SilverStone Sugo SG08 Mini-ITX Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on May 13, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- SilverStone
In and Around the SilverStone Sugo SG08
If you review computer hardware for long enough, your relationship with aluminum becomes a fairly complicated one. Review cases and you start learning all kinds of crazy things about building materials, eventually developing your own preferences. I'm pleased to say that this is one thing SilverStone continues to do very, very right.
There isn't anything especially outlandish about using a brushed aluminum fascia with an SECC steel chassis and shroud, but SilverStone opts to use thick material in the construction of the Sugo SG08. The front fascia is 10mm aluminum while the external shroud is exactly the right thickness of steel to be flexible enough during reassembly without being chintzy or overly fiddly. SilverStone's aesthetic with the SG08 is tame and effective, with a completely flat, unventilated front followed by a veritable mountain of ventilation on the top and sides. Interestingly, there's virtually no ventilation on the rear of the case; I suspect this is a deliberate choice to channel air as directly down to the CPU as possible.
Instead of thumbscrews, the SG08 has three standard screws that hold the single piece shroud in place. Remove that, and you're left looking at one of SilverStone's classic puzzle boxes.
While the interior of the SG08 is fairly intimidating at first, there's always a logic to SilverStone's designs. Like a good sandwich, a "stacking order" must be adhered to. At the top of the case are the intake fan bracket and the slimline optical drive tray. Remove those and you have access to the motherboard tray itself and the storage drive cage. Remove the drive cage and you're left with the preinstalled power supply. It should come as no surprise that interior real estate is at an absolute premium, yet what's perplexing is that SilverStone opted to install the reset button on the back of the case. Leaving it in the front where it typically resides, even recessed, would've been much more ideal, as you now have front panel headers crossing essentially the entirety of the interior.
There aren't really a lot of surprises when it comes to the Sugo SG08. I like the aesthetic overall; it's simple but effective and won't look out of place. It's easy to be intimidated by the internal layout and you can tell almost immediately that closing up is going to be a pain, but when you get down to an enclosure this size, a lot of sacrifices are going to be made. Could the design of the SG08 be simpler? Probably, but how much so I'm not really certain.
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Thud2 - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
I may have missed it but did measure the max PCIe card length?flemeister - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
From my experience, about 11"/280mm for a reasonably comfortable fit, and about 12"/305mm max before the video card bumps into the PSU cables, where they poke out of the PSU chassis.Thud2 - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
you. CanttypThud2 - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
eAgeOfPanic - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
I'm still not sure about SFX power supplies. I owned a SG05 with a 450watt SFX PSU, but it was way too loud for me. It's too bad we cannot hear it ourselves.caycep - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
How bad is the GPU cooling? I was surprised that it seemed so middling. I've had enough blown fans / overheating GPU cards to be nervous about it. I currently have a eVGA GTX 670 w/ a blower-style heat sink...hopefully that would work well w/ the side vents.Sm0kes - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
Blower style cards are most ideal with this case.I have the SG08 and an EVGA GTX 660Ti. The blower style fan works insanely well with the positive pressure design of this case. The air flowing down through the 180mm fan and out the sides does not inhibit the GPU's fan at all.
Silverstone even included a foam shroud the size of the fan on my EVGA, but in my testing wasn't even necessary.
rvd2008 - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
$199 for a dummy box? Good luck selling 10 of these...philipma1957 - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
I like my modded cooler master elite 120 more but it is bigger.16 by 9 by 9 vs 14 by 8.8 by 7.5.
I have an i7 3770k , a hd7970, a seasonic , 650x gold psu, has an asrock z77-e mobo , Samuel 17 cooler. full size samsung blu-ray with 3 fan mods, a circle saw front panel cut and a pretty grill.
Pretty much beats the snot out of a 1080p screen when gaming. These long shoe box designs are for gaming. my cooler master was 45 the seasonic was 100 on sale. the 3 fans were 40 so 185 for a better but bigger box.
mattlach - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
I like it, but it is 0.8" too tall to fit in my entertainment center, and thus I will have to find something else for my HTPC.