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SilverStone Sugo SG05: The Mini-ITX Standard Bearer

 by Dustin Sklavos on August 19, 2012 12:01 AM EST
70 Comments | Add A Comment
70 Comments

Assembling the SilverStone Sugo SG05

For how smitten I was with Cooler Master's inexpensive Elite 120 Advanced, it had a couple of kinks that made it less enjoyable to assemble than SilverStone's Sugo SG05 is. Having to provide space for an ATX power supply and a full 5.25" optical drive bay meant cutting into some of the case's internal space, and the drive cage wound up actually being detrimental to the design in some ways. The SG05 is a remarkably clean design and was very easy to assemble, especially for a case of its diminutive size.

Gallery: SilverStone Sugo SG05 Assembly

Installing the motherboard was for the most part very easy; standoffs come built into the tray, although it's nigh impossible to screw the board in on one corner without removing the power supply. You'll have to remove the bracing bar from the PSU along with the drive caddies, but you would've needed to remove at least the caddies anyways. Call me lazy, but I actually just left the corner of the board floating and still found it plenty secure. More responsible users may be inclined to remove the PSU to completely mount the board. There's a healthy amount of space around the board to connect power cables and headers, as well.

Honestly, the worst part of assembling our system in the SG05 was the optical drive and 2.5" drive caddy. Getting the screws into the 2.5" drive required a bit of dexterity, while the slimline optical drive's tiny, tiny screws made installing it a nightmare. I'm not a particularly steady person in the first place, and these are the kinds of screws a housecat will swallow without a second thought. Part of that is just the nature of the screws used to mount slimline drives and I'm not sure how much SilverStone could've done to make this process easier. As for the 3.5" drive bay, I actually eschewed that entirely. That cage is removable, and I found that when assembling the SG05 the copious amount of cabling stemming from the PSU made it exceedingly difficult to install.

The drive bays seem to be where SilverStone decided to make their sacrifices in the name of getting the SG05 as small as it is. If you're determined enough you can jimmy the 3.5" drive cage in, but as you can see in the image above, the cable spaghetti nature of building in a small enclosure makes it pretty difficult. You'll also have to remove the front fascia (there are six plastic snaps you can bend up) to pop out the bay shield.

When you install an expansion card in the SG05, you're also going to be deciding just how far you're willing to push the limits of the enclosure. The ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti we use for testing our bigger cases did indeed fit in the SG05 (and we had to test with it, naturally), but that card is 10.2" long and it was really as big as you can get away with; I had to angle and tilt to fit it inside. Keep in mind that certain shorter card designs may have the PCIe power leads facing the back of the card instead of the top, too, so you'll want to account for that when calculating clearance.

Mushing all the cabling down and getting the shell back on the SG05 wasn't too difficult, but the tremendous amount of ventilation means that any lights inside the case are probably going to be visible. The memory kit we use for testing has LEDs on it and those LEDs are very easy to see while the system is running, along with the LEDs on the motherboard itself. Enterprising builders will have no trouble making the SG05 glow.

In and Around the SilverStone Sugo SG05 Testing Methodology
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  • Grok42 - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link

    I'm building a new mITX system this month to be my primary workstation/game rig. So far this case seems to be my case despite it not having very well ventilated drive bays. Anyone have alternate suggestions?

    Intel core i7-3770
    Nvidia GTX 660ti
    16GB RAM
    128GB 2.5" SSD
    No Optical
    No 3.5" hard drive

  • DarkStryke - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link

    Go with the Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE, and that system will be a monster.

  • Grok42 - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link

    Thanks for the feedback, this is for sure the board I'm going with. It's amazing how much they can get on these tiny mITX boards these days.

  • Japanesus - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link

    For those willing to spend more (~$200) I'd recommend the SG08 . Although slightly taller and about 2 inches deeper, the extra room allows for a more efficient design I think.

    Some differences:

    - HD tray accommodates two 2.5" drives underneath and has silicone grommets to reduce vibration from the 3.5".

    - 600W bronze rated PSU

    -180mm Air Penetrator fan (which you can easily replace - I went for a Corsair H80 and replaced the noisy stock fans with one 38mm thick intake fan).

    -Nice looking brushed aluminum front panel.

    Easily got a mild 4.2GHz overclock on an i5-3750k with the H80's fan controller on low speed. Can always ramp things up if you don't mind a bit more noise.

    Anyways it was my first build and came together effortlessly. I gave it to my dad to replace his 10+ year old crappy Gateway... It's not cheap but neither are the components you would put in a case like this, so I think it's worth it.

  • daar - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link

    Having looked at both, from my recollection the depth of the SG08 is about the same as a regular PC tower, and a 5" difference from the SG05 (if it is the one I'm thinking of).

    Perhaps not an issue for some, but that difference was for me as I was sticking it inside a drawer. Otherwise, I'd just stick with the Prodigy or a mini tower for flexibility. Even if it's for home entertainment, TV stands generally space for a DVD player, and you can get a horizontal tower to fit in those.

  • pdjblum - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link

    I must be in the minority, because no one else seems to mind that the material of the cases reviewed are not stated up front in the specification box. I am a snob when it comes to cases, and the first thing I want to know is if it is made from aluminum or not.

  • Dustin Sklavos - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link

    It isn't, but in my experience aluminum isn't necessarily desirable or even appropriate for the design. The SG05 uses plastic for the front fascia and steel for the chassis, and while a brushed aluminum fascia might be more attractive, the SECC steel is exactly the right call for the chassis itself.

    Keep in mind that the aluminum someone like Lian Li or Cubitek uses is also going to be different than the aluminum SilverStone uses.

  • MadAd - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link

    With all the recent buzz about SFF/ITX and the inevitability that PCs must shrink or die It would be great if we had a dedicated SFF forum here at Anandtech.

    Currently all SFF talk is drowned out by laptop and gaming posts, im sure there would be better discussion in its own home, currently the sheer volume of laptop posts deters anyone from even trying to discuss SFF, it feels pointless posting discussion if its just going to disappear.

    Fantastic review otherwise, really enjoying the series, im determined that my current ATX builds (x3) will be my last and anything i need going forwards can be done on either SFF graphics free, or a uATX for a main gaming box with several hdd.

  • Samus - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link

    @ the GTX560 in that thing. Ridiculous...ly cool.

  • miahallen - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link

    http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=22055...

    nuff said 8)
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