SilverStone Kublai KL07E

Build quality is a big part of your typical quiet-oriented PC case. But something else usually leaves an even greater impression before we get one out of the box: weight. Most quiet-design cases have hefty mats on the side panels, often made of weighty bitumen, that lower their resonant frequency below that of human hearing. (That can make moving these cases around, once built out, into a deadlift contest.) With its $129.99 Kublai KL07E, SilverStone found a way to dodge the extra weight while also keeping the model’s MSRP within reach of many mainstream-market builders. While our favorite silent-PC cases remain models from Be Quiet and Fractal Design, the KL07E brings modest sound savings and major money savings to the mix for those who are cool with its stark black-box aesthetic.

Design: Meet the Monolith

The KL07E’s design deviates from that literal black-box aesthetic only with a reflective strip on the front, and some understated vents. The reason for such a basic design is that its panels are designed to hold flat bitumen (asphalt) damping sheets on the inside, including behind the plastic face and top panels. That’s a lot of asphalt!

The shiny stripe that goes up the left side of the front panel continues rightward across the front of the top panel before traveling down its right side and ending at the back. The stripe encompasses the USB Gen 2x2 Type-C, dual USB 3.x Type-A, and separate headphone/microphone connections just behind the stripe’s rearward turn. Power and reset buttons are concealed within the front panel’s portion of that same stripe.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The rear and bottom are the only exterior panels of the KL07E without a bitumen-sheet backing. Rear-panel features include a power-supply mount with dual patterns to allow the power supply to be installed either side up, seven replaceable expansion-slot covers, a hole for the motherboard’s I/O shield, and a dual-pattern fan mount with an included 140mm exhaust fan. The secondary pattern fits 120mm fans, and uses screw slots rather than screw holes to allow that fan to be adjusted upward or downward within a 20mm range.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Nearly half of the bottom panel is covered in vents for the power supply’s air inlet, and those holes in turn are covered with a nylon mesh dust filter that slides in from the rear.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The KL07E also features an elaborate cover for its folded-out expansion-slot bracket, which presents a bit of a conundrum. Folding the slot bracket out of the back of the case is merely the cheapest way to integrate expansion slot holes into the back panel itself, rather than pay the added cost of installing an inset panel. The KL07E’s fancy way of doing things cheaply seems at odds with its purpose, since we’ve recently seen inset panels on cases priced as low as $70. But at least its hole is large enough to avoid this problem (a photo that also illustrates why it’s better to stick with inset expansion panels).

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Under its outer panels, we find a perforated metal sheet covering the KL07E’s top radiator mount and a plastic-framed nylon dust filter covering its front fan mounts. The front panel supports up to three 140mm fans but only includes two, and its inner mounting holes fit up to three 120mm fans. SilverStone states maximum front-panel radiator support at 360mm format, which seems to preclude 420mm (triple 140mm) models, even though there’s around 457mm of distance between the upper and lower structural panels behind the front mount.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The most likely reason for SilverStone to preclude 420mm-format radiators is that the gap in the top of its power supply tunnel (lower right corner, below) is too narrow to tilt such a long radiator into place. We’d even suggest that users of 360mm-format radiators will probably need to put their radiator in before sliding their bottom fan in from above, given that the space is so tight there.

The top radiator mount also seen in this photo sits far enough back from the front panel to avoid radiator obstruction, but is so close to the motherboard’s top edge that we had to rely on the 120mm mount’s 44mm offset away from the motherboard’s surface simply to position a 240mm radiator there. For many builders, this means that a 280mm (twin 140mm) format unit won’t fit (depending on things like motherboard heatsink height, proximity to DIMMs to the motherboard’s top edge, and even how far their ATX12V/EPS12V connectors protrude).

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The KL07E’s motherboard tray is certainly flat enough and deep enough to support a full-spec (13-inch-deep) EATX board, but it lacks any provisions for securing the front edge. And just in case you thought that you might just use adhesive standoffs (yes, we’ve seen those) as a workaround, notice that there are no provisions for running the cables through the motherboard tray on anything deeper than an ATX board. We doubt that even the typical around-10.6-inch-deep gaming motherboard that carries an EATX label will fit nicely, due to cabling issues. Also notice the size and position of the top passages that you’d use for things like the cable(s) that power the CPU’s voltage regulator. You'll want to keep it to true ATX boards only here to play it safe.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Turning the KL07E around shows us why it lacks additional cable passages: Three 2.5-inch drive trays take up the remaining space.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Any 2.5-inch drives you want to install simply slide into the upper three trays and snap into place without using screws, and the lower drive cage’s removable trays likewise secure 3.5-inch drives without the need for screws. Builders who would like to fill the lower trays with 2.5-inch drives are the only ones who need to bother with threaded hardware.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The left of the below photo shows the top panel, which, like the front panel, contains a row of channels to deflect noise behind and below the user. The center shows the front dust filter, which is attached to a clip-in plastic frame. The right side of the picture shows the top fan mount’s cover sheet, which is made of a finely perforated foil that should catch most dust, and is attached to the top of the case via magnetic strips along its edges. Keen eyes may notice that the top panel’s bitumen sheet is covered in a protective cloth facing (as are the sheets on the right, left, and front outer panels).

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Building With the SilverStone Kublai KL07E

The KL07E's installation hardware includes a chrome-plated #2 Phillips-to-hex-head standoff socket, nine #6-32 threaded motherboard standoffs, a dozen M3-thread countersunk screws, and 18 #6-32 screws. The image on its manual depicts the size and shape of its front-panel power and reset buttons, though we never saw the “special wavy foam” mentioned on its features list; SilverStone decided to go with the bitumen sheet instead.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Once we get our hardware screwed down, we’ll be able to connect it to the case using an old-fashioned (split) power/reset/LED group cable, HD Audio for the headphone and microphone jacks, and Gen 1 and Gen 2x2 cables for the USB 3.x ports.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The assembled system photo may look trim and buttoned up, but it took a bit of effort to get there. To begin with, we had to take the rear fan out because it’s the same size as the gap between our motherboard’s I/O cover and the left case opening’s side-panel mounting flange. It might even be a fraction of a millimeter smaller than its mounting space, since we had to apply noticeable force to squeeze it back into position after installing the motherboard. 

The graphics card’s power cable must also be installed before the card if you’d like to position it as we have, since there’s too little room between the top of the card and the top of the cable passage to build it like this after the card is installed. Finally, the radiator needs to go in last, since there’s no access to the cable passage that’s above the motherboard once the radiator is in place.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

As noted, there’s not much to see once the KL07E is sealed up, but that’s very much the point when you're trying to hush things up.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Testing the SilverStone Kublai KL07E

The ATX iteration of our 2024 case testing configuration went into today’s performance evaluation.

Quiet cases tend to run a little warmer than those designed for cooling alone, so we’re not shocked to see the KL07E fall into last place: Its CPU temperature is still acceptable, if barely, and its voltage regulator and graphics core temperatures are well below each component’s throttle points.

Our only reason to complain, then is that all those small sacrifices were made to achieve a noise reduction of only a couple of decibels. While that's a noticeable drop, a 2dbA difference is not a huge one versus the pack here.

Verdict: A Mild Hush Settles

While hearing only modest sound-pressure-level (SPL) improvements on a silence-oriented case is nothing new, we have encountered better--and that better, ironically, came from the same brand that made the Kublai KL07E. Still, if you’re more impressed by the 2dbA than we were, and you're on board with the black-pillar look and some possible install quirks, this latest Kublai should satisfy for the money. After all, like we said, the small difference is still a noticeable difference, and with quiet-PC cases, it's always a game of inches.