Published by Sebastian Peak | May 10, 2021 | Enclosures and Cooling | 5

SilverStone has existed since the early 2000s. Although their product supply has diversified over time, the annual case is still the largest part of the product stack-although PSU seems to be catching up. Anyway, I am a fan. The Crow series is the reason why I first bought the box, and the favorite of the boxes I bought myself was Temujin TJ08-E (Fort FT02 followed closely).

Now we have a new SilverStone shell to see, it is part of their cube-shaped small form factor products, and it has a wide range of uses. Therefore, with a flexible internal design that supports large components, a stylish aluminum appearance, and multiple placement/orientation options, SUGO 15 joins the ranks of SilverStone's interesting and practical housing design.

This is a mini ITX case, but the component support reads like a compact ATX case. If you don’t like the silver look, it is also available in black.

"Mini-ITX cube case with aluminum casing. High compatibility without compromise."

We received the silver version of SUGO 15 (SG15S) and the black version (SG15B). The silver aluminum plate is almost metallic-for example, brighter than the brushed satin you see from Lian Li. It is more obvious under bright light-the image below is an example of how the silver finish looks more gray under indirect light:

Its core is a steel chassis with aluminum panels on all sides. This provides an excellent appearance and quality feel, and helps reduce weight. But these panels also have a very important purpose: airflow.

Calling this situation "well-ventilated" is an understatement, because only the front panel and one side panel are solid, leaving three ventilated sides and the rear of the chassis for airflow. Each side panel vent is provided with a mesh filter to help keep your build clean.

The front panel I/O includes a pair of USB Type-A ports, a Type-C port, analog audio, and a power/reset button. It's always nice to see the Type-C connector of a modern circuit board that can support it. I like the minimal appearance of this black strip along the upper edge (or side, if you position it in a different way).

One aspect of this design that is somewhat unusual is the lack of predefined directions. Do you want a wider, more robust panel at the bottom and make your system level like a test bench like mine? certainly. But you can choose either side to fix the attached feet-you can also choose:

If you use the ventilated side as a base, the higher feet provide enhanced airflow options-but either way, you can try two sets of rubber feet.

Entering the case is painless, as each aluminum side panel has fixed (apparently spring-loaded) thumbscrews. After removing these panels, a pair of fan mounting brackets (four per bracket) need to be removed to fully open the cabinet during the construction process.

After removing the panel, you can see the screen filter. Although these sides are very light, they are thick enough to provide good rigidity. The casing feels very solid, and this impression will not change during the disassembly process.

This is where things get very interesting. I will use SilverStone's studio photography to best illustrate the options available to builders. We will now scroll through the five configuration options listed on the product page.

There are many things to do here, but basically you have up to five drive mounting points, ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 inches. As you can see, the side dual fan mounting bracket doubles as a storage bracket. Another interesting aspect of this design is the front end-the pair of SSDs in the foreground are actually hidden behind the solid front panel.

The only difference between this configuration and subsequent configurations is the CPU cooling, as the first configuration uses a 120mm AiO liquid cooler connected to the rear exhaust pipe.

As mentioned above, this configuration omits the 120mm AiO liquid cooler, and instead uses a typical thin cooler. There is still room for a second 3.5-inch HDD on the side bracket, and all SSD mounts can be used in any configuration.

Although it is possible to use such single-width and double-width liquid coolers, when I tested the AiO hose on the side bracket, the fan on the rear exhaust would not be removed. Orient the cooler in the other direction and this gap problem is eliminated-although the choice of hose length and other components may make such a setting impractical.

If there is anything on the rear exhaust pipe, the side AiO hose cannot be on this side

In fact, this special configuration only makes sense for GPUs or custom loops with additional liquid coolers and CPU liquid coolers. Another consideration is the top fan bracket (the bracket mounted above the motherboard, separate from the rear exhaust), which can also allow for some interesting dual AiO setups with certain CPU/GPU combinations.

This actually works as shown in the picture, because the side-mounted AiO hose will not interfere with the fan installation on the rear exhaust pipe in this direction. It is still an edge use case, but I prefer to think of the liquid cooler bracket as simultaneous/or simultaneous installation.

This represents a special advantage of this design, and you need a larger mITX shell like this to support it. I'm talking about the large air cooling of the CPU. Cooler like Noctua NH-D15 (165 mm high), quiet! In this case, Dark Rock Pro 4 (height 163 mm) and the ubiquitous Hyper 212 EVO (height 159 mm) will be easy to install. Just remove the optional top fan bracket and the maximum cooler height supported here is 182 mm.

As shown above, due to clearance issues, you will not be able to install a second 3.5-inch HDD with a large tower cooler, but one drive can still occupy the other side of this bracket.

To keep things simple, SilverStone is very good and can simultaneously send a compact ATX power supply-80 Plus Platinum rated ST1000-PTS-and a set of short and flat modular cables (which, by the way, is great).

I have to say that after removing the two fan brackets, this is a very simple mini-ITX build. I used our trusted ASUS ROG Stirx B450-I game board (somehow, I don’t have a newer mITX AMD chipset board on hand), and it has Ryzen 5 3600X installed. Of course, this can be upgraded to a 5000 series CPU, but for a quick build, I threw it as it is-inventory cooler, etc.

This used to be the core of another system, equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 FE graphics card. I tried that GPU at first, and later switched to a larger-and more challenging heat dissipation-ASUS Strix GTX 1080 Ti model. By the way, the gap of the GPU is large. There is room for longer cards, and these Strix three-fan designs are very large.

Here is a gap description, because the height of the G.Skill Trident Z NEO memory I used here is only a large height for the 240 mm radiator gap on the side bracket. However, low-profile DIMMs can also work normally.

The compact ATX PSU and short cable set provided by SilverStone is undoubtedly a great help to simplify this construction. Although compatible with other solutions, this specific setup allows for a very clean construction with minimal excess cables in the chassis. Sure, you won't be able to see any mess of cables connecting the side panels, but you will still know where the mouse den is.

A non-modular PSU is another good choice (if this is still the current product category), because longer ATX models with modular connectors will not be suitable. The official support distance from the PSU is only 150 mm, and even so, it is nearing completion. The model (ST1000-PTS) sent by SilverStone is a very compact 140 mm design.

Of course, you can always use the SFX-L power supply here to maximize the gap, but you need an SFX to ATX bracket (not included in this case).

Since I did not compare the data, according to my standards, this part of the review will be exceptionally incomplete. I haven't measured the configuration I used in SUGO 15 in other enclosures, so it doesn't make sense to try to make graphs with relative temperature and noise. That said, I did record the data, and my findings are essentially that the temperature and noise actually depend on how you intend to use the enclosure.

For all air-cooled components, this is how I ended up using this situation. When using stock-cooled CPUs and mid-range GPUs such as RTX 2060 that I started to use, there is enough ventilation to provide very good heat dissipation. There are vents wherever you need it, and the case is very breathable. However, I did notice that after a long period of testing, the fairly warm GTX 1080 Ti-with its aftermarket cooler blowing air into the case instead of blowing it out from the back-produced some very warm surface temperatures on the top aluminum plate.

To simulate a challenging gaming load, I chose the only "hot" days I have spent in Michigan so far, and used the ASUS Strix GTX in a very warm room (with AC power off and ambient temperature over 80 degrees Fahrenheit) 1080 Ti, and play Unigine Heaven in an endless loop. In this "worst case" scenario, I saw that the GPU temperature was up to 84.7 C and the fan speed was 70%. During this test, the Ryzen 5 3600X CPU uses a backup cooler to reach a maximum of 61.3 C. The noise reached 46.2 decibels, and the sound pressure level meter was located 12 inches from the top of the chassis, running above the system in the direction of my build. A gentler build (or air-conditioned room) produces much lower increments. My living room RTX 2060 build produces a maximum GPU temperature of 71 C, and the ambient air is about 72 F / 22 C.

My son decided to use my infrared thermometer as a hammer, so this comment cannot be made. After a long benchmark test with a hot-running GPU, the aluminum feels very hot to the touch, so keep this in mind when deciding on housing placement. Blower cards are another matter-but this is always the case. If the GPU generates a lot of heat and does not dissipate heat from the rear bracket, it will be affected in any case if there is no high airflow. For overhead exhaust fans, this was a perfect test scenario, but I ultimately failed to achieve this. It should help-but in any case, make sure to leave enough space above this chassis for heat to escape from the panel above the system.

In the end, I have reservations about these results, but in essence, SUGO 15 is open enough to allow the components to breathe normally. Similarly, if you have them, it will not cover up the noisy cooler.

SUGO 15 is another excellent case from SilverStone that offers versatility not commonly seen in mini-ITX form factors-although its size does push the boundaries of "small form factor". But it is the overall size of the housing that enables excellent component clearance and a large number of configuration options. A4-SFX This is not, but it was never intended as a replacement for an ultra-compact design.

Even if there is a lot of space, you need an ATX power supply of 150 mm or less (my recommendation is 140 mm), if you don’t have one, it may be annoying, and it does not include an SFX adapter; therefore, if you want to change from a smaller To upgrade the mITX case and want to bring SFX/SFX-L PSU, you need to find a bracket (SilverStone provides one separately, model PP08).

Apart from the need for a small PSU in such a large mITX case, the builders really have nothing to complain about here. The component clearance is very high and the construction flexibility is very wide. Depending on the configuration you choose, you may find zero compatibility issues. The fan can be installed on three sides of the enclosure, two of which provide detachable brackets-making the placement of the radiator particularly easy for the mini-ITX chassis.

Most importantly, SUGO 15 is a very spacious mini ITX case, which provides the best component clearance for the CPU and GPU coolers, which I encountered in the compact design. The larger enclosure greatly enhances the build process, and the detachable fan/storage bracket creates an experience as easy as building with mini-ITX.

And the quality of SUGO 15 is very high. The thick aluminum side panels are strong, well ventilated, and the filter screen works well. The panel is easy to install and comes with beautiful captive fasteners. The chassis is very sturdy, and the finished product is a sturdy PC. The aesthetics are also great. Of course, this part is subjective, but I think the elegant and simple appearance makes the case adaptable to almost any environment.

Both color options are priced slightly less than US$165, and the silver finish we currently see on Amazon sells for US$163. This price reflects the mixed nature of SilverStone's design: the price is higher than many steel watch cases, and lower than the all-aluminum design made by Lian Li for crowdfunding projects that we have seen.

If you have the budget to purchase such more advanced options and are looking for a spacious mini-ITX for your next chassis, SUGO 15 is an excellent choice. Another option for SilverStone is SUGO 14, which is a low-cost companion that shares the internal structure but gives up the aluminum panel. The current price difference of about $30 still makes me lean towards the more premium SUGO 15, and I think it's obvious that I really like this case. Admired!

Editor-in-chief of PC Perspective. Computer writer, old-fashioned computer nerd, and full-time dad. Still looking for the perfect smartphone. In his non-existent free time, Sebastian's hobbies include high-fidelity audio, guitar and road bikes. Currently studying time travel.

There is a clean design, and then it is boring. In my opinion, the flat square bezel without design elements looks very dull and lazy. Although it looks very well designed, I really don't like that squat layout; it looks weird and the footprint is too big. I prefer to use an iTX case with a miniature tower like Lian LI TU-150.

It may be just me, but I really hate the case manufacturer to put their logo on the front of the case, at least to make it removable.

As a desktop computer, yes, Lian Li may be a better form factor. However, I connected a Sugo SG07 to the TV in the lounge, and it did not look out of place among all other AV equipment. Beautiful and subtle. It is now located at the bottom of my son Ikea Micke's desk cupboard, which fits perfectly.

I agree with the crappy logo though.

The whole article reviewed a case, but missed its size. There is no volume or size. This makes this article worthless.

Scroll back to the specifications section near the top and open it. I believe you will find the sizes listed there and various other "dry" specifications.

Counterpoint, there is solid ventilation in other places, and the front becomes a canvas, which can be pasted, modified or decorated. I think this is positive.

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