SilverStone Sugo SG08 Mini-ITX Case Review

Conclusion: An Imperfect Gem

My experience reviewing the SilverStone Sugo SG08 was a mostly positive one. Mini-ITX cases are never little vacations like Corsair enclosures often are, but SilverStone does enough right with the Sugo SG08 that it's fairly easy to get your head past the usual difficulties.

Build quality and aesthetics on the Sugo SG08 are mostly unimpeachable, as is typical for the company. It's easy to gripe about the ventilation around the case, but there's really no other, better way for SilverStone to handle it. You're dealing with a small, specialized design. Including a power supply was really the only way to go, and SilverStone included one with leads that were exactly long enough for their intended purpose. Not only that, but the PSU is a 600W, 80 Plus Bronze certified small form factor unit, so you're likely to be limited by your hardware selections long before power becomes an issue.

Thermal performance and acoustics are actually surprisingly good, too. SilverStone takes a kind of brute force approach to cooling the CPU, but it's an effective one. I think the SG08's true calling may very well be as a small form factor enthusiast workstation where CPU performance is paramount, because there's an almost comical amount of thermal headroom there. It was easy enough to suggest overclocking would be a non-issue in the BitFenix Prodigy, so what does that make a case that runs the CPU a full seven degrees cooler than the next best competition?

Where things get a little more murky are in some of the design decisions on the SG08, and unfortunately the price as well. The 2.5" drive bays need to be more secure, and I know for a fact that SilverStone has developed better ways of mounting a slimline optical drive than what's on display here. That the reset button is on the back of the case is almost inexplicable and creates an additional cabling inconvenience in an already cramped space, and they needed to do a better job of securing the expansion slot covers. These are minor issues but when you're dealing with a case this small, they do stack up.

As for the price tag, that's a horse of a different color. While I don't think $199 is necessarily unreasonable for a case like the SG08, I do feel like it's too high. The smaller Sugo SG05 is available for $130 (sometimes cheaper) and while you do make a few sacrifices, I still think it's an excellent and more affordable alternative. The perfect price for the SG08 is probably closer to $150 or $160, and if a sale brings it down to around there it's much easier to recommend.

If you're looking to build a small form factor machine, your options are pretty myriad. The BitFenix Prodigy is always a popular choice, and cheap, too, but remember that it doesn't include a power supply and that will bump the price up. I think for most users the Sugo SG05 is probably going to be a perfectly reasonable choice, but if you do need something with a little more oomph and you don't mind the price tag, the SG08 will probably serve you well.