SilverStone Primera PM01-RGB Review

SilverStone Primera PM01-RGB Review

Manufacturer: SilverStone
UK price (as reviewed): £149.99 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): Currently unavailable

Shown off just a few weeks ago at Computex 2017, the Primera PM01-RGB is, unsurprisingly, a refresh of the PM01 with a bit of RGB bling and a few other upgrades. We came away from the original case impressed by its cooling prowess but found it wanting in quite a few other areas. As such, we were keen to see whether our criticisms had been addressed in this new model or if it's just a quick way for SilverStone to join the unending RGB hype-train, especially as the price has now increased 50 percent from £100 to £150.


Our sample is the matte black edition, although SilverStone also offers the case in glossy black or white finishes. We found the glossy finish last time to be a real fingerprint and dust magnet, and while the matte black here is an improvement in this regard, you'll still want to give the exterior a clean after you're done building.

Externally, not much has changed. This is still a sizeable chassis with bulky front and roof sections hewn from plastic, although they're very strong, and the space can at least be used for additional fans or water-cooling hardware. One clear difference and undoubtedly a big part of the inflated price tag, however, is the new tinted tempered glass side panel. Such glass is a good match for RGB lighting, and we found the windowed steel panel from before to be a bit flimsy, so this is an improvement all-round, as the glass is very thick and strong.


The front is effectively one giant mesh again, but thankfully SilverStone no longer forces you to unscrew the front panel from inside – it simply pops off with a tug. This is good, as you need to do this in order to access the full-cover dust filter that shields the trio of 140mm intake fans. You'll also have likely noticed the fan guards, and these are SilverStone's FG141 models that incorporate RGB lighting; the fans themselves are not LED models. The intakes are complemented by a single 140mm exhaust fan again. As such, SilverStone is using the same positive pressure airflow design as before whereby air will be forced out through the grilles in the roof panel (neatly hidden along the sides and at the back). This is no bad thing given how well the original PM01 performed.


The buttons and ports are located on the roof: a power button (no reset) to the left, and USB ports, audio jacks, and the LED control button to the right. The single LED button changes the colour of the RGB lighting in the fan grilles and throughout the case, with static, breathing, and spectrum cycling effects all available. Holding it down will turn things off. Fan control has now been added to this case, but it's all handled internally by a PWM fan hub.

There's not much of interest on the bottom, but the rubber feet are helpful for grip, and the slide-out PSU dust filter is very easy to work with.

Specifications

• Dimensions (mm) 220 x 560 x 571 (W x D x H)
  
• Material Steel, plastic, tempered glass
  
• Available colours Black, matte black, white
  
• Weight 10.1kg
  
• Front panel Power, 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, headphone, microphone, LED control
  
• Drive bays 4 x 3.5"/2.5", 5 x 2.5"
  
• Form factor(s) ATX, micro-ATX
  
• Cooling 3 x 140mm/120mm front fan mounts (3 x 140mm fans included), 1 x 140mm/120mm rear fan mount (1 x 140mm fan included), 3 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm roof fan mounts (fans not included)
  
• CPU cooler clearance 180mm
  
• Maximum graphics card length 419mm
  
• Extras Removable dust filters, RGB LED controller, eight-port PWM fan hub