Silverstone RL01 Mid-Tower Case

Category: Cases & Hardware Enclosures

Created on Thursday, 28 June 2012 11:34

Written by Steve

Silverstone hasn't gotten too crazy with the styling and design of the RL01 - it's kept fairly simplistic which I personally think is part of what makes this case look far more expensive than it actually is. Keep in mind that the windowed version of the RL01 being tested today is worth a little under $60 CDN and the non-windowed version goes for a little over $50.

The RL01 comes in only black, which is a fairly typical colour for most computer cases these days (remember when beige cases were all the rage?). The front bezel of the RL01 is a dark titanium coloured plastic which compliments the black chassis quite nicely. When you look at the bezel head-on you'll see that most of the front is covered in black mesh, which promotes better airflow into the case. The mesh drive bay panels blend right into the top mesh panel for a clean and seamless design.

Between the two black mesh panels on the front is a horizontal titanium strip with a large, red Silverstone logo power button in the middle and a couple more decorative red strips up either side. 

You'll find three 5.25" bays in the front of the RL01 and one 3.5" bay. Like I mentioned earlier, the 3.5" bay actually has a 5.25" bay at the other side and is used via the 3.5" to 5.25" mounting brackets that are included. The mesh panel around the 3.5" bay is actually removable and could allow you a fourth 5.25" bay, however, if you look at the picture below you'll see that this panel isn't rectangular and will leave you with quite a gap at the bottom.

Just along the upper edge of the front bezel are a few front I/O ports. These ports include two USB 3.0 ports and a pair of headset and microphone ports. The USB 3.0 ports terminate inside the case to a USB 3.0 header connection - not a pass-through cable. Unfortunately Silverstone does not include an adapter to adapt the header into an external USB cable, so you'll need to have a motherboard or USB 3.0 card which supports the USB 3.0 header connection. A reset button is found on the upper right corner of the bezel not far from the front I/O ports.