Installation

It has been a rare thing to see a case where installation proves to be a major hurdle and the Kublai pretty much plotted that same course during the whole installation process. However, there were some issues with installing some components into the case in its stock form. The installation instructions are well explained in the manual but there are a few things which are left out. It should be noted the installation is by no means tool-less aside from the installation of the 5.25” drives. While we won’t go through the whole installation process, hopefully the following section will help you out when conducting your own installation.


Everything was going quite swimmingly until it came to….one of the first steps actually. Installing the motherboard is nowhere near as simple as it usually is due to the hot-swap adaptor just being a general pain in the butt and causing us to perform some aerial aerobics with our motherboard. I would highly recommend you take this adaptor out if you are not planning on using it to the fullest of its potential since this is not the only time it will get on your nerves. Since this is a standard-size ATX case, there is very little room and the addition of the hot-swap adaptor means you will have to angle your motherboard just right before sliding it under the adaptor.


Let’s go on to the next problem issue we had with the hot-swap adaptor in its pre-installed position. Installing a longer graphics card like the pictured 8800GTS proves to be next to impossible with the adaptor blocking any chance of inserting the PCI-E power connector. This is another reason you should move the adaptor to the bottom rung of the hard drive cage.

With this example we see the first signs that hot-swappable drives is not a very good idea when used alongside longer graphics cards. If you choose to buy one more of these CP05 adaptors you will be fine if you have a single 8800 or HD2900-series graphics card but if you have an SLI or Crossfire setup, you will immediately run into fitment issues.


Without a doubt, Silverstone should be given a pat on their backs for the innovative installation of the hard drives in this case. Having the drives on removable plastic caddies which are accessed easily from the front of the case is just inspired and access to them couldn’t be easier.

You will also notice that we have removed all of the other hard drive caddies from the Kublai. This is to facilitate airflow from the front 120mm fan into the case.


All of the 5.25” drives are installed by lifting up the drive bay latch, pushing in the drive and then releasing the patch to lock everything in place. Originally, I thought this wouldn’t hold my installed DVD drive very well but lo and behold, the drive was securely locked into place and didn’t budge.


With the hard drive adaptor installed in the lower part of the cage, there is absolutely no problem with fitting an 8800GTS into the Kublai KL02.


We are happy to report that the cable routing options with the KL02 are boundless; there are numerous pass-throughs and places to tuck all of your cables away. Even though the interior may seem tight, maneuvering your way around is just made that much easier without loads of cables getting in the way.


Here we are with the finished product after a bit of cable routing and (thankfully) without blood, sweat or tears. Once the cables are hidden away, the case seems to have quite a bit of space compared to some other cases we have reviewed. This is mostly due to the fact that there are just so many prime areas in the Kublai in which to hide the rats-nest of cables. You can also see that we installed a Silverstone Decathlon 850W modular power supply which also takes care of some of the cable clutter and it also goes to demonstrate that this case has no problem fitting a longer power supply.

Without a doubt, there were a few bumps along the installation road but even the minor annoyances can build up and they mostly center around the hot-swap hard drive adaptor. This thing protrudes into the case just enough to make it more than a minor annoyance and makes us question if this should not just be offered as an option instead of a pre-installed component. There are also a few sharp edges around the drive bay covers which could have been avoided by a little more attention to detail on Silverstone’s part. Other than that, the Kublai KL02 is near the top of our list when it comes to its ease of installation.

Will a longer graphics card fit?


Unlike many ATX-sized cases, the Kublai KL02 fits longer graphics cards without much of a problem. This is due to the alignment of the graphics card with the opening of the hard drive cage allowing for the card to use the extra space to good effect. Longer cards like an 8800GTX would need to have their power connectors installed before wrangling them into place but it is possible a minimum of fuss. Here we used a Gigabyte 2900XT 512MB card which fits as long as the hot swap adaptor (yes there it is being mentioned again) is moved away and the plastic card drive caddies are removed.