The Sugo SG10 is an upgrade to the SG09, although the £15 price premium really only nets you the new brushed-aluminium front side panel, because in every other regard the cases are the same. This seems extreme, but the new panel is truly beautiful, and gives the chassis far greater attraction than its plastic fronted sibling.
You’d be forgiven for thinking the SG10 is a mini-ITX case, but you can actually house a full micro-ATX system inside, complete with a tower cooler, six inner drives and two full length graphics cards. It really is an amazing piece of engineering.
Despite the small size, SilverStone has not skimped on cooling options either. The side and rear 120mm fans are joined by a massive 180mm roof intake that is one of SilverStone’s well regarded Air Penetrators. There is also a total of three extra smaller fan mounts on the sides of the case, although size limitations mean that water cooling radiators of generally any size will be a tough fit.
A switch on the back toggles the top fan’s speed in between high, medium and low speeds. It is placed next to the PSU power plug, which is routed through the case to the front-mounted power supply through a thick internal cable.
The front side metal mesh section that guards the PSU’s intake fan can be taken out with a firm tug, enabling you to easily keep the dust filtering material here clean. Pleasingly, the same is also true of the long plastic side filter as well as the large square roof one, so the case is well guarded towards dust and dirt.
There is a standard set of connections on the front side panel, but it still appears to be much smarter than it does on the SG09. This is largely thanks to the new, circular power and reset buttons that are solid and nice to press.
The main lid for the case comes away from it separate to the smaller panel for the side fans. Both are easy to remove and change, although you’ll need a screwdriver to do so. With the lid off, you can easily see the slimline optical bay, which is a nifty way of adding support for optical media without using a lot of space.
In the main area you will find the motherboard tray and expansion slots in their regular locations. Handily, the tray functions pre-built screw stand-offs and has a big cutout for tall CPU coolers, while the expansion slot covers are reusable.
The PSU area can get in the method of installing micro-ATX boards, but thankfully the bracket for it is completely removable, which also aids in getting the power supply itself into place. Most 180mm PSUs should fit in the SG10, although not all are supported, and 160mm is the recommended length. In the same way, smaller and modular cables will make your life easier with a case of these dimensions.
Internal drives are properly secured to mounting plates on the backside of the motherboard tray. The plastic rails for SSDs are more hard than the large metal bar used for 3.5″ drives, but again it is a good use of space, and the drives will even receive some of the airflow from the roof fan.
Cable management is always going to be tight in a case so small, but there is still a good amount of room behind the motherboard tray to store stray cables. The more hardware you use, however, the more cables you will have to deal with and the less space you will have to use to do so. Nevertheless, with some planning and a set of zip ties, there is enough space and routing holes that it should not be too large an issue.
As you’d expect, cooling performance is on par with the SG09, and this can only be a good thing. The 180mm fan at full speed is a little bit noisy, but it produces great CPU temperatures. The GPU temperatures are also very healthy, and bear in mind that you can expand the cooling around your graphics cards quite substantially. The low and medium speed settings also produce nice temperatures and generate much less noise, so these are recommended for all but the most demanding systems.
It may be pricey, but the SG10 is also a micro-ATX case that is difficult to fault. Its size severely restricts its water-cooling potential, and it is a shame you cannot control the speed of all three fans, but this is really just nitpicking. The new sleek front side panel is joined by a brilliant internal design, a robust build quality and great cooling performance. Cheaper alternatives can be found, but if you are not keen on compromise this could well be the case for you.