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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DireNova - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
I've been waiting for this case to come out for a while. I can see that it's not getting a good reception as an HTPC case, but they don't really make desktop cases like they did 10-15 years ago and I wonder if this might be the closest thing yet?I have a new desk arriving shortly that is 72" wide where my previous desk was 48" wide. While I can now support my NV Surround array without the screens hanging over the sides, the desk will crowd out the space where my full tower now sits.
I would like to find a case that trades vertical height for depth and width so I can set it on my desk, under my monitors (which are on a stand).
I wonder how well it would cool a pair of GTX680s and a moderately overclocked 2600k? I know the TT Frio won't fit here but there are plenty of low profile coolers that would work - I'm just wondering how the overall case would fare trying to cool that kind of system.
TrackSmart - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
I respect your decision to use the Micro-ATX testbed and understand why you did it. That being said, I'm among the party you mentioned who would rather have seen the ATX testbed, but with a different cooler.I think that would have been equally 'fair' (or equally unfair), since the case limits the cooling system options. We would get to see how it handles a high-powered system, despite being limited to 'lesser' cooling options. That's a more useful test, in my book, than the Micro-ATX version. Though it would be 'non-standard' for comparisons.
You saw that critique coming from a mile away, so fair enough.
fr500 - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
"note that while the GD07 can technically fit a full-size ATX case" on last page... I guess it´s a full-sized ATX motherboardNice review
JarredWalton - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
Fixed, thanks.CharonPDX - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link
I like the idea of a door to hide bits, but what about HTPCs with drive-bay-mount IR receivers? I currently have a Cooler Master Elite 360 that I use as an HTPC case, and I have a 3.5"-bay-mount IR receiver for the HTPC remote. Yeah, the obnoxious insanely-bright blue LEDs in the chassis and Blu-ray drive are obnoxious, and I'd happily have a front cover that mutes them a little, but it should let the IR through for my remote.PS, In my CM Elite 360, I have a full ATX motherboard (Intel DP45SG,) with "Extreme" Core 2 Quad (QX6800 at 130 Watts) with reasonably tall cooler (Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro,) and have had a Radeon 4850 then a 5770 in it. When it's time to upgrade, I'll almost certainly move to a more power-efficient setup, which ironically means I can probably go for a *LESS* "beefy" chassis than the one I have or this one.
emueyes - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link
How were the temperature measurements obtained for the IGP? I've found most 'boards won't even give a PCH temperature (exception, the Intel DH67DG) let alone the IGP temp.
truprecht - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link
I don't see this case offering much the Lian Li PC-33B or PC-C60B don't, other than 2 mostly useless vertical 5.25 bays and more difficult assembly with that huge take-out bay/drive cage thing. Aside from the anodized front panel, the construction looks much cheaper than Lian Li's.Also, a Zalman 9500AT cooler is 125mm high, not a low-profile "downdraft" model and, based on the HSF clearance specs, should fit in this case.
dtolios - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
...I do believe that you should re-define what's the goal of your case reviews...I - like many others it seams - find it too frustrating watching full towers being tested with mATX boards, and now huge "desktop" / HTPC cases being tested with mITX...I can see that it's hard for each reviewer to have a huge selection of components to play with, but in the long run that's what it should be...
IMHO, I don't care if the X product produces a tiny better thermal performance than the Y product, when the latter offers in exchange unique features...
What fits and how, is way more important than comparing decimals in oC readings a cookie standardized rig produces...
In this case, this is not a "mITX" case...if I want such a mini enclosure, I won't buy this beast...period. I would have most likely an ATX board (not even M) and at least one GPU card...I believe trying and measuring and proving that this case is or is not among the few that can for example "do" a large GTX or 79xx card and an ATX board and up to Z sized CPU cooler, would be the primary goal - aka, who needs this case or what it has to offer ontop of a miTX one. Then compare it with others, if any, that can also to that "on-top" part...
Or when you are bringing in full ATX towers clearly aimed for enthusiasts, and you don't even try to fit a large ATX mobo with at least 2x GPU configuration and a few HDDs, do you actually help the target market of this case or do you just satisfy your arbitrary "scientific" rules of repetition?
Aiming purely on temps etc, is the goal of a cooler review, not that of a case.
Otherwise is the equivalent of testing a supercar and judging it purely on mileage, disregarding many other tangible and ofc all the intangible benefits of such a "niche" machine. I understand that you have the best on intentions writing these, but so do I commenting on your work.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
"Aiming purely on temps etc, is the goal of a cooler review, not that of a case."I see you have a whole lot going with the "etc.", because all anandtech case reviews I read mention potential pitfalls concerning fitting various components in the assembly section quite clearly. And if you don't pay attention to the cooling system of your case, you will always get sub-optimal results concerning cooling and noise even if you get the best cooling equipment money can buy. Cases play a big role in cooling and noise production and reception.
Chris Simmo - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
I have the GD-08. I run it as my Gaming HTPC and its great. I fitted a corsair H100 to it with an ASUS P8Z77-V/i5 3570K@4.4GHz, SSD, 3x2TB HD, HD7850, X-fi sound card and dual tuner. I replaced the Antec Fusion 430 case so I had room to have an ATX MB and extra HD's. I did a fair bit of research before picking this case and none others I could find could fit all this hardware.Can the reviewer tell me seriously why the f*** would you fit an ITX MB into this case?!!!!
I am really glad Silverstone built a decent size case. They are hard to find (particularly with USB3 front panel). Thanks very much to Silverstone.