SilverStone RM51 Is A Nice 5U Chassis For Large Servers & Workstations

If you are looking for a 5U rack-mountable chassis for a high-end server or workstation, the SilverStone RM51 launched a few months ago as their latest offering in the high-end server enclosure space.

It's been some years since last looking at a rackmount SilverStone chassis with the Case Storage CS350 from some years ago. While recently looking for a new rackmountable solution for an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series server, I ended up going with the SIlverStone RM51. This ia 5U chassis rather than the more common 4U for workstation-type builds, but the taller height allows for accommodating a taller CPU heatsink fan or a larger liquid cooling radiator. The 5U height even allows for handling dual 180mm intake fans.

For those not after a rackmount setup but after just a horizontally positioned chassis, the RM51 works there as well with the ears being removable. SilverStone also notes that this chassis can be positioned vertically if that is of interest to you. This large chassis ships with two 180mm SilverStone Air Penetrator fans and can handle up to a 360mm sized liquid cooling radiator.

At the rear is space for a single 120mm exhaust fan or a 140mm fan is also compatible. There is also a rear fan cage for dual 80mm fans.

The RM51 did not ship with any rackmount rails but SilverStone makes them available separately as RMS05-22. Front I/O ports on the RM51 are one USB-C and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports.

The RM51 can handle up to SSI-EEB motherboards and up to eight PCI expansion slots. This steel chassis weighs 10.6 kilograms.

For those building a very high-end system, the chassis can also handle a possible secondary power supply in place of the 3.5-inch drive area. The 3.5-inch area can handle up to two 3.5-inch drives or 3 x 2.5-inch drives.

I've been using the SilverStoen RM51 for the past two and a half months and it's been working out very well in a variety of configurations. With this AMD Ryzen Threadripper system frequently swapping out components from the CPU to storage and more, the versatility has been great. The 5U height in this instance is good as I've swapped it out from water cooling to various heatsinks and more that would otherwise cause issue within a traditional 4U rackmount chassis.

Overall I'm happy with the purchase and just wanted to publish this short review for those that may also be considering the SilverStone RM51. The RM51 meets the build quality of all the SilverStone cases I've tested over the past nearly twenty years.

The main downside of the SilverStone RM51 is the price which is rather expensive at around $420 USD. The SilverStone RM51 can be found at the likes of Amazon (affiliate link) for those interested.