SilverStone Sugo SG07 Case Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

The SilverStone Sugo SG07 is a small form factor (SFF) case supporting mini-ITX and mini-DTX motherboards. Although small, it is targeted to users that want to build a powerful gaming PC, as it supports video cards of up to 12.2” (310 mm) in length. It is a hybrid case, with its body made of steel and its front panel made of aluminum. One of the highlights of this product is that it comes with a 600 W 80 Plus Bronze power supply, which we tested. Let’s see if the Sugo SG07 is a good pick.

By the way, we’ve have already reviewed two other models from the SilverStone Sugo family, the SG05 and the SG06.

The Sugo SG07 can be found in two versions, one with a transparent side window (SG07-BW, which is the model we are reviewing) and one without this part (SG-07B).

Figure 1: SilverStone Sugo SG07 case

Figure 2: SilverStone Sugo SG07 case

As mentioned before, this case has an aluminum front panel, but if you pay close attention, only the middle part of the front panel is made out of aluminum, the parts on the sides are made of plastic. The SG07 has two USB ports on its front panel and the traditional audio jacks. There is only one external bay, for a slim optical drive (i.e., originally targeted to portable computers).

Figure 3: Front panel

[nextpage title=”Introduction (Cont’d)”]

On the bottom panel of the Sugo SG07 we have a washable air filter, which matches the power supply fan. This filter can be removed from outside the case, making it easy to clean. The bottom panel also has a mesh for helping to ventilate the video card.

Figure 4: Bottom panel

The rear panel and the interior of the SilverStone Sugo SG07 are painted black. On the rear panel we have a switch for controlling the speed of the big 180-mm fan available on the top of the case (more about that in the next page), the reset switch, two expansion slots with vented covers, a tiny mesh above the expansion slots, and the AC receptacle for the power supply. It is interesting to note that the power supply is installed on the front part of the case, and this AC receptacle is connected to the power supply receptacle through an internal power cord.

Figure 5: Rear panel

Let’s now take a look inside the SilverStone Sugo SG07.

[nextpage title=”Inside the SilverStone Sugo SG07″]

The top cover of the case is attached to the chassis using regular screws, but painted black. In Figure 6, you see the Sugo SG07 with its top cover removed. The highlight of this case is its top 180 mm fan (S1803212HN-3M). The switch available on the rear panel allows you to choose between two speeds, 700 rpm (18 dBA) or 1,200 rpm (34 dBA). This fan comes with a washable air filter that is very easy to remove.

Figure 6: Overall look

Figure 7: The top fan and its air filter

Another ventilation option available in this case and that is very unique is a ventilation duct for the video card, shown in Figure 8. In order to use it, you have to remove the center piece of the rounded foam that comes with the product and install the resulting foam ring on the air filter, as shown in Figure 9. Then you need to screw the duct on the side panel, matching the position where the fan of your video card is located. Since the side panel has several holes, you will be able to perfectly match the position of this fan.

Figure 8: Air filter and foam disc

Figure 9: Video card duct assembled

Figure 10: Video card duct installed

In Figure 11, you can see the inside of the SG07 with the top fan removed. Although being very small, this case supports video cards up to 12.2” (310 mm) in length and CPU coolers up to 4.6” (117 mm) in height.

Figure 11: Inside the Sugo SG07

[nextpage title=”The Disk Drive Bays”]

The SilverStone Sugo SG07 comes with one external bay for slim optical drives (i.e., optical drives originally targeted to portable computers), one internal 3.5” bay, and two internal 2.5” bays.

Figure 12: The slim optical drive bay

By removing the optical drive bay we have access to the hard disk drive cage. This cage supports one 3.5” hard drive inside and two 2.5” devices on its bottom.

Figure 13: Case with the optical drive bay removed

Figure 14: Hard disk drive cage (one 3.5” drive goes inside)

Figure 15: Hard disk drive cage (two 2.5” drives go here)

[nextpage title=”The Power Supply”]

The power supply that comes with the SilverStone Sugo SG07 is a SilverStone SST-ST60F-SG, a single-rail 600 W power supply with 80 Plus Bronze certification. This unit is manufactured by FSP and, at least right now, it isn’t sold separately.

Figure 17: SilverStone SST-ST60F-SG power supply

Figure 17: Power supply label

The power supply comes with the following cables:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector
• Two cables with two six/eight-pin connectors for video cards each
• One cable with three SATA power connectors
• One cable with one standard peripheral power connector and one floppy disk drive power connector

The number of connectors is perfect, as it allows you to install a high-end video card, the optical drive,  and up to three hard disk drives or SSDs.

We made a complete load test with this power supply. Let’s see how it fared.

[nextpage title=”Load Tests”]

We conducted several tests with this power supply, as described in the article, Hardware Secrets Power Supply Test Methodology. 

First we tested this power supply with five different load patterns, trying to pull around 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of its labeled maximum capacity (actual percentage used listed under “% Max Load”), watching the behavior of the reviewed unit under each load. In the table below, we list the load patterns we used and the results for each load.

If you add all the power listed for each test, you may find a different value than what is posted under “Total” below. Since each output can vary slightly (e.g., the +5 V output working at +5.10 V), the actual total amount of power being delivered is slightly different than the calculated value. In the “Total” row, we are using the real amount of power being delivered, as measured by our load tester.

The +12VA and +12VB inputs listed below are the two +12 V independent inputs from our load tester. During our tests, both inputs were connected to the power supply single rail (the power supply EPS12V connector was installed on the +12VB input).

Input	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Test 4	Test 5
+12VA	4 A (48 W)	9 A (108 W)	13 A (156 W)	17.5 A (210 W)	22.5 A (270 W)
+12VB	4 A (48 W)	9 A (108 W)	13 A (156 W)	17.5 A (210 W)	22 A (264 W)
+5V	1 A (5 W)	2 A (10 W)	4 A (20 W)	6 A (30 W)	8 A (40 W)
+3.3 V	1 A (3.3 W)	2 A (6.6 W)	4 A (13.2 W)	6 A (19.8 W)	8 A (26.4)
+5VSB	1 A (5 W)	1 A (5 W)	1.5 A (7.5 W)	2 A (10 W)	3 A (15 W)
-12 V	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)
Total	113.0 W	237.8 W	350.0 W	472.3 W	598.2 W
% Max Load	18.8%	39.6%	58.3%	78.7%	99.7%
Room Temp.	46.3° C	44.8° C	45.3° C	45.7° C	48.4° C
PSU Temp.	52.4° C	51.2° C	51.4° C	48.8° C	52.9° C
Voltage Regulation	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
Ripple and Noise	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
AC Power	131.3 W	271.6 W	401.7 W	551.1 W	704.0 W
Efficiency	86.1%	87.6%	87.1%	85.7%	85.0%
AC Voltage	113.6 V	113.1 V	112.1 V	111.1 V	109.0 V
Power Factor	0.972	0.984	0.989	0.992	0.994
Final Result	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass

The performance achieved by this power supply was impressive. It could maintain efficiency above 85% during all our tests, peaking at 87.6%. It could easily have received the 80 Plus Silver certification.

Voltages were always inside the allowed range, and noise and ripple levels were always low, except at the +3.3 V output (but still below the maximum allowed). Below you can see the results for the power supply outputs during test number five. The maximum allowed is 120 mV for +12 V and -12 V, and 50 mV for +5 V and +3.3 V. All values are peak-to-peak figures.

Figure 18: +12VA input from load tester during test five at 598.2 W (34.6 mV)

Figure 19: +12VB input from load tester during test five at 598.2 W (29.2 mV)

Figure 20: +5V rail during test five at 598.2 W (20.4 mV)

Figure 21: +3.3 V rail during test five at 598.2 W (42.2 mV)

Let’s see if we can pull even more from the SilverStone SST-ST60F-SG.

[nextpage title=”Overload Tests”]

Below you can see the maximum we could pull from this power supply. If we tried to pull more, the power supply would shut down, showing that a protection kicked in, which is great.

Input	Overload Test
+12VA	30 A (360 W)
+12VB	30 A (360 W)
+5V	10 A (50 W)
+3.3 V	10 A (33 W)
+5VSB	3 A (15 W)
-12 V	0.5 A (6 W)
Total	781.3 W
% Max Load	130.2%
Room Temp.	44.6° C
PSU Temp.	51.8° C
AC Power	977 W
Efficiency	80.0%
AC Voltage	104.3 V
Power Factor	0.996

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specs for the SilverStone Sugo SG07 case include:

• Style: Small Form Factor (SFF)
• Application: Mini-ITX and mini-DTX
• Material: Zinc-coated steel (SECC) with aluminum faceplate
• Power supply: SilverStone SST-ST60F-SG
• Available colors: Black
• Side panel: Meshed (SG07-B) or windowed (SG07-BW)
• Dimensions: 7.5 x 8.7 x 13.8 inches (190 x 222 x 350 mm) (H x W x D)
• Net weight: 11.5 lbs (5.2 kg)
• Gross weight: 15.5 lbs (7 kg)
• Maximum video card length: 12.2 inches (310 mm)
• Maximum CPU cooler height: 4.6 inches (117 mm)
• Bays: One external slim bay, one internal 3.5” bay, and two internal 2.5” bays
• Expansion slots: Two
• Fans: One 180 mm fan on the top panel with a two-speed controller (700 rpm or 1,200 rpm)
• Optional fans: None
• Extra features: Air duct for the video card
• More Information: https://www.silverstonetek.com
• Average Price in the US*:  USD 220.00 or USD 210.00 (with or without the transparent side window, respectively)

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

The SilverStone Sugo SG07 is an impressive case for users that want to build a high-end gaming system inside a small form factor case, allowing you to easily carry your computer around. The only “problem” with this case is its price. At USD 220 (or USD 210, if you choose the model without the transparent side window), it is a little bit overpriced, even when we put the excellent 600 W power supply that comes with it into the equation.

Strong Points

• Terrific power supply which presented efficiency above 85% during all our regular tests and could deliver up to 780 W
• Nice 180 mm fan on the top panel with a two-speed controller
• Air filter for the top fan
• Air filter for the power supply fan
• Vented slot covers

Weak Points

• No eSATA port
• Price