The Silverstone Sugo SG07 has thoroughly impressed the KitGuru lab monkeys over the last week. Everyone in our team has been impressed with the appearance, internal design and cooling performance.
While we are extremely satisfied with the 180mm Penetrator fan, we really find it uncomfortable long term at high settings, it generates quite a whine which in the context of a media center would prove to be annoying. We always leave it on low and even at these slower speeds it produces a massive amount of air flow which is more than capable of keeping temperatures firmly in check. The fact that we could get another 800mhz out of our 655k CPU without hitting 70c load is testament to the fans dynamic performance. High end Quad core processors will probably require slightly more modest core voltage increases to keep things totally stable. If all you are doing is watching media content and playing games on a 1080P TV then a reasonably clocked Core i5 CPU is more than enough.
When gaming for a long time with the overclocked HD5870 we found that the chassis design was absorbing some of the generated heat, helping the components to cool and from a design point of view Silverstone really do deserve credit for such a stellar construction.
Silverstone have managed to create one of the finest small form factor chassis designs on the market and it not only looks fanastic but you can build a stable, long term high end gaming system with a single slot high end graphics solution inside it. The HIS5870 Turbo had no problems staying cool inside the SG07 and we experienced no instability issues either.
The cost for the Silverstone SG 07 in the UK right now is £165 inc vat which is an extremely competitive price if you factor in the 600W power supply which we would estimate to be worth around £65 of the overall unit cost. It is extremely capable and can handle a GTX480 or HD5970, meaning you should never have to change it out, which is just as well as you can't buy the SG07 without it.
The only potential problem we experienced is that someone without a 90 degree Sata Cable would be left in a rather unpleasant situation if they wanted to mount one or two 2.5 inch drives. We think Silverstone should contemplate adding a couple of these cables (or even one) to the overall package.
The Zotac H55 Mini ITX Wi-Fi motherboard is just as impressive as the Silverstone SG07 and we found this product to be a perfect partner as Zotac offer a strong bundle with the board and have a great instruction manual if you have issues setting it up. The Wi-Fi element is well worth the extra money as we found the reception strength very strong, even through several rooms in a large building. The build quality is top drawer, the bios is comprehensive and the overclocking options work well.
Again, the only problem I experienced with the Zotac H55 mini ITX motherboard was the omission of any 90 degree Sata Connectors in the box. With a Mini ITX board we would urge Zotac to include at least 2 of these cables to aid with the system build.
KitGuru says: Both of these products are worthy of our highest award and both score 9/10 for overall excellence, performance and stability.
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Well those products are a match made in heaven, thats for sure. Great review, thanks.
Those are the chassis designs I love – subtle, yet beautiful. very sexy case.
Cant believe the way they have built the case to take the biggest cards on the market, some full size cases can’t. Great work from Silverstone there.
Saw a review of this a few days ago on bit tech and almost ordered it. This is the tipping point. Love it, thanks for the thorough testing.
Damn, good timing, was looking at this case last week and didnt know if there were any fitting issues. I have the SG05 and really rated it, but its a bit old in the tooth now. 600W PSU here I come !
Silverstone, you rock my world, what a beautiful piece of engineering!
havent had the time to thoroughly read this just yet, but what a lovely looking chassis. cable management looks a nightmare however in such a confined space.
havent had the time to thoroughly read this just yet, but what a lovely looking chassis. cable management looks a nightmare however in such a confined space.
Well that was a very enjoyable afternoon read over here, thanks for taking the time to mix and match such a good pairing.
That 655k is a decent price in the UK, and it seems to overclock without much effort. Might look into copying this system, but maybe using a Sapphire HD5670 ultimate and try and build something basically silent.
I really do love the fact silverstone prefit such a nice PSU into this chassis and it cuts out some of the build effort. the motherboard is a decent price, but are zotac really that good? I would think someone like DFI would offer a better overclocking product.
That is a very nice design from silverstone, im tempted to build something low power with a dual core i5 myself now.
Technically the design from Silverstone is stellar. they have a top mounting fan which is focused and directed in such a strong manner, this basically blasts all the components and forces air out the sides of the case reducing component and ambient temperatures, all in one. very impressive really.
Well while the silverstone chassis impressed me the motherboard caught my eye. 14 USB 2 ports? esata, 300mbit wireless, etc etc.
What a fucking killer product that is !
This system would be perfect for me. what a great idea Zardon. all the components are affordable (well 5870 is a bit much still but …) and they all work great. Excellent review and testing.
Wow…
This should be my next gaming machine – except that I like gigabyte better. Plus I would consider some quad core with NH-C12P-14S as cooler. But not sure if will fit (it is kind a bulky for ITX form factor
Hi Jordan I tried the NH C12p 14 which we also reviewed (great cooler) and while it fits, on this particular Zotac board it blocked the PCI express slot so you have to use the onboard graphics. We have been told by Silverstone since the review went live however that the DFI mini ITX board works fine with this cooler. might be worth looking into……
Thanks for the reply.
Indeed I will look at that one… 🙂
far too much bux for a case howver good. No wonder all the computer market is going downhill. Give me a good case for $40 and a great case for £70. Gold plated with Ahgel wings for a £100. Intels biggest hole in its lineup is an atome with integrated GPU .. I dont think they have anything that will compete against F350APU at least for another 6 months, even then their gfx are normally dreadul.