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When Silverstone told us that they were sending a £40 case we were not expecting to review such a fantastic product which delivers so many high end features to the budget audience.
The all black interior is very well finished and unlike others we have seen in a similar price bracket is consistent throughout. There are cable tie down spots and vibration dampening hard drive mounts and all fan locations have dust filters supplied as standard.
While there is only one fan supplied out of the box we found that the cooling performance was actually very good, as long as you aren't trying to break any world records. Aided by the budget, yet award winning Thermaltake Contac 29 cooler we managed to keep CPU temperatures under 50c. Even more impressive when we consider that this was a Black Edition overvolted and running at 3.9ghz.
What negatives can we mention? Well the tool-less design works well inside, although it is a pity Silverstone didn't use thumbscrews on the outside panels for ease of use. We would also like to see the inclusion of a front intake fan, I am quite sure this wouldn't cost Silverstone more than £1-2 a unit which could be passed onto the end user, it greatly helps negate dead zones in the front half of the chassis. Being absolutely subjective however it isn't really a critical issue for most people in the market for a cheap case.
Adding three more fans helps with overclocking while reducing internal ambient temperatures, however this could add another £15 to the cost which effectively means it doesn't end up such a bargain.
Aesthetically the case is reasonably attractive although I am not a great lover of the plastic accents, they certainly help improve the looks but they do feel cheap when you touch them.
In closing, for £40 including VAT the Precision SST-PS05 is pretty much the chassis bargain of the decade. Not only is it effectively designed but it looks good and will comfortably house a fast modern day gaming rig. Adding more fans pays dividends and the potential for overclocking hardware is high.
KitGuru says: Silverstone have successfully tackled the budget market with this release and we look forward to seeing what they do next.
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