SilverStone Milo ML02

Conclusion:

SilverStone cases are known for their top-notch build quality and very useful features and we have been very pleased by past cases in the Temjin, Lascala, Crown, Sugo, and Milo series, but the ML02 actually had a few minor problems. The Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500 and other large PCI/PCI Express cards can't fit inside the case. The installation guide also wasn't complete. Managing the wires inside the case was also a challenge but certainly possible. With the Milo series being oriented for HTPCs / multimedia systems, we would have also appreciated the ability to install a second hard drive and possibly a second expansion card. However, with the size of the ML02 that's just not possible. The size of the SilverStone Milo ML02 is very small with a height of 82mm and there are some excellent features with the SST-ML02B-MXR such as the steel chassis and fanless power supply. With the SST-ML02B-MXR edition, there is also the LCD with IR remote control, which can come in especially handy for a media computer and under Linux there are LCDproc and LIRC configurations available for the Soundgraph iMON. Another positive point about the SilverStone case is its official AMD DTX support.

The Nitrogon NT07 v1.0 was a mess to install not because of missing hardware or worrying about smashing the processor, but that the heatsink could not even fit inside MSI's Socket 478 plastic mounting bracket. We had spent over an hour shaving the aluminum sides by hand and grinding before the heatsink had finally fit. If you are looking at using the NT07 in the Milo ML02 or other MoDT Socket 478/479 systems, watch out to make sure the CPU heatsink can easily be installed.

If the computer hardware you have (or plan on purchasing) meets the MoDT requirements of the Milo ML02 and is clear of the problems we had, the Milo ML02 is a great case. With the problems we had run into, this isn't the best case but it's superior to many of the cheaper micro ATX HTPC cases. During operation, the ML02 was extremely quiet with the only noise coming from the NT07 heatsink fan, 50mm exhaust fan, and the Seagate 500GB SATA 2.0 HDD spinning. We hope that SilverStone will continue extending the Milo series and that the ML03 will incorporate fixes for the few problems we had experienced, but for its size the ML02 is a remarkable case.

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