InstallationThe KL03 features almost no toolless features, so have you screwdriver ready, as most step requires the use of it. Power supply and motherboard are installed as in any ordinary case, not much room for cable routing left, so you have to find a way to hide them somewhere in an empty 5.25” bay.
The Optical drives and 3.5” devices (not HDDs) can be installed without the use of your screwdriver as the case’s goodie bag comes with a series of drive rails:
The drive rails click in place and then you slide the device until you hear in it snap lock tight:
If you have half length 5.25” devices, like fan controller or LED display, you can use the screws provided.
The star of the show in case of the KL03 is the hard drive mounting system; it features hot plug and play SATA data/power all-in-one preinstalled cable (or cables if you purchase extra units). You can see a single one installed in the photo below:
You screw your hard drives into the HDD plastic mini racks:
Then you just slide them in and close the rack cover, which fixes them in place, then you reinstall the front 120mm fan and you’re good to go!
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.