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Cooler Master Silencio 650 Mid Tower Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by leeghoofd @ 2013-01-11

Today we introduce to you the flagship of Cooler Master's Silencio range: The 650 model. We already saw the prototype at Cebit 2012 and the specification list was impressive. Cooler Master promised us an integration of a fan controller, a hot swappable bay, a selection option of the boot drive. In a typical Cooler Master design and retailing at a moderate price tag. It's predecessor, the Silenco 550 was a decent silent case, but had a few shortcomings, especially the cable management was a rough ride due to the small clearance between the motherboard tray and the side panel and a bit too small cutouts in the motherboard panel. However for a 70 euro case it was a great addition to the silent Silencio enclosure range for Cooler Master. The new Silencio 650 model, due to the extra features retails at plus minus 110 euros, time to stop the chit chat and open the box.

Final Build and Test Results

A clean build can nevertheless be obtained after some time. However I gave up trying to route the 8 pin power plug of the CORSAIR HX1000 PSU through the top cutout. Secondly the cutout near the PSU should have been positioned a few more inches to the right. With a normal sized PSU it willl be fine, however this is one of the reasons Madshrimps installs large sized PSUs, to check clearances and cutouts.

The little cutout near the PSU support is with our test setup almost obsolete, again with much patience you can carefully route your USB or front panel audio cables, but these are so outdated design flaws, that should no longer be present in a case of this price level.

Clearance is good between the installed G.SKill Dimms and the installed Corsair Hydro 80i cooler.

The temperature results are up next.

Overall the Silencio 650 keeps our test gear at decent operating temperatures. However comparing to the previous silent case model we tested, namely the Fractal R4 Define case, then the CM Silencio 650 is performing a few degrees less. When dropping the fan rpm to 700 via the fan controller the cooling performance takes an expected hit.

Noise wise it's the same ordeal as with the R4 case. The noise level barely goes down when dropping fan rpm, but that gain is futile compared to the loss in operating temperatures. All depending on the hardware you have installed. If you have lots of temperature headroom then select the low fan mode and enjoy an incredible silent case. Yet even with the fans running full blast the case remains pretty silent.

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