SilverStone Sugo 17 Review | PCMag

People in the industry tend to call the shape of PC cases like SilverStone’s Sugo 17 “shoebox style.” But look at this model, and that probably won’t make much sense to anyone with a smaller foot than NBA power-forward Kevin Durant: Including the screws that stick out of the back, this Sugo goes to a mighty 18.25 inches deep. Still, a width of only 8 inches gives the $239.99 Sugo 17 the same footprint as a mid-tower, but at a far more desktop-friendly 11.6 inches of height. You can wedge this deep, deep MicroATX case under an overhang or in a niche where a tower couldn’t dream to go. Most important, it will hold a graphics card exceeding 400mm in length. (We measured 420mm.) If a low-slung PC with one of the biggest, baddest GPUs is what you’re trying to build, the Sugo 17 is a brutalist and pricey—but effective—solution.

Design: It’s Basically a GPU Box

If you, as a designer, are going to make a case that supports a four-slot-thick graphics card, you might as well skip the Mini-ITX motherboard limitation and step up to MicroATX. Those motherboards are, after all, designed to have four slots, and the extra depth provides more room for memory slots and voltage-regulator heat sinks. Plus, they’re often cheaper. So, that’s what SilverStone did.

Keeping its eye on the GPU meant that SilverStone would flip the motherboard and put the graphics card up top. That’s why we see the I/O panel here below its PCI Express card slots, along with an empty mount for an exhaust fan and the receptacle end of a power extension cable.

With its smaller assortment of ventilation holes, the left side is also visible from this angle.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The Sugo 17 includes the now-typical assortment of two USB 3.x Type-A and one Type-C port, plus a four-contact microphone/headphone combo jack, between the reset and power buttons of its top front edge. Given the odd, pinched shape of the audio jack’s shell, I plugged my AmpliGame H9 gaming headset to confirm its functionality. (It was fine.)

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Removing the outer panels reveals a nearly complete second layer of inner panels. They comprise the top and right-side fan mounts, a front-mounted 2.5-inch drive tray that resides inside the front panel’s hollow frame, and a front power supply mount. The last is for full-ATX power supplies but is partly filled with a fitted SFX adapter plate.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The left side contains the upside-down motherboard tray and four mounts for 80mm side fans, two of which are blocked if you install a MicroATX motherboard instead of Mini-ITX. All things considered, we’ll gladly sacrifice access to those specific fan mounts to gain the MicroATX form factor’s advantages (DIMM slots, PCIe slots, voltage regulators, price) compared with its Mini-ITX alternative.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The Sugo 17’s underside may also be important, depending on how you’re building in the Sugo. Photographed after we installed its adhesive hemispherical rubber feet, it has screw points for mounting two 2.5-inch or one 2.5-inch and one 3.5-inch drive internally, plus an access panel that matches up to the ATX12V/EPS12V header location of most motherboards.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Here’s how the top and side fan mounts look when removed…

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The top comes factory-filled with three of SilverStone’s three-pin OEM (non-PWM) 120mm fans (CC12025M12S) mounted in intake orientation, and it can support up to two 140mm fans if you’d like to take off the 120mm parts. Meanwhile, the side fan bracket does not support any 140mm fans, but it does add a shelf to support the back side of an oversize graphics card in addition to three 120mm fans. And the back of the graphics card is key, since the Sugo 17 mounts both it and the motherboard upside-down.

Building With the SilverStone Sugo 17: Invert Your Expectations

We started today’s review with a features list that included the case dimensions with the case feet attached, even though the feet were packed inside the case, because the bottom isn’t flat without these. SilverStone also adds a pair of rubber bumpers for its graphics card support shelf, to take up excess space and damp vibrations between those pieces. The kit also contains four types of screws, standoffs (and a #2 Phillips-driven standoff socket), a few zip ties and hook-and-loop cable straps, and a fan-splitter cable with three 4-pin PWM ends. The last is because PWM headers can also power the included 3-pin fans.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Once our components are screwed in, we’ll be able to connect the HD Audio cable from the case’s headset jacks, the 19-pin cable from its USB 3.x Type-A ports, the Gen 2×2 (Type-E) cable from its Type-C port, and the power extension from the rear to the power supply. As for the first connector, it’s a combined power/reset/indicator LED group that fits a pin arrangement proposed decades ago by Intel and adopted over the past five to 15 years by most motherboard manufacturers. The lack of a label on the plug will surely add to the confusion of experienced, occasional builders who’ve only ever seen separate leads for front-panel indicators and buttons in past builds.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

A member of our 2024 case test hardware update, Asus’ Z790M-Plus motherboard, allows us to collect data on MicroATX systems while using the same CPU configuration as our full-size ATX builds.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Here’s a look at our build lineup of components…

Assembling components inside the Sugo 17 is all about conflict management: SilverStone says that it will support only full ATX power supplies up to 140mm deep when a MicroATX motherboard is installed, but we balked at that and put our 160mm-deep unit in by hanging its modular power connectors over the top of the motherboard. But then we had to flip our CPU cooler’s radiator around because its coolant lines wouldn’t clear the power supply without getting squished. And then the coolant lines barely cleared the rear panel’s exhaust fan mount. So: OK, maybe do obey the 140mm guideline!

Also, note the front placement of the Sugo 17’s power-supply extension cable.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Our first test revealed an airflow problem at our motherboard’s CPU voltage regulator. We considered adding a rear fan, but the cooler’s tubing was in the way. We considered moving the radiator to the top panel, but our graphics card was too thick to allow a radiator and fans to be installed there simultaneously. We eventually decided to try a massively positive flow configuration with the case’s three top fans and our two side fans all mounted as intakes, resulting in a rush of air exiting through the empty fan mount of the rear panel.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Testing the SilverStone Sugo 17: Quiet Cool

While pull configurations rarely perform as well on radiators as push, having those fans blow air directly on the voltage regulator did solve our thermal issues there. GPU temperatures were also acceptable.

While a perfect case would let out heat while keeping in noise, none of our MicroATX cases does an outstanding job of blocking the noise of our internal components, and the Sugo 17’s triple top fans seem to add to the commotion.

Though it may never outperform those other three cases, the Sugo 17 kept our components cool enough without becoming deafeningly noisy. Builders who like the look will probably get ahead of our test build by using a 360mm radiator and an SFX power supply to move more heat and air without further component-space encroachment.

Verdict: All About the Big GPU

The Sugo 17 continues SilverStone’s long-running Sugo series of bigger-on-the-inside PC cases. There’s not much point in shortlisting this one unless you’re equipping it with an XXL-length graphics card, but most midrange and high-end cards at this point are whoppers, and SilverStone is just responding to the state of the market with its latest Sugo evolution. Considering the less-is-more volume, we’d like to see it under $200. Still, there’s no denying the craft that went into the interior construction and the overall build quality. It’s a “forever” case for your dream graphics card—if you expect to be perenially short on space.