| SilverStone SUGO SG09 Micro ATX Build Notes |
| Articles - Featured Guides | ||||||||||
| Written by David Ramsey | ||||||||||
| Tuesday, 11 December 2012 | ||||||||||
SilverStone SUGO SG09 Micro ATX Build Notes
Manufacturer: SilverStone Technology Full Disclosure: SilverStone Technology provided the product samples used in this article. The SUGO SG09 is the latest entry in SilverStone's growing line of small form factor (SFF) computer cases. SilverStone decided that a volume of 23 liters was the upper limit for this system, and shaved millimeters of space everywhere they could to fit within this self-imposed limit, even if it meant compromising the build process. Although we liked the case, the space issues were still annoying. You can read our original review of this case here.
The main problems we ran into during the build were the very tight clearances for the power supply and the slim optical drive. In fact, the rear of the optical drive was so close to the upper fan that pressure on the drive's interface cable caused an internal short in the drive that destroyed it when we powered the system up for the first time! And this was with a SilverStone-supplied interface cable! SilverStone's specs for the case say a 180mm power supply will fit, so our original build used a SilverStone ST85F-G modular power supply with SilverStone's optional PP05 short cable kit. Although this setup technically fit, it was a very tight squeeze that made replacing the top cover of the case a real struggle. After the review was published, SilverStone sent us three new components to try with the case:
The first item I installed was the new power supply. At 1,000 watts, the ST1000P supply is beefier than the 850 watt supply I was using previously. If you're wondering how a 1,000 watt power supply can be 20mm shorter than an 850 watt power supply, it's probably because the former is only 80 Plus Silver while the latter is rated 80 Plus Gold-- efficiency apparently requires more space. The 1,000 watt supply is overkill from a "what power is needed" point of view, but since the SG09 case places the power supply intake fan right at the front, quiet power supplies are best, and the cooling fan doesn't spin very fast given that all my components pull well under half what this unit can provide. The 20mm of extra clearance makes a huge difference: 
...especially compared to the clearance offered by the original 180mm unit:
Next up was SilverStone's new CP10 sleeved slim optical drive cable. You may recall that the original SilverStone cable had real interference problems with the top fan as shown below:
The new right-angled cable has no such issues. Plugged into my (new) optical drive, there's a precious few millimeters of clearance.
The last item SilverStone sent was their AP182 Air Penetrator fan. It's exactly the same size as the stock fan (albeit molded in white plastic instead of black plastic), but while the original fan had switchable "low" and "high" settings, the new fan has an infinitely variable speed controller built in. The adjustment knob comes mounted in a slot cover, but you can unscrew it and mount it in any of SilverStone's SFF cases as shown below.
At full speed the AP182 provides 170 cubic feet per minute of airflow at 2,000 RPM as compared to the 130 cubic feet per minute at 1,200 RPM provided by the original fan. This extra airflow does come at the cost of noise, but you can adjust the cooling/noise ratio to whatever you prefer with the controller knob. The addition of these three components make the SilverStone SUGO SG09 computer case even better for your Micro ATX build. Benchmark Reviews invites you to leave constructive feedback below, or ask questions in our Discussion Forum.
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