SilverStone Kublai Review

Performance Analysis

Silverstone has clearly paid attention to the flow of air through the Kublai. The graphics card produced a fine set of cooling results with the case fully assembled: its Delta T of 43°C puts the Kublai in fine company, with the Antec Twelve Hundred and Antec One Hundred returning the same score – and the venerable Cooler Master CM 690 II proving a degree hotter. The Corsair 550D, meanwhile, produced a GPU Delta T of 49°C in the same benchmark.

The processor was a little hotter than the graphics card with the case panels installed but, again, the result still impressed. The CPU’s Delta T of 50°C is one degree cooler than the 550D, and places the Kublai squarely in the middle of our results table – the Cooler Master CM 690 II, for instance, was a degree cooler in the same benchmark.

Removing the side panels from the Silverstone saw its Delta T scores drop by a couple of degrees: the processor’s temperature reduced to 47°C, and the graphics card dropped to 41°C.

The Kublai isn’t the biggest enclosure, but its cooling results demonstrate that Silverstone’s sensible design works. The lack of a front fan clearly doesn’t trouble airflow, with the fan attached to the rear side-panel evidently chilling the hard disks as well as efficiently powering cool air towards the graphics card.

Processor cooling wasn’t quite as effective, with the two 120mm fans already installed leading to only middling results in our Delta T benchmarks, but there’s at least plenty of opportunity to install additional cooling – even if the chassis won’t accommodate full-size water-cooling setups.

The only area where the Kublai didn’t perform especially well was with noise, as Silverstone hasn’t taken any specific steps to address this issue, even if its trio of case fans wasn’t particularly loud. That meant a low rumble from tour test system's graphics card was ever-present, and you’ll have to invest in quiet cooling products to reduce the noise.


Conclusion
There’s plenty to like about the Kublai KL04. Silverstone has worked hard to introduce sensible changes throughout: the sturdy, removable hard disk cages, the side-mounted front cooling fan and the capacious motherboard tray, for instance, all work well – and suggest a chassis that’s a little more expensive.

Cooling performance is excellent, too, with a lack of emphasis on sound reduction the only slight issue. If you’d like a chassis that looks modest but works extremely well, though, then this is well worth considering thanks to its good performance, looks and storage-friendly design.