CoolerMaster Silencio 352 Review

 

Up Close:  Exterior Front, Rear and Base

The front I/O, although positioned as it is in plane sight on the front of the case, does not seem obtrusive.  Consisting as it does of a pair of vertically stacked USB3.0, a single USB2.0, the usual brace of audio jack sockets and unexpectedly, an SD card port.  Nice one CVoolerMaster.  Above these, and separated slightly from the bunch we find a power and reset button which are paired with small blue LEDs.

     

 

Horizontal slits run down the majority of the lateral edges of the front, permitting cool air to enter the case.  The first nod, if the name were not enough that this case like it’s bigger Brethren is intended to be as quiet as can be.

    

 

The plastic full length case door is hinged on the left and cannot be swapped round.  Opening it we gain access to a single 5.25″ bay and a single 3.5″ bay.  Nice, but for the sake of a few mor millimetres we could have had 2×5.25″ bays.  Just a thought.

     

 

A large brick weave plastic panel is removed easily via a top clip revealing the metal mesh of the front air intake area.

       

 

If you haven’t already noticed it’s best we point out that like it’s bigger brothers the 352 also has sound dampening material on the inside of the front door.  To the right we can see the brick weave and mesh filter panel following its removal from the case.

     

 

Slotted screw holes indeed!  Bit of a clue for those that understand the relevance.  For those that don’t, read on and all will be revealed.  And for the modders out there who might be wondering how much room there is with the filter panel removed, well how does 30mm grab you?  Room enough for a fan we thinks, but as we’ll see when we get inside, it’s not necessarily going to be needed.

    

 

Both side panels are also coated in sound dampening material, with only a small section left uncoved over the contour for the side bulge.

     

 

The rear of the case is quite compact as you might imagine.  A 120mm fan nestles behind a grill that is also drilled for smaller units, but we can’t think why you’d want to swap things around back here.  Below 4 vented PCI covers sit along side blanks for tubing holes (god we can’t wait for the day when these disappear)

       

 

Underneath things are more interesting than they might first appear.  OK, so a meshed fan filter for the PSU isn’t interesting, but the selection of holes towards the front of the case are.  They are highly relevant with regards to one of the major aces this case has up it’s sleeve.