SilverStone Kublai KL05 Review

SilverStone Kublai KL05 Review

Manufacturer: SilverStone
UK price (as reviewed): £56.11 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $70.69 (ex Tax)

If you look around at any LAN gaming event, you'll likely see that the majority of cases aren't £150 premium monsters. They're probably not even worth £100 or even £80. It's the sub-£80 market that sees the most sales so good reviews here often mean happy accountants for companies such as SilverStone. It's obviously no stranger to the premium end of things and has some good examples of cheaper cases too - the Kublai Series KL05 could well be one of them.


At £56, this is cheap compared to most cases - plenty of mini-ITX cases cost more. However, this isn't just a full-size ATX case; the KL05 can actually punch well above its price tag in terms of water-cooling support too. Our model is specifically the KL05-W, which sports a Window and front mesh, while a second version is a little less lavish and ditches both, supposedly for better aesthetics.


The rest of the case is the same though, with a front-mounted I/O panel, providing the bare minimum of two USB 3 ports and audio minijacks. The exterior is a mix of plastic and steel in an all-black finish. It's decidedly boxy-looking, but the front mesh and window to help break this up. There's also a large vent in the roof and you also get two external 5.25in bays too. The underside offers a single large removable dust filter that encompasses two of the internal fan mounts as well as the PSU mount.

It's a sizable case too, standing nearly 53cm/21in tall and nearly 50cm/20in long. However, the width isn't oversized at all at 20cm so it's certainly quite narrow given its other dimensions. Thankfully this doesn't mean you'll be hampered in terms of graphics cards or CPU coolers too much - there's 165mm for the latter and up to 280mm/11in for graphics cards - 16in/405mm if you tweak the drive cage layout.

Specifications

• Dimensions (mm) 200 x 494 x 525 (W x D x H)
  
• Material Steel, plastic
  
• Available colours Black
  
• Weight 6.9kg
  
• Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 3, stereo, microphone
  
• Drive bays 2 x external 5.25in, 6 x 3.5in/2.5in, 2 x 2.5in
  
• Form factor(s) ATX, micro-ATX
  
• Cooling 2 x 120/140mm front fan mounts (1 x 120mm fans included), 1 x 120mm rear fan mount (fans not included), 2 x 120/140mm roof fan mounts (fans not included), 2 x 120mm bottom fan mounts (fans not included)
  
• CPU cooler clearance 165mm
  
• Maximum graphics card length 280mm (405mm without HDD cage)
  
• Extras Removable dust filters