Originally Posted by
realistic01 
I've got this case, largely because I've been a fan of Silverstones designs from the Fortress/Raven series. Got bored of the raven rv02 wanted something that looked a little cooler. I was gonna do a proper review but I built it on a weekday night and ended up just assembling things quickly together.
I bought a silverstone TD02-E (the 240 mm AIO) as it was on special as well just to check the water cooling capabilities (replacing my Noctua NHd15).
I've got the radiator mounted on the inside of the case. There are cutouts on top for custom loop cooling. I've got 2 x 120 mm fans installed in the top panel (as pull), I'm pretty you won't be able to get 140 mm fans in the top panel. There is a slot in the PSU shroud at the bottom of the case
There is a fan hub with no fan controller. RGB can be controlled via case or mobo.
Cooling performance is excellent - pretty much on par with raven rv02 with the noctua cooler. GPU temps comparable (maybe even a degree better) on a mildly overclocked evga open air 1080. Noise is pretty loud, more noticeable than the raven (probably because this case has a conventional layout opposed to the 90 degree rotated design, which means the fans noise isnt really dampened by the surface under the case). i7-7700k at 1.280 Vcore and 4.8 ghz with the noctua was great (ill mention the AIO watercooler below...)
Build quality is great... but LOTS of caveats. Removing the side panel (non tempered side) is a pain - no quick release or even retaining screws. Pulling the panel off reminds me of crappy case design 10 years ago. You can't access front fan filter without pulling off the front panel. Pulling off the top panel - get this - requires you to loosen screws on BOTH side panels (which requires removing them).
General cable management is pretty darn good - the huge PSU shroud means you can easily tuck away cables. There is somewhat built in cable management and cable management ties. I have an old corsair non-modular PSU and this was a problem on older cases but its very easy to make things look neat - like an NZXT case in this regard.
In terms of aesthetics - it looks pretty good. Not TOO gaudy although some will disagree. Looks pretty similar to the NZXT phantom line up, but a bit better. The RGB fan guards are fantastic - really bright and because they are guards as opposed to fans you can swap the fans easily without losing rgb compatibility. RGB lighting inside the case - a little hit or miss. Green/Blue looks great. White is just a tinged blue. Red inside the case is surprisingly dull (despite the fantastic looking front).
Overall - this is a silverstone case, and if you're interested in them you want good cooling performance - and the Primera certainly delivers while looking pretty great. The price is also fairly reasonable.
Is it worth shelling out more for the RGB version? Well I haven't use AIO coolers for a while now. But the ****ty performance of the TD02-E compared to the NHD15 is annoying (mini rant that this was one of the most frustrating mounting solutions to get right - and maybe me using the fans as pull i.e. radiator -> case -> fan might be impacting performance further). Really makes me wonder if the AIO is even worth it - and if it isnt there really isnt much reason to get the RGB version for the $30-50 premium over the non-rgb.
So yeah - if you're going custom loop cooler - you can get better. If you want pure air cooling performance WITH rgb WITH tempered glass while looking good and dont mind all the little caveats - its OK. TBH the RV02 was good enough - and I still think the fortress series cases are as pretty as you can get.
Happy to answer any questions. I'm gonna disassemble at some point maybe to try and remount the silverstone cooler and I might take pictures if I can summon the energy
This is a deal breaker for me then.
