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SilverStone SG03 SFF Case
Inside the Case
Motherboard Tray A removable motherboard tray isn't necessary with a case this light, and given the kind of access you have. With the front bezel removed and the hard drive bays flipped out, there's almost no case left to get in the way of installing things. There's a little more than an inch of space at the front of the board for cables or very long video cards, but the hard drive bays almost touch the bottom edge of the motherboard. This would only be a problem for dual-slot-dual-GPU setups where the second PCI-Express slot is the last slot, which is admittedly unheard of in the Micro-ATX world (but a man can dream, can't he?). There's also room at the top of the motherboard tray, giving you precious inches where it counts for installing a heatsink. Power Supply There's plenty of space for even long, non ATX 2.0-compliant power supplies, and the SG03 is definitely sturdy enough. Finding a place to stick loose cables, on the other hand, could present a problem. There's room above the power supply, but you'd be better off either buying SilverStone's short-cabled PSU or getting a modular one. (SilverStone also makes short cable kits for their modular PSUs, for the best of both worlds.) Drive Bays The two main bays--the feet that flip out--use (slightly) vibration-dampening rails, pressure-fitted between them and the drives. The rails pop into the screw holes on the drives and slide right into the bays (tool-free if you don't count the screws that hold the bays shut). It's not super-quiet, but it is very amenable to using a length of foam wrapped around the drives instead of the rails. Cooling The case, with its great one-way air flow, doesn't have any problems with intake or exhaust. But the height restriction between the motherboard and the PSU does create a cooling issue. There aren't many options for aftermarket cooling that conform to the 80mm-tall space between the two immobile barriers. Stock CPU cooling will fit, that's certain, and so does (conveniently enough) SilverStone's own NT06 heatsink. Although there's not enough space for the heatsink and its fan, the PSU's fan will work in a pinch, if it faces in to pull air through the heatsink. I'm a little disappointed that there aren't any tubing holes at the back for watercooling, nor are there mounts for a radiator behind the case where there is clearly space for them. For most people this would never be a deal-breaker, but the chassis is just begging to be water-cooled and won't get it without some modification; something SilverStone is usually happy to do for you.
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