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Silverstone announces a new HTPC case: the Milo ML05

by Mark Tyson on 17 July 2013, 11:15

Tags: SilverstoneTek, PC

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Silverstone has announced a new product in its Milo HTPC enclosure range. The Silverstone Milo ML05 is a simple looking, you might call it boxy, mini-ITX chassis and it is the smallest in the Milo series to date. Despite only measuring seven litres in capacity it has the room and flexibility for a good selection of "modern day components".

The Milo ML05 measures 350mm wide, 99mm high and 204mm deep. As supplied the case, made from 0.8mm sheet steel with an acrylic and plastic front panel, weighs 2.1Kg. Though it is half the size of one of its stable mates, the micro-ATX based Milo ML03, the ML05 has room for a standard SFX power supply and up to four 2.5-inch drives to alongside a mini-ITX motherboard. Opening up the case you will find an "innovative multipurpose 4-in-1 bracket also allows installation of a slim optical drive, a 3.5" hard drive, two 2.5" drives, or a 120mm fan depending on user’s requirement". This offers a lot of customisation options to the home theatre PC system builder.

Silverstone thinks that the simple rectangular design and "beautiful acrylic front panel" will help the ML05 "seamlessly integrate" into your home theatre environment - it won't be an eye-catching eyesore under your TV. Have a look at the pictures and decide for yourself about that of course.

Silverstone lists the headlining features of the Milo ML05 as follows:

  • Super small at only 7 litres
  • Support up to two 80mm fans
  • Multipurpose 4-in-1 bracket
  • Support Mini-ITX motherboard and SFX power supply
  • Support four 2.5” HDD/SSD

A panel on the side of the new Milo features the following I/O; USB 3.0 x 2, audio x 1, MIC x 1. Within the Milo ML05 you will have capacity to install a single low profile expansion card, with a width restriction of 2.95-inches. Your choice of CPU cooling unit will also be limited from 37 to 70mm in height according to the official product spec list. The SilverStone Milo ML05 has an MSRP of €37.50.



HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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€37.50 actually seems remarkably reasonable for what sounds like quite a flexible case, assuming that's including VAT of some kind anyway.
Looks a bit low-rent but, to be fair, that is a cheap price
As a design it seems to me to be very badly flawed.

For an HTPC the key issue is noise. Noise comes from 3 areas: fans, hard disks and optical drives.

To be fair most mechanical HDs are quiet particularly if you go for a 5400 rpm version. In any event a far better solution is to have a decent sized SSD and a large NAS is a different room.

Fans: this is always a compromise between cooling potential and noise. Two low spinning 80mm fans blowing across the motherboard should be sufficient to keep components cool together with an appropriate cooler on the CPU. Problem is that the open nature of the case design allows lots of noise to escape

Optical Drive: assuming you want one, this is an area no case maker gets right. No case maker yet provides proper anti vibrations dampening for slim line optical drives - this is a major flaw.

Unless you are on a very tight budget I would recommend a fan less case from Wesena, Hdplex or similar for an HTPC - or if you do not need a separate GPU, maybe wait for the Intel NUC i5 but drop it into the Tranquil fanless case
Love the front, wonder if it'll cross over onto their GD range?

It is a nice looking case and for the price, it does have a lot IMO.

Shame its mITX, personally need more than 1 PCI-E slot. I'll definitely consider this on my next build.
cjs150
As a design it seems to me to be very badly flawed.

For an HTPC the key issue is noise. Noise comes from 3 areas: fans, hard disks and optical drives.

To be fair most mechanical HDs are quiet particularly if you go for a 5400 rpm version. In any event a far better solution is to have a decent sized SSD and a large NAS is a different room.

Fans: this is always a compromise between cooling potential and noise. Two low spinning 80mm fans blowing across the motherboard should be sufficient to keep components cool together with an appropriate cooler on the CPU. Problem is that the open nature of the case design allows lots of noise to escape

Optical Drive: assuming you want one, this is an area no case maker gets right. No case maker yet provides proper anti vibrations dampening for slim line optical drives - this is a major flaw.

Unless you are on a very tight budget I would recommend a fan less case from Wesena, Hdplex or similar for an HTPC - or if you do not need a separate GPU, maybe wait for the Intel NUC i5 but drop it into the Tranquil fanless case

Most people I know now dont have hd`s in their HTPC and prefer to have everything in a file server. SSD or sd card for os is all you need.

Optical drive Is still a problem but with the likes of netflix/lovefilm the need to have physical media is starting to wane.

In regards to fans for a htpc it should be possible to passively cool it nowadays.

The case looks pretty good although i`d have prefered some kind of display like their bigger cases butfor the price you cant complain much :D