







Limited time offer, ends 09/04 By VirVentures
The introduction of Grandia GD07 and GD08 cases from SilverStone ushers in a new era of home theater computing like never before. For the first time, the power and storage capacity of a server can now be neatly stowed beautifully and quietly in a home theater environment. Completely reengineered to fully utilize all available spaces, the Grandia GD07 can accommodate an incredible amount of drives (up to eleven) and high-end components (graphics cards up to 13.6 inches long) with minimal sacrifices. It is even possible to fit SSI EEB (12" x 13") extended ATX motherboards in the GD07 despite maintaining an exterior dimension similar to SilverStone’s previous generation full-size HTPC cases.
With a wealth of lessons learned from building the best performing tower cases in the last several years, SilverStone engineers upgraded GD07’s cooling performance tremendously with up to four 120mm fan options. And to make sure owners can easily maintain their cases' cooling ability over time with the lowest noise possible, custom designed removable filters surround the case for positive pressure to work effectively and quietly.
Built to hide the imperfection of I/O ports and the plethora of drives that may be installed in its four 5.25" drive bays, the GD07’s lockable aluminum front door is beautifully finished with hairline brush pattern to match other home theater components. For those looking to build a powerful home media sever with security features, this is the perfect case.
Front view
Front view with door open
Front 3/4 view with front door open
Top rear view with cover open
Left side view
Right side view
Back view
Removable fan filter on the left side
Removable fan filter on the right side
2 x USB 3.0, front I/O, Power and reset button
Removable fan filter at the bottom of the case
7 expansion slots (aero slots)
2 x 80mm fan slot at the rear
Removable hard drive bracket
Model No. | SST-GD07B(Black) | |
Material | Aluminum front door and plastic front panel, steel body | |
Motherboard | SSI-EEB, SSI-CEB, Extended ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX* | |
Drive Bay | External | 5.25" x 4 |
Internal | 3.5" x 5, 2.5" x 2 | |
Cooling System | Rear | 2 x 80mm fan slots |
Side | 1 x 120mm intake fans, 900RPM, 18dBA 1 x 120mm fan slot |
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Top | Oversized vents | |
Bottom | 2 x 120mm intake fans, 900RPM, 18dBA (backwards compatible with 1 x 120mm fan + 2 x 80mm fans, or 5 x 60mm fans) |
|
Expansion Slots | 7 + 1 | |
Front I/O Ports | USB 3.0 x 2 audio x 1 MIC x 1 |
|
Power Supply | Supports standard PS2 (ATX) up to 220mm, recommend depth is under 180mm x 2 | |
Expansion Card | Support graphic cards up to 13.6 inches, width restriction-5.25" | |
Max. CPU Cooler Size | 138mm | |
Max. PSU Size | 220mm | |
Net Weight | 15.4lbs (7kg) | |
Dimensions (W x H x D) | 17.3 x 6.9 x 17.1 inches (440 x 175 x 435mm), 33.5 liters | |
Extra | Support Kensington lock |
Pros: Most likely HTPC case to accommodate your hard core gear. Smooth look with front panel closed. Plenty of cooling.
Cons: Not designed to support water cooling* (more below). A bit tall, check dimensions of your shelves.
Overall Review: After deliberation this case gets the full five stars for being best in class for an HTPC that can house serious equipment. This comes with significant caveats though. On the plus side it fit a Sapphire Radeon 7970 OC, power cables and all. The drive cage shroud drops down neatly over this 11.5" card with power cables coming out of the top and leaves a bit of room to spare above and plenty of room to the front. Awesome. I replaced another Silverstone case with this one. That was the biggest HTPC case available at the time (2008) and the only way I could get a 10.5" card into it was to perform surgery with a Dremel tool and a metal cutting blade. The case looks great with the panel closed. Not so great with it open. The little locking mechanism works fine. Wouldn't stop a thief, but it should keep kiddies and puppies out. There is room to install 4x120mm fans, 2 on the sides and 2 on the bottom as well as 2x80mm fans at the back. It looks like you can install 3x120mm fans in front but one space is actually blocked by the drive cage. If you have a weird configuration you can replace the 120mm fans with 80mm ones. Sadly I could not through any Tetris zen induced mysticism get a Corsair H60 water cooling radiator/fan installed inside this case with an Asus ROG Hero mobo installed. The fan could be mounted but the radiator would interfere with either the mobo or the cables or the drive cage. This is pretty much the smallest water cooler available so don't expect to get hydro easy. For my part I got out some tools and partially removed one of the grill grates on the side then ground the edges smooth. I routed the water lines outside of the case through this new aperture and mounted the 120mm fan/radiator for the water cooling block externally. Good night warranty. The radiator is on the fan which is on the case and points in drawing air over the radiator and into the case. Maybe a little counter-intuitive as this is warming the intake air, but the cpu reads 33C in the BIOS at idle which is sweet and chilly. The kit's manual actually recommends mounting the fan as an intake anyway so no worries. There is room to drop in a bunch of drives. I went with 3 (2.5" hdd, 3.5" hdd, dvd 5.25"). Simple no trouble to install these. The 5.25" drive in the horizontal mount is only held in place by the plastic bracket. Feels a mite flaky. Doesn't move when spinning, but a little hand pressure can displace it easily. Need to double check that I didn't miss a securing mechanism but I don't think so. The vertical 5.25" drive slots can be screw secured, but vertical drives bite. You inevitably drop your precious, precious media to it's scratchy doom. Front panel cable routing is done for you very neatly. Replaced all 120mm fans with high grade silenced ones and the build is dead quiet. It's lighter than expected. Rtm! A long tricky build with sweet results on a glorious large screen tv. Screwdriver needed.