Product Listing

Cooler Master Silencio 550 - Whisper Quiet

By Kenny Yeo - 26 Mar 2012
Launch SRP: S$129

External Design

Exterior Design

The first thing about the Silencio 550 that caught our eyes was the mirror finish front panel, which gives the chassis a polished and classy look. Other than that, the rest of the exterior is decked in all black and the overall theme here can best be described as minimalistic. It’s not the prettiest chassis around, but at least it’s not gaudy or overbearing.

The front panel is held in place by hidden magnets. Note the thick sound dampening foam. Opening it reveals the two 5.25-inch external drive bays and hot swappable X-dock. Lastly, the dust filters for the front fans can be easily removed for cleaning.

Functionally speaking, the case seems soundly designed as it has necessary front-panel ports and buttons that are easily accessible, while the front panel swings open elegantly to reveal it's easily accessible front fans. Unlike most casing that require the need to rip out the entire front, the Siliencio 550 only requires you to release latch to unmount the fans and it filters for easy maintenance. On the drive bay area, you would notice that our specs list had a feature called the X-dock. It's basically a feature that allows you to hot-plug in loose 3.5-inch internal hard drives if required. We show you how it functions from the interior photo shots on the following page.

On the top panel we have a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port, a SD memory card reader, and the usual power and reset buttons and a headphone and microphone jack.

The left and right panels are devoid of any vents or windows, but they are padded with noise dampening foam to insulate noise.

The rear of the chassis is standard fare. There’s a 120mm rear exhaust fan - limited to 800rpm - to keep noise down and three grommets for liquid cooling setups.

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8.0
  • Aesthetics 8
  • Functionality 7.5
  • Usability 8
  • Value 8
The Good
Quiet operation
Mostly tool-free installation
Can accommodate most graphics cards
The Bad
Max of one exhaust and two intake fans
Only two USB ports
Heat could be an issue in high-powered systems
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