SilverStone Precision PS07 Case Review Redux

Revisiting the SilverStone Precision PS07 was definitely a worthwhile endeavor, even if the performance results don't immediately bear that out. There's some extrapolation that has to be done, and some dots that need connecting, but SilverStone's assertions that this case was still competitive and was in fact well acoustically engineered were both correct.

Where things get interesting is the way the micro-ATX market stratifies. Despite the fact that they're all hanging out in the same price neighborhood, the PS07, the Corsair Obsidian 350D, and the Fractal Design Define Mini all serve very different purposes. Of these three primary competitors, I think the Define Mini has the hardest time justifying itself, owing to Fractal Design's continuing struggles to achieve competitive thermal performance.

The PS07 and 350D may superficially look like they're competing with one another, but the 350D is a larger enclosure and is very clearly engineered more for water cooling. The PS07, in contrast, leverages a strong but specific air cooling design. This is the essential dichotomy that we're running into: SilverStone's airflow designs are typically excellent but you basically sacrifice any kind of liquid cooling outside of a 120mm CLC on the CPU. SilverStone will pay lip service to the idea of putting a custom liquid system in their cases, but it's obvious that it's an afterthought.

I'm tremendously bullish on the PS07 as an excellent mid-tower option for the majority of users. One micro-ATX board, one video card, stick an SSD and a hard drive in there and put a cheap tower cooler on the CPU: presto, an incredibly well rounded system.

So now that we have a more modern appraisal of both the PS07 and its eventually lineage in the Raven RV04 and Fortress FT04, an unfortunately unpleasant pattern does essentially emerge when we do a "State of the Union" in the case industry. In my estimation, there are three manufacturers that are driving things forward the way Antec used to in the days of old: Corsair, SilverStone, and NZXT. BitFenix is running fourth, but they don't really directly compete with these three because they've pretty much locked up the budget market.

SilverStone is continually demonstrating an expert understanding of designing air flow in their enclosures, but their designs still suffer from two fatal flaws: overcomplication, and a lack of forward thinking. They have the airflow thing down pat and continue to innovate there, but these cases are often needlessly complicated to work with. At the same time, they ignore the industry trends toward CLCs and away from 3.5" storage at their own peril.

Moving back from the macro to the micro, for more modest builds the Precision PS07 and its fancier sibling, the Temjin TJ08-E, continues to be one of the best options out there. The $79 price tag is totally reasonable, and if you choose your components intelligently (and inexpensively!) you can be left with a very quiet, solidly performing system.