Since their inception in the Summer of 2003, SilverStone has been building some of the most well crafted and beautiful enclosures to ever hit the computer market. In those three short years SilverStone has not only proved they have what it takes to compete with the likes of Lian-Li and Coolermaster, they have raised the bar significantly redefining not only what a enclosure can be, but what it should be. Like their esteemed counterparts, SilverStone engineers work primarily with aluminum. This affords a case that is not only rugged, light and thermally friendly; but can be very aesthetically pleasing as well.

Engineering and art are not things that are easy to integrate; usually one or the other suffers in the attempt. It's a fine line and SilverStone walks it better than most. SilverStone has driven a stake through the heart of drab beige computer cases and in the process garnered a host of awards and accolades. It is my distinct pleasure to welcome them to the pages of PC Apex.

Package and Contents

The package arrived quickly and appeared to be unmolested by parcel ruffians. The retail packaging is much like the MS01 itself, elegant and understated and it has a nifty little handle for guys that are too manly to push a shopping cart around any place except the grocery store.

Inside is everything you'll need to get up and running minus a 3.5" ATA hard drive and a screwdriver. The manual is short, easy to understand and for the most part unnecessary for anyone who would consider buying a external hard drive enclosure without a drive already installed in it. The disk includes drivers and a sweet little back-up utility we will delve into later in the review.

Specs

Here are the specs on the Silverstone MS01. You can find more information at the Silverstone website.

Enclosure material: aluminum
Color: Black or Silver
Dimension: 142mm (W) x 40mm (H) x 223mm (D)
Power requirement: 34W AC to DC adapter (included)
Cooling system: Open vents and 30mm fan
Fan size: 30 x 30 x 10mm
Fan airflow: 3.10CFM
Fan noise: 18.9dBA
Fan lifetime: 25,000 hours
Drive size support: 3.5”
Drive interface support: Enhanced IDE, ATA/ATAPI-6
Drive support: Up to 48-bit addressing for large hard drives
IDE support mode: PIO modes 0, 2, 4 and UDMA modes 2, 4
Enclosure interface: USB 2.0 (480Mbps)
Operating system support: Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS