Look insideWhile the front panel is quite unique, as we progress to the inside the case actually looks quite generic. The side panel is held in place with normal screws, for an enthusiast case, thumbscrews are appreciated though.
The window gives you a glimpse of what’s inside; unfortunately the view is blocked by an ugly grey piece of metal…
The window is made from hard plastic and won’t break easily; it’s riveted to the metal side panel.
This metal panel can hold 2x120mm fans, it would have been more esthetically correct to have the fan(s) integrated into the side panel. As now you have to open a second panel to have access to the mainboard area:
At the bottom of the photo above you can make out the plastic feet, which spin outwards 90°C to provide better stability.
The metal panel swings open on its own hinge and at the inside you’ll find a series of plastic/rubber combo rails, which slide out and hold your PCI(e) cards in place.
The other side of the KL03 is less interesting:
The front door swings open to the left in standard config, but this can be changed as we already mentioned. The 5.25” bay covers are transparent, but this is only noticed when using flash photography.
CoolingSilverstone equipped the KL03 with 2x120mm fans, one in the front and one in the rear, creating the ideal airflow path for ATX computer systems. The one in the rear has a finger guard at the inside, you can also see the PCI slot covers in the photo below which have ventilation holes. These covers are held in place with normal screws.
The 120mm fan in the front of the case is quite special; it’s integrated in the front 5.25” panels, removing it requires a screwdriver pushed in from the side:
Two things of note in the photo below, the fan has no wired connection to the front of the case, you can remove it without having to unplug anything! Quite an inventive design and it works great. Secondly you can see the 3.5” hard drive racks from the front, as you can slide up to 4 HDDs from the front.
Time to install some hardware ->
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Here is my review of the Silverstone Berserker showing the use of the ATX version of the chassis at that time: http://www.techimo.com/reviews/showp...7&cat=3&page=1
. It was the only Silverstone case available for under $100 at the time - and such was my budget at the time (way under $100...).
And the Temjin 5 uses a similar steel chassis as well (not sure if the TJ05 is still a current model). I'm thinking the KL03 was to replace the TJ05 in the line while lowering the price a bit.
Silverstone doesn't make their steel chassis - all those are farmed out to OEMs. But they do specify custom changes to the base design. Silverstone then adds their custom aluminum bezels. I can't recall any SSTs to have plastic bezels other than the Berserker and Berserker Jr (a neato mATX case). Several other companies sold boxes made on the same chassis like Opus, and i-Star still sells an entry-level server box based on the same (they bundle it with some of their fancy PSUs). The case version used by i-Star can also be found separately, but I've never seen a brand name associated with it. The Enermax Shiny Titanium box was on the same chassis as well. I'm not sure whether SST sold the Berserkers anywhere else in the world except the US.
. It is pretty old-school, but I like it. I was quite fond of my Berserker and have "lusted in my mind" for some time after a TJ05 (which came out about the same time as the Berserker), but couldn't justify the cost.
The other case you mentioned can be gotten in the US with the three 5" bays in the bottom just like the Berserker (and KL03) and can take the EATX length mobos, while the Berserker was ATX or smaller.
One thing I don't like on the KL03 is that there are no rubber pads on the legs to keep the box from sliding around on hard surfaces and to intercept some vibrations. Not to mention helping to avoid marring surfaces.
.bh.