Pros & Cons
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- Vintage look and width matches classic hi-fi components
- Fits up to two 360mm-format radiators
- Four Type-A and one Type-C USB 3.x ports
- Runs quietly in stock configuration
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- Pricey
- Runs warmer than most high-end towers
SilverStone Crown 04 Specs
| 120mm or 140mm Fan Positions | 7 |
| 120mm to 200mm Fans Included | 3 |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 9.4 by 17.3 by 18.4 inches |
| Front Panel Ports | HD Audio |
| Front Panel Ports | USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (4) |
| Front Panel Ports | USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C |
| Included Fan Lighting Color | None |
| Internal 2.5-Inch Bays | 3 |
| Internal 3.5-Inch Bays | 2 |
| Internal Chassis Lighting Color | None |
| Maximum CPU Cooler Height | 180 |
| Maximum GPU Length | 414 |
| Motherboard Form Factors Supported | ATX |
| Motherboard Form Factors Supported | E-ATX |
| Motherboard Form Factors Supported | MicroATX |
| Motherboard Form Factors Supported | Mini-ITX |
| PCI Expansion Slot Positions | 8 |
| Power Supply Form Factor Supported | ATX |
| Power Supply Maximum Length | 208 |
| Power Supply Mounting Location | Side |
| Side Window(s)? | No |
| Weight | 25.5 |
Imagine coming home from work, turning on your living-room TV, and sitting down to play a PC game, view the latest news, or pick from weeks of archived media, all from a single box, no broadband required. Welcome to 2005! That’s what the home theater PC (HTPC) market represented at its peak, some 20 years ago. Ultimately, though, the HTPC lost its gloss as streaming services replaced TV tuners, ultra-expensive graphics cards replaced complex multi-GPU arrays, and cloud services replaced local storage.
But it didn’t have to be that way, and some HTPC enthusiasts still keep the fires burning, even though the DIY world doesn’t do much to service them these days. Enter SilverStone, which traditionally had some of the most robust HTPC PC cases on the market. Whether you’re a straight-up HTPC adherent, you’re building an off-grid getaway, or merely setting yourself up as the world’s most luxuriant survivalist, SilverStone wants its $549.99 Crown 04 to be at the center of your local-storage media-enjoyment experience. We think it’s the best PC case to hit the HTPC market in many years, and ranks an Editors’ Choice pick on sheer execution. It’s dauntingly expensive for what it is, but if you’re after a PC case that could double as a home-stereo component, this is the case you want.
The Design: Deep and Wide
It’s rare these days for people to see an ATX case in anything but a tower orientation, so we remind that the term “desktop” can refer to either a form factor (as opposed to "laptop") or an orientation (i.e., short and wide). The Crown 04 adheres to both definitions—SilverStone has given its desktop-style desktop a brushed-aluminum face, a two-layered lid that covers a perforated steel top panel with a 2mm-thick slotted aluminum top sheet, side vent perforations that match those of the top panel, and a fold-down door that conceals front-panel ports and buttons.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Behind the door, a slider to the far left acts as a dimmer for the external lighting on the chassis, but it needs a gentle touch: This editor was so ham-handed with it that it felt more like a straight-up off switch for the two LEDs (power and drive activity) above it. Power and reset buttons are next to the lighting-control slider, while the ports and audio jack are on the opposite side.
The USB 3.x ports on view include four Gen 1 Type-A and one Gen 2x2, and the audio jack has an extra pole to connect the microphone of a single-plug headset; it also works with regular headphones.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Around back are eight PCI Express expansion slot positions, a sideways power-supply bay, and an empty 140mm/120mm dual-pattern fan mount. The expansion slots are mounted on a traditional inset panel so that a card can be dropped straight in, and a grommet-lined hole above these offers builders the opportunity to pass external cables through to the inside. Three panels (the top lid, and the left and right smaller sides) use snaps to fasten to the frame; two screws on the rear edge of each removable panel further secure it during rough handling and/or shipping.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The side panels may use identical filters and sheet metal, but the right side has one less snap than the left. That’s because the power supply is too close to the edge of the case to put a fastener there. Dust filters that don’t quite cover all the vent holes are attached via small permanent magnets to each side.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Removing the top and side panels allows us to see the rivets holding the Crown 04's frame together at its edges. Inside, a top bracket designed to hold a 360mm-format radiator bridges over the CPU-cooler zone; it also acts as an anchor point for an adjustable graphics card retainer.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The box in front of the power supply bay is a removable 3.5-inch dual-drive bay with a 2.5-inch removable tray mounted to its inward-facing side. The photo below also shows the undersides of the top radiator mount and adjustable graphics card retainer, with one of the retainer’s fingers extended.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)You’ll also find two removable 2.5-inch drive trays inside the Crown 04’s front panel.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The right side is designed to hold a second radiator, though its ability to do so depends on the thickness and placement of any PCI Express expansion cards you install. Radiator options include 140mm/280mm and 120mm/240mm/360mm models. Since this mount sits behind a filter, SilverStone factory-equips it with three of its model CC12025M12S 0.11A fans as intakes.
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(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)With 415mm (16.3 inches) of space between the slot bracket and front panel, the Crown 04 has more than enough room to install a 13-inch-deep EATX motherboard along with all the extra standoffs to keep it rigid. SilverStone refers to this size as SSI-EEB; the smaller SSI-CEB (10.5-inch-deep) board size also fits. Note that in some PC-lingo circles, SSI-CEB is confusingly also referred to as EATX.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Building in the SilverStone Crown 04
The accessory kit for the Crown 04 includes several hook-and-loop cable ties, a three-way splitter for PWM fans to a single motherboard header, a standoff adapter socket that fits #2 Phillips screwdrivers, and a bunch of screws. You get a bag of M3 hardware for the motherboard standoffs and 2.5-inch SSDs, a smaller bag of #6-32 screws for mounting 3.5-inch hard drives, and a set of four combo-head screws for installing a power supply. Also in the box is a set of extra-long (12mm) standoffs that create cable-routing space between the back of the motherboard and the motherboard tray.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Cables include a combined front-panel header with power/reset buttons and power/drive-activity light leads, standard HD Audio for the headset combo jack, two 19-pin USB 3.x cables for the Type-A ports, and a Gen 2x2 (Type-E) header for the Type-C port.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The Crown 04’s power-supply mounting plate is cut to clear its rivets only in the orientation shown, with the power supply drawing air through the dust filter of the case’s right-side panel. Builders who would like to use the power supply the old-fashioned way, with its inlet pulling heat away from the CPU, will have to figure out how to make it work without damaging the case. Having said that, those concerned with drawing air across the CPU socket could instead mount a powerful 140mm fan to the Crown 04’s rear panel.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Nobody said that it had to be easy: Even though our motherboard has a back brace that reduces the space behind it by 6.4mm, we were able to run at least some of the Crown 04’s front-panel cables behind it. We also used the case’s 3.5-inch drive bay (unused for drives in our test build) as stowage for the excess length of our power supply cables. In the end, the build ended up looking clean, even though you'll only ever see it when you open up the lid.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)You have to crouch down to the Crown 04’s level to see its power and drive-activity indicator LEDs, or raise it to yours.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Performance Testing the SilverStone Crown 04
Here’s the list of the standard kit parts we used to make this build happen...
The Crown 04’s horizontal design puts it at a slight disadvantage compared with our selection of typical vertical-orientation test towers charted here (which includes the Corsair Frame 4000D RS ARGB, the Fractal Design Meshify 3, and the NZXT H9 Flow RGB). We tried to compare it only with towers that also lacked a rear exhaust fan. Its temperatures trailed the pack, but none were particularly dire.
We did try flipping the power supply in a way that it’s not supposed to fit, to see how adding its fan to the mix might help system temperatures. While the voltage-regulator temperature reading did drop by 2 degrees C, the GPU temperature went up by a degree, and the CPU temperature stayed the same. Once again, we’d recommend that anyone who wants to add airflow over their CPU area instead add a rear case fan to their build (rather than attempt to modify the case).
Although it lost the temperature race, the Crown 04 did win the noise-containment metric. After all, noise is a major consideration in its intended living room environment.