SilverStone Grandia Series GD06 Chassis Review

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell February 21, 2012 Cases, Featured Announcement

Rating: 8.0.

The Media PC market has been thriving in the last year with leading manufacturers such as Lian Li releasing a raft of capable, attractive chassis designs specifically for this audience. Today we are looking at the Silverstone Grandia Series GD06 Chassis which builds on the GD04 and GD05 heritage.

Silverstone have released the GD06 with a list of improvements. They have maintained the compact depth of 340mm while increasing the airflow to deal with high level component cooling. There is a five drive storage system inside, which is augmented by two hot swappable bays for maximum flexibility. They have included a front door lock and a rear Kensington Security Slot for maximum security.

Silverstone haven't skimped on the cooling proficiency, generously including three 120mm fans with dust filters. The case supports the Mini-ITX, DTX and Micro ATX form factor.

Special Chassis Features:

Three silent 120mm fans included
Positive air pressure design for excellent cooling/quietness and dust-prevention
Incredible 340mm depth to fit comfortably inside home theater cabinet
Designed with cable routing for easy installation
Support 4 x 3.5” hard drives and 2.5” hard drive or SSD (Solid-state drive)
Support expansion cards up to 11 inches
Includes two front USB 3.0 ports

The Silverstone Grandia Series GD06 case arrives in a very stylish box with with a high resolution image of the product on the front of the box.

The chassis is well protected between thick pieces of Styofoam. To help prevent against surface damage, the case is wrapped with a plastic protective sleeve.

The bundle is strong. SilverStone include locking keys, several chassis cables, mounting screws and 5 thick cable tidies. They also include a very handy USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 adapter.

The chassis lives up to the demanding standards we expect from Silverstone. Their name is predominately positioned in the center of the front panel. The case is built around a thin steel body (0.8mm) with an aluminum front door and plastic front panel. It weighs 5.6 kg and measures 440 mm (W) x 150 mm (H) x 340 mm (D).

The front panel is unlocked and locked with a set of keys. This helps to maintain a minimalistic, attractive appearance. The power button resides in the center of the case and you don't need to open the door to turn the system on. On the left are two doors which offer hot swappable support for 3.5 inch drives (we look at this in more detail later in the review). On the right is an optical bay with a cover over it.

The front panel is home to a reset button, two USB 3.0 connectors and a headphone and microphone port.

The left panel houses a 120mm fan with smaller rear mounted air flow vent. The right panel houses two 120mm fans. Grills are preinstalled to help improve the appearance and help reduce dust intake. These all suck cool air into the chassis from both sides. At the top of the case is a smaller vent which can accommodate a 80mm fan, perhaps even used in an exhaust position.

The rear of the case has positions for the installation of two more 80mm fans, above the I/O panel (left in the image above). The GD06 can support a PS2 (ATX) power supply up to 150mm in length.

Underneath are two large feet at the front with rubber discs in the middle to stop the chassis moving on a variety of surfaces. The rear of the case has two rubber feet and there is also a rubber foot in the middle of the case which help keep it steady. The underside also features a mesh covered dust filter for the power supply.

The top panel is removed with three screws, giving access to the insides of the case. It slides back around an inch, and then can be lifted vertically upwards.

To minimise the impact on physical footprint, the interior of the case features various frame sections, which have to be individually removed. Even if you aren't fitting an optical drive for instance, you still need to remove the frame section to get access underneath.

There are two screws at the side, and two at the top, holding this section in place.

Once this section is removed, access to the two 120mm side fans and motherboard mounting area is easy enough. The cable from the front panel is feed through several holes in the chassis into this area, as seen above.

The 3.5 inch docking bay is very intelligent and while we have removed it entirely to show you how it works, it never needs to be taken out of the case. Hard drives can be fed in from the front panel of the case then locked into place.

When all the sections are removed, we can admire the ‘naked' GD06. It isn't painted black inside, but this is the kind of system you will build once anyway.

We fitted an OCZ 450W power supply into the case as shown above. There is nothing complex about the install procedure, just a simple set of four locking screws, from the rear.

For the review today we settled on using an AMD A8-3870K processor with Asus F1A75-M Pro motherboard, paired up with some ADATA performance memory.

Fitting the motherboard is also very straightforward and all the holes were perfectly aligned. The images above show the hard drive bay completely removed above the power supply.

Next we installed a 120GB Pyro Solid State Drive. There are several positions for 2.5 inch drives but we used the underside of the main drive bay section (shown earlier), keeping the SSD safely out of view when refitted.

We refitted the drive bay section and connected all the headers. We would advise you test that the system will boot at this stage, before attaching the other sections and resealing the GD06 chassis.

Next we refit the optical drive tray as shown above. If the system successfully has posted then you can tidy the cable routing and close the case completely.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.

Today we have built a modestly powerful system to cope with a variety of high definition media tasks and light gaming duties. This is the ideal audience for a system such as this.

Processor: AMD A8-3870K @ 3.5ghz (1.4 volts)
Motherboard: Asus F1A75M-PRO
Memory: 8GB ADATA 1600mhz
Power Supply: OCZ 450W
Graphics: Sapphire HD6450 FleX
Storage: Patriot Pyro 120GB & 500GB Samsung HDD

Additional Equipment:
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2

Firstly let us have a look at the chassis design and airflow, as it comes ‘out of the box’. All 120mm fans are connected to the motherboard for direct PWM control.

The three 120mm fans intake a high volume of air from the sides of the chassis. Two are positioned close to the motherboard, and the third is close to the drives at the other side of the case. Air flows out the rear of the case, and additional fans can be installed here, as well as in the top of the GD06.

We have placed thermal diodes into 5 case positions. 1: close to the hard drives at the side of the case. 2: at the front of the case close to the motherboard. 3: In the middle of the case, close to the discrete graphics card. 4: At the rear of the case, close to the I/O panel. 5: On top of the power supply at the rear of the case.

Ambient room temperatures were maintained at 23c throughout.

The AMD A8-3870K was overclocked to 3.5ghz @ 1.4 volts.

Decent performance results from the GD06 cooling system, with most of the hot air being quickly expelled from the case. The system we built isn't the hottest running system you could fit in the GD06 however, so the other fan slots might need to be filled to compensate for rising temperatures.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the chassis we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from the case. The room rates as 21dBa before powering on the system (air conditioning unit in the far corner of the room causes this).

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The SilverStone Grandia Series GD06 uses high quality fans, but it isn't the quietest case we have tested, audible in a quiet room. That said, noise levels are not a concern and it would be ideal positioned within a living room, as the centerpiece of a media center setup.

The Silverstone Grandia Series GD06 is a beautifully designed chassis, right up there with the best looking Lian Li products we have tested. At a glance, it looks as if it might be made from aluminum, but the weight gives it away. The main body is crafted from steel, with an aluminum front door and plastic front panel.

The build quality is without reproach. There are no sharp edges, and the internal design is both clean, intuitive and engineered to the highest standards. The shape of the chassis means that the GD06 will be welcomed by the home theater audience who can easily slot the case into a rack of hi-fi and audio separates.

We really do appreciate the fact that Silverstone have added the aluminum front door which can be locked shut. This dramatically improves overall appearance and flowing curves, as all the ports and buttons are hidden from view, until they are needed. Cleverly, the power button has been designed to fit into the design ethic, recessed into the lower section of the front panel. This is always accessible, even with the front panel locked shut.

The air flow of the case is extremely impressive, with three quality 120mm fans supplied pre-installed. These are all set to intake positions and there are additional areas available to add more fans, if desired. We tested with a moderately powered system today, ideal for high definition multimedia environments so the radiated heat was never really a concern. Those people who want something more powerful, with a mid range or high end video card may want to look at populating the top fan position and even the rear fan locations, above the I/O panel.

Working in such a confined space is generally not a painfree process and some time needs to be spent in organising the cables from the chassis and power supply. A little cable routing under the motherboard is another good option to keep the system build clean and free from clutter.

Overall, this is a fantastic media chassis and one that I can recommend to our readers. Personally, I still prefer the Lian Li PC C60, mainly because it can accept a full sized ATX motherboard. That said, the asking price is significantly higher, almost twice as much as the Grandia Series GD06, which retails for around £100 inc vat in the UK.

Pros: