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, Dedicated GPUs
It's funny, when we put together the revised testbeds, the Zotac GeForce GTS 450 Eco was chosen because it employed a single-slot cooler and would be indicative of the kind of video card most HTPCs would use. Yet many modern Mini-ITX cases (and even comparatively old standards like the SG05) include two expansion slots. The solution? Test the case with the GTS 450 and our standard ATX testbed card, the ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti! That's exactly what I've done here with the SilverStone Sugo SG05.
CPU temperatures are still pretty solid and consistent with the SG05, even when we include the GTX 560 Ti with its 170-watt TDP. Note that idle thermals actually increase a little with the GTS 450; I suspect this is at least partly due to the way the 560 Ti directs airflow directly at the CPU by effectively blocking the front of the video card off completely from the rest of the system.
The SG05 again produces moderate temperatures for both the GTX 560 Ti and the GTS 450. In fact, impressively enough the GTX 560 Ti's temperatures are roughly on par with many ATX cases; the ventilation on the side of the SG05 definitely seems to be doing its job.
Unfortunately, SSD temperatures are where things get a bit sticky with the GTX 560 Ti. Because of the way it blocks off the side vent coupled with the heat it generates, airflow around the drive bay winds up being fairly minimal. Heat gets trapped between the video card and the drive bay, just like it does in Cooler Master's enclosure.
The CPU fan also seems to be working a bit harder, though ~2% is essentially within the margin of error. SilverStone's FT03 Mini has a superior airflow design for the CPU, no way around it. It shares the same basic chassis as the Sugo SG05, but enjoys a beefy 140mm Air Penetrator intake fan.
Once again fan speed falls in line, though I'm keen to point out the GTX 560 Ti's fan speed in the SG05 is actually comparable to some of our best ATX form factor case results. That extensive ventilation pays big dividends for SilverStone.
The noise results bear out one of my main theories of case design, too: smart airflow design can do wonders for keeping noise levels low. By being a bit more closed off, Cooler Master's design actually increases the amount of noise generated since the fans have to work harder. The SG05 is by no means quiet, but it's not spectacularly loud either. I'm not sure you could really make a case this small that runs much quieter; at that point you really need to start cherry picking components.
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UpSpin - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
If you don't change the PSU fan and use it as it is, it will get audible and noisy if you tax the PC.However, I changed the PSU fan to a 120mm one and build a new case for the PSU which guides the air, speed regulated every fan, dampened the noise of the HDDs and bought the EVGA GTX560Ti, which is based on the NVidia reference design, which uses a very quite fan. And unlike more silent looking GTX560Ti cards, the stock NVidia design also cools the VRM, thus the fan speed can get reduced further without issues and doesn't ramp up as fast as the more silent looking designs. I also modded the GPU Bios to run the fan at lower speeds and undervolt the GPU.
But you're right, I can hear it if I'm working alone, because of the GPU fan and the open design of the Sugo case. Not because of the air flow but because of the GPU fan's bearing, which is still very very quiet. I haven't found the time to replace this fan with a higher quality one. It's not annoying, because it's really silent and at a low frequency, but yeah, still audible if the environment is silent.
Jackattak - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
I would go with the drawer idea personally. PCs sitting on desks suck. It doesn't matter how quiet you get it, you will notice the noise while sitting at the desk alone in the room. And anyone who is in IT or Development or any other mentally demanding job will tell you, even normally mild or even nearly unnoticeable noises can cause you great frustration.I like the idea of putting this in a sliding drawer. That way when you needed to work on the machine's innards you could just slide it out and pop the cover and work right at your desk. And when you're actually using the PC within, you could slide it back to the end of the desk, and if you mounted the drawer underneath the desk, you'd never notice it.
Great review as always, Dustin. I have built about a dozen PCs (for myself, that is) but I haven't done it since 2003! I've been buying Dell XPS systems since then, as it was worth it to me to purchase fully assembled products with generally nice cases, believe it or not, rather than going through the rigamarole of purchasing all the separate parts and praying to the gods that everything works well with everything else. The manufacturer mashups can be pretty frightening. At any rate, your review here makes me want to buy one of these as I've had increasing interest in mini-ITX systems as of late. Might just have to workout a project plan! :-)
doctormonroe - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
What happened to the photo galleries?Dustin Sklavos - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
We had a bug in the system with them; adding galleries now.Conficio - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
"the general industry tend towards smaller"Meaker10 - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
An OCed 680M stays along side a stock clocked GTX670 :DGrok42 - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
I am so glad to see more reviews of mITX cases. I believe as the reviewer does that these cases are the future of enclosures. I also believe that optical drives are legacy drives as well. All the reviews of mITX cases come to the same conclusion that the external bays seriously compromise the overall design of the case. Small cases are always going to be a set of trade offs but it seems obvious the trade off should be to remove the external bays but not a single case does. It seems so obvious that improved thermal and acoustic performance is more important than the ability to have an optical drive that is used once or twice in the life of the system.If your taking requests for future reviews I would nominate the Lian Li PC-Q16A. I'm worried it doesn't support a discrete GPU at which point I would retract my request. I can't find any information or reviews about it of any depth so I can't be sure if it does or not.
JoanSpark - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
+1there is not a single mITX/mATX case out there without an external (optical) drive bay.
Not a single case maker is producing a box where you can put in a mb, a gpu, some 2.5/3.5 drive(s) and call it a day.
You get countless towers, med towers, mini towers etc with numerous external bays in all kinds of styles and colours.. but not a single case without an external drive bay.
Pathetic.
Zap - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
Check out the Lian Li PC-Q25 series. It is like the PC-Q08, except supporting more 3.5" drives and no external drive bay. And yes, gigantic graphics cards are supported.Alternately, for those who don't need discrete GPUs there are plenty of mITX cases which don't have external drive bays.
JoanSpark - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
I stand corrected.Thx for the pointer, very interesting.