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This week, we get to check out the SilverStone Redline RL05. SilverStone has always been known for their bold impressions and sturdy construction. This case would be the choice for those who might have a budget in mind or for those who have expensive hardware and just want a simple way to show it off. Either way, you can’t go wrong with this case. So, without further Ado, grab a drink and let’s see what this case has to offer.
Product Specifications
First up, here are some specs about this case, straight from SilverStone.
SilverStone Redline RL05 Specifications | |
Available Color | black w/ red trim + window or Black w/ black trim + window |
Material | Plastic panel, steel body |
Dimensions | 210mm (8.2″)(W) x 465mm (18.3″) (H) x 450mm(17.7″) (D), 44.9 Liters |
Side Panel | Windowed |
Net Weight | 5.9kg(13Lbs) |
Motherboard Type | M-ATX,ATX |
External Bays | 5.25 x 1 |
Internal Bays | 2.5″ or 3.5″ HDD x 2, 2.5″ x 2 |
I/O Panel | USB 3.0 Type-A x 2, Type-C** x 1 Audio x 1 MIC x 1 |
Expansion Slots | 7 |
Fan Support | Front: 120/140mm fan slot x 2 (includes 140mm LED fan x 2), 80mm slot x 1 Rear: 120 fan slot x 1 Top: 120/140mm fan slot x 2* |
Power Supply | Standard ATX PS2 |
Graphics Card | Support graphics card up to 373.38 mm (14.7″), width restriction – 162.56 mm(6.4″) |
CPU Cooler | Up to 165mm height |
Water Cooling | Front: 120mm x 1 / 240mm x 1 Rear: 120mm x 1 Top: 120mm x 1 / 240mm x 1 / 280mm x 1 |
Features
The features, as shown on the SilverStone website, are below:
■ Includes front mounted USB 3.0 Type-C port
■ Includes two 140mm LED fans designed to generate positive pressure
■ Super clean internal look with PSU and drive bay cover
■ Quick access filters for easy cleaning
■ Motherboard back plate opening for quick CPU cooler assembly
■ All black painted interior for stylish look
■ Supports graphics cards up to 14.7″
It is nice to see a case offering a front USB 3.1 Type-C port, I haven’t seen many of them advertised. The reason that the USB 3.1 Type-C port says 3.0 and not 3.1 is because if you use a cable over 3 feet, it will revert to 3.0 speeds. There is a remark just below the table on their webpage explaining what the recommended cable length to use with this cases configuration. Specifically, 2 feet is used for connecting the port to the motherboard.
Another point I would like to make, is the 14.7″ or 373mm GPU area. Those who have been looking into upgrading to a GTX 980TI, 1070, or 1080 will notice that that is just enough space to grease in those and similar length GPU’s. While it is becoming an industry standard, any number of things could keep a GPU of that length from fitting in to such a tight space. Now, on to some photos.
Retail Packaging
The Redline series RL05 arrived in a basic brown box, with Styrofoam over the top and bottom, and the case in a thin plastic bag with a protective film over the window. A very small amount of damage was found on the box, a bumped corner and tiny ding here or there, but no tears or punctures. Just as expected from the minimal damage on the box, The case arrived without a blemish.
Parts and Accessories
As for the spare parts, we get a small bag of hardware. Also in the box are some relatively general instructions with small print and simple images, but they may help you see something you missed. The manual includes basic diagrams of what is removable and installation instructions to get you started. Here is a link to the PDF version of the Redline RL05 manual in case you would like to peruse it.
From the Outside
Now we get to see the very sleek SilverStone Redline RL05 finally out of the box. Starting up front at the top, we see the USB 3.0 Type-C connector on the plastic bezel. Moving down we find our 5.25″ pop-out and a large mesh grille. On the left bezel, a power button bezel with power and HDD activity lights. Opposite, on the right bezel, we see two USB 3.0 Type-A connectors along with the 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks. Rotating to the left we find a very large window, allowing us to see all of our components and the styling of the case stamping and ventilation. Around back, we see the IO cut out, seven expansion slots with replaceable covers, and our PSU mounting location. On the top we see the grille with 2 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm fan support with a thin mesh filter and on the bottom a removable PSU fan filter.
On the Inside
With the panels removed we get to see all of the cable routing, drive mounting, and a huge motherboard tray cutout. Looking into the mounting area, we can see the two included 140mm fans (red LED). Above that is the removable 5.25″ mounting location. That’s important if we want to fit a 280mm radiator or two additional fans up there. Spinning around to the back we find our HDD, SSD, and PSU mounting locations. This area surprised me for a couple of reasons; we can see the standard mountings and, below the HDD mounting location, a spot for an HDD cooler to mount to the bottom of the case as well as a better look at the PSU fan filter. Also, the SSD mounting trays can be relocated to the top of the PSU cover. The cable routing opening between the motherboard tray and rear SSD tray mount is not removable, but does provide enough room to easily situate cables for a nice clean look, with zip-tie securing locations nearby. Lastly, the over-sized motherboard tray cutout expands cooling possibilities throughout a range of different motherboards because of its size.
I did find this little faux pas, but it has nothing to do with the usability of the case. What we are looking at here is the front panel connection and cabling. While it is all easily extended by feeding more cable to the front of the case, what happens when your cables are secured and you find the need to clean your front fan filter? The USB 3.0 Type-C connector has removable connections but the USB 3.0 Type-A and audio jacks are screwed to the bezel with no way to simply disconnect it. It would have been nice to see a more accessible way to remove this in the event your cables are secured.
With the case tour out of the way, on to the testing.
Testing Hardware
For this build I will be using the following components:
Test Setup | |
CPU | AMD 8370 @4.0(4.3 Turbo) |
Cooler | AMD Stock Cooler |
Motherboard | ASUS Crosshair Formula-Z |
RAM | Corsair GT Dominator 8GB |
Graphics Card | Zotac GTX 560TI |
Solid State Drive | Kingston 120GB |
Power Supply | Cooler Master GXII |
Operating System | Windows 7 x64 |
Everything went in incredibly smoothly. I did add a 120mm fan to the rear of the case for testing. During the build, I wanted to make sure to check the fitment of different fans and radiators in the top mounting location. Unfortunately, I only have an EK-CoolStream PE 240, and with fans installed (EK-Vardar F3-120), the fans would come in contact with the motherboard’s components. Overall, the thickness came to about 65mm (38mm rad + 25mm fan). I am then forced to believe the same would happen with any radiator installed in that location unless it is specifically slim. The option to install the fans or radiator outside of case is possible if you were interested in something like that. For a 240mm (or 280mm) radiator you will have to remove the 5.25″ drive mounts.
For the thermal testing of the case and components, I decided to run 3Dmark11. Idling, my motherboard was a steady 25 °C and my processor was reported at 40 °C (check your thermal paste!). After running 3Dmark11, the highest temp reported was 57 °C on the CPU and the motherboard stayed cool at 26 °C which confirms that the large grille and two fans up front are moving air in the correct direction.
Conclusions
Overall, the quality of this case is very nice. The frame of the case is very rigid, and incredibly light. It is a very simplistic case, but has an appeal to it. A large window, simple flowing buttons, a red theme from fans to power lights keeps most enthusiast level builds along the same color scheme or at least adaptable. The stylized stamping and ventilation cut-outs allow for a bit of color splashing, bleeding light into the viewable area of the large window. The cable management cutouts seemed to be in just the right places. Water-cooling in this case may be hard to do with larger radiators, but the rear mounting location of 120mm still leaves the door open for a small AIO cooler which is becoming more mainstream and would fit nicely into their budget alongside this case. The multiple locations for mounting your solid state drives was also really nice to see. I was able to find this case at two retailers, the first being Amazon.com, offering this case with red trim exclusively to Amazon Prime members at $59.99 with free shipping. The other is Newegg.com, offering the red trim at $64.99 with $5.99 Shipping. The Amazon link does show an option for black trim, but it is currently unavailable.
This case was a joy to build in and was one of the smoothest builds I’ve ever had. It’s stylishly simplistic, available in red or black trim options, and has a price tag small enough to keep any builder happy. Overclockers Approved!
– TuKr
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