Aerocool Dead Silence Black Edition

Aerocool Dead Silence Black Edition

You want to love mini towers. You look at that diminutive physical footprint and think, “How cool would it be to build a monstrously powerful PC inside a case so small?” But, as they say, therein lies the rub. The confines of such a small chassis can really restrict what you’re able to do with a build in terms of component selection. It’s heartbreaking.

Worry not, though; Aerocool is here to make it all better. The company’s Dead Silence Black Edition may tout subdued acoustics as its claim to fame, but what we’re really excited about is the amount of flexibility you get in a case so small.

The Dead Silence measures a relatively squat 16.2 inches tall. Unlike several other Aerocool cases, this one is free of LED fans and other visual embellishments. Chalk up the Dead Silence in the “sleek, minimalist” column rather than “flashy, daring.” We happen to like the understated look, and Aerocool actually managed to make it functional, too. Small slits ring the perimeter of the front and top panels, which helps with airflow without being distracting.

Aerocool says the Dead Silence’s top and front panels are “leather-coated.” It looks a lot better than it sounds, in truth. Essentially, these panels have a matte finish with a slightly softer texture—another nod to restraint and subtlety when the current trend is polish and gloss. The case comes with a second top panel that’s entirely honeycombed metal mesh if your case’s airflow is more important than its acoustic signature.

Inside, you’ll immediately notice a difference with the Dead Silence: Aerocool opted to tip the motherboard tray 90 degrees on its Z axis so that any motherboard installed in the case will lie flat, like what you’d find on an open-air test bench chassis. This orientation ends up making an initial installation considerably easier. And speaking from experience (we’ve experienced more than one shipping disaster with our CPUSystem Workshop builds’ graphics cards), you’ll cherish this motherboard tray implementation if you’re constantly hauling your rig to and fro. However, any time you need to tinker within your system, those graphics cards will have to come out.

Underneath the motherboard tray, you’ll find bays for the PSU and up to four storage drives. The first internal drive cage is accessible with the left side panel removed as has two tool-less drive trays for either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives. The second cage is only compatible with 2.5-inch drives and is located behind the PSU bay, so you have to remove the right side panel to install drives. Still, it’s a clever use of space.

The PSU bay merits a separate discussion. Aerocool recommends sticking with a PSU that’s no longer than 6.3 inches, and while you might be able to cheat that a little, you won’t be squeezing a 1,200W PSU into the Dead Silence without modding the 2.5/3.5-inch drive cage, at the very least. This will affect your graphics setup more than anything. Although there’s enough physical room for a pair of graphics cards up to 13.78 inches long, you need to be absolutely sure any PSU you install has enough juice to power them.

Up above, it’s possible to hang a 240mm radiator from the rafters of the Dead Silence, but it likely means sacrificing the 5.25-inch external drive bay. For that kind of cooling potential, we call that an acceptable loss; these days, it’s easier than ever to get away without an optical drive.

Towers this small are vexing beasts because they demand creative engineering while affording precious little space to do so. With the Dead Silence, though, we think Aerocool’s managed to do just that. It turns out you can still think big inside a small case.

Specs:Dimensions: 16.2 x 10.4 x 15 inches (HxWxD); Materials: Steel, plastic; Motherboard support: mATX, Mini-ITX; Bays: 1 5.25-inchexternal, 1 3.5-inch external; 2 2.5/3.5-inch internal, 2 2.5-inch internal; Fans: 1 200mm front, 1 120mm rear; Fans (optional): 2 120/140mm top; Ports: 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, audio I/O