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Review on Silverstone Tek ML04B: High-Quality Micro ATX Media Center/HTPC Case in Sleek Black Aluminum Design by Jacolbe Mind

Revainrating 4 out of 5

It would be nice if not for hours of modding

Great workmanship, quality etc but poor design. The ML-06E would actually be the perfect Mini-ITX case if: 1) it was at least 0.5 inches larger in every dimension. I don't need an 18 liter monster PC, but there's nothing wrong with that. While this thing is slightly larger - literally 0.5 inches in each direction - that's all it takes. An inch would be even better. At the moment there is practically no room for power supply cables, and a tiny cable barely fits under the motherboard. Meanwhile, with a tiny, low-profile graphics card installed, there is no airflow path from the side vents to the CPU area, effectively cutting off circulation. I ended up removing the front USB/headphone ports to free up an additional 0.25 inch for it. to create a large opening. When you install a low-profile GPU (like most things), you're essentially stuck with a single intake fan that doesn't allow air to escape from the case. Also, the side of the case that has the drive cage is basically a cave - I don't see how air can circulate there. I ended up removing the entire drive cage and drilling an additional 80mm fan hole in that area for the necessary airflow. However, now I have to improvise a new location for the 2.5" hard drive, which will likely be on the top removable door, in addition to where the original drive cage used to be. 3). If there were an alternative cage for 2 hard drives, or even just a 2.5" hard drive, to make problem #2 less of a problem, I can at least put the hard drive somewhere when I remove the bay hard drives. The vast majority of people will never need 4 or even 3 hard drives.

Pros
  • Pleasant
Cons
  • Not sure