Using an intelligent tool-less design, the 5.25" drive bays offer a quick and reliable way to install and remove devices. While the majority of the tool-less features we’ve used are clumsy and impractical, this implementation actually works very well. Cooler Master has always developed the best tool-less bays in my opinion and although the one used in the Silencio 650 seems like a cut down version of what we saw in the HAF X, it still works very well. One of the two 3.5" drive cages is removable allowing for longer graphics cards to be installed. The removable cage is the larger of the two supporting four drives, while the other can house three. The quick release cradles support both 3.5" and 2.5" drives, while they help to make installation a breeze. Given the price tag, we hoped all of these bays would be hot-swappable, but this isn’t the case, sadly.
That said, the Dual Boot hard drives do slot into hot-swappable bays located in the fixed 3.5" cage, so at least two of the seven 3.5" bays are hot-swappable. Both are powered using a single 4-pin Molex connector, which should free up your 15-pin SATA power plugs for other devices. There is a massive 19cm x 12cm rectangular hole in the motherboard tray located where the CPU would be positioned, offering easy heatsink installations and removals. As we’ve said in previous reviews, this is becoming somewhat of a mainstay for all enthusiast-grade chassis, so it’s no shock to see it here though it is bigger than what we’re used to seeing. As you’d expect, the Silencio 650 features a first class cable management system. With the case door being so bulky due to the sound-absorbing foam mat and the fact that it is completely flat, we worried that there wouldn’t be much room left to tuck away excess cables. However, this was not the case.
Surrounding the motherboard tray are three large rectangular holes with rubber grommets that improve cable management by allowing excess cables to be tucked away. The Silencio 650 offers a great deal of support for expansion with room for seven 3.5"/2.5" drives, two 5.25" devices, and 7+1 expansion cards. The X-Dock can also house an additional drive, though this is typically used for quickly accessing data from external storage. The Silencio 650 comes with just three pre-installed 120mm fans: two front intakes and one rear exhaust.
To increase airflow, you can install three more 120mm fans: one in the bottom, one in the HDD cage and another in the top behind that sliding panel. However, the fan controller doesn’t support these. The Silencio 650 offers more than enough room to install power supplies upwards of 1000w.
