Cooler Master Silencio 450 Review

👤by David Mitchelson Comments 📅19-03-12
Conclusion

The Silencio is a new series from Cooler Master and has already captured plenty of attention in the market. Though we can’t personally comment on the 550 as we haven’t reviewed it, this case has already impressed a vast majority of the media around the world.

Although the 450 is from the same series as the 550 its visual appearance is somewhat different. 450 is still minimalist but it lacks the finesse of its older brother. The exterior looks cheap. Inside, things do look better but there are still some oddities. The USB 3.0 port requires a USB port at the rear I/O on the motherboard and there are no cut-outs for the CPU power cable. Furthermore, the clearance behind the motherboard tray means that cable management is rather weak.



We understand that Silencio 450 comes at a smaller price-tag of around £50 and there are almost certainly going to be various cut-backs in order to keep in line with this price but there are better alternatives on the market that offer good cable management and a professional visual appearance. The Corsair 300R is one such alternative and boasts a better feature-set for a similar price-tag.

Cooler Master need to re-think their approach with lower-end cases like the Silencio 450 as it simply scraps the barrel in terms of quality and features.

Pros
+ Quiet
+ Low cost
+ Can accommodate high-end kit

Cons
- Looks cheap
- USB 3.0 via cable not header
- PCI covers aren’t re-usable
- Poor cable management
- HDD installation needs improving


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