Silencio 550 is a mid-tower case that will take micro ATX / ATX motherboards. Thanks to the flexible design that allows taking out a part of the HDD bracket, the case will take any graphics card. CPU cooler size, however, is limited to 154mm.
Silencio 550 aims to be quiet and comes with foam on the side panels.
Thick foam on the side panel limits CPU cooler height to 154mm. We however tested with Hyper Z600 CPU cooler, which is 160mm tall.
As you can from the picture below, a 160mm tall cooler will fit but will get in the way when closing the panel. While only a slight push will do the trick, you should know that the cooler will not be as efficient and may even burn the foam in some extreme scenarios.
Equipping Silencio 550 with a motherboard and the rest was a breeze as Cooler Master really made great use of the available room.
We tried using Rampage II Extreme, extended ATX (30.5cm x 26.9cm) and had no problems; the board did cover all cable holes.
The case has a CPU backplate hole that makes switching coolers easier. Let’s just say, anyone who’s ever had to remove the motherboard to install it will know how to appreciate it.
Silencio 550 comes with two 12cm 800RPM fans, front and back. The fans come with 3-pin connectors and with Molex adapters. Top panel is completely closed, again to make the case quieter. It seems like the company didn’t care so much about the airflow, focusing on isolating noise instead.
Silencio 550 will take three fans and since it already has two, there’s room for one more on the front panel.
PSU goes on the bottom of the case and it has vibration absorbing seals, again against noise.
There aren’t many cable holes for cable management. The space behind the motherboard is divided in two sections with only one way through for cables.
Routing cables in the back is possible but with the foam on the side panels, it’s pretty limited. You’ll find enough cable notches. The only thing we’d like to see is another cable hole on the back panel.
Routing cables in the back is possible but with the foam on the side panels, it’s pretty limited. You’ll find enough cable notches. The only thing we’d like to see is another cable hole on the back panel.
