SilverStone Grandia SST-GD08B HTPC Chassis Review

SilverStone Grandia SST-GD08B HTPC Chassis

The front of the chassis is clad in brushed aluminum and anodized black to match the rest of the chassis. You find the company name, two stealth drive bay covers, the front I/O and the power and reset buttons all in their respective corners leaving the rest to be just sleek and simple aesthetically.

The right side of the chassis has a few holes at the left to use a pair of included adapters to mount a 3.5" drive inside of there. The rest of the side is taken up with the removable dust filters I have been taking about with the unique design to them.

The filter slides to the left and when removed it exposes the 120mm fan that pumps air in from this side. Also with the filter against the white back drop, it's much easier to see the design.

In the rear of the chassis you can mount a pair of 80mm fans if you wish above the rear I/O. Moving right we run into the 7+1 slot configuration and that leave the PSU mounting area at the far right of this side of the GD08.

The left side of the chassis also offers a removable dust filter to go over where the PSU can draw fresh air in. Again the same design of filter is used to help any PSU fan sound a bit quieter as it draws air through it.

The top of the chassis is flat steel and offers a mesh area of ventilation above the expansion slots. This means a cooling device in the +1 slot has room to draw in cool air or the hole will passive exhaust due to the positive air pressure inside the GD08.

Under the chassis there are a few things to note. There are really large feet on this unit to keep it very stable on a shelf near the TV, it has removable dust filters for the pair of 120mm fans behind them and it seems there is a switch at the front edge.

This switch to be exact. What I found out later after powering the unit, is that this switch will disable the PWR LED. So if the light ends up at eye level, you can turn it off when the lights are low and the movie is playing. This switch can also be used to control the exact brightness of the PWR LED depending if you want it dim or bright.