hard drives are basically sold shipping in heat coffins and still work reasonably well.
Like I said, basically no reason to run the SG08's fan at high speed, at least in our stock configuration. At low, the SG08 isn't inaudible, but it's very pleasantly quiet.
Adding a low power GeForce to the equation does actually change things a little bit, though.
Low fan speed means sacrificing roughly a degree or two for much quieter acoustics, so that's not really a big deal. We do start to see at least a little separation in our results, and the extra heat generated from the video card starts to leak back into that storage pocket.
Our normally quiet GTS 450 Eco makes its presence a bit more readily known. Noise levels are still low, but one of the sacrifices made with the SG08 is that there's virtually nothing between you and the cooling fan on the graphics card.
At this point I'm actually kind of amused by the cooling system in the SG08. Virtually nothing doing on the GPU side, leading to some high but still workable temperatures, while the CPU still runs a beefy seven degrees cooler than our previous reigning champion, the BitFenix Prodigy.
Despite the high GPU temperatures, the SG08 is still one of the quietest Mini-ITX cases when the fan is set to low. That low setting seems to be just plain ideal, even oddly producing slightly better temperatures on the graphics card.
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Sm0kes - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
No other differences. I suspect they are offering the case sans power supply for those looking to go modular.Uwanna - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
I'm sorry, but this case is dammm ugly. Try again.hughlle - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
Or alternatively It looks great. Good job.mcnabney - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
No, it's ugly. The ventilation grid on the side are a disaster. Might as well be a fan noise amplifier.Hrel - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
Fractal has an excellent one, that's still my go to.hughlle - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
You clearly miss the pint then. Looks are subjective. It would seem clear that they liked the looks, and i like the looks. Just because the poster thought it was ugly was irrelevant to the notion that they needed to try again.kallogan - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
I built several SG05 based desktops and it's actually amazing what powerfull hardware u can put within a solid 300W psu like the fortron one in the Sugo. Putting a 77W quad and a 170W GTX 670 is no problem. Of course, don't count on overclocking the thing but still u have enough horse power already.gopher1369 - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
Hi Kallogan,Can I just double check with you, you have the 670 installed with the 300 Watt version of the SG05? I was under the impression the max TDP for the 300 was 150 Watts.
I have a Radeon 7850 in my SG05 (great case btw), was thinking of upgrading to the 7870XT but as put off by the fact I'd have to swap out the PSU for the 450 Watt model on top. If it will work with the current PSU...
DanNeely - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
For cases where the GPU is facing vents along most of it's length, the limiting factor is mostly total power draw on the 12V rail; the SG05's PSU maxes out at 264W continuous on the 12V rail (300W peak). 17W for everything else is within the realm of the possible; especially since the IGP won't be contributing to the CPUs TDP. I'd be nervous about trying to max both the CPU and GPU continuously though.ven - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
is it possible to install the asus Z77 deluxe mini-itx board in this case?