The plate itself

The 3.5"¯ IO panel that we have for you today however, is a bit of a different story. While it performs its functions adequately, it is anything but easy to set up. With every single wire connected to its own pin instead of using the standard group arrangement, setup time is increased drastically. The only time this pin arrangement would be helpful would be if your motherboard didn't follow the standards set out by Asus and Abit and I can't think of many current manufacturers that don't. The Audio setup also uses the pins option. Since there isn't a standard arrangement, it is perfectly fine to have them each attached to their own pin. The sound quality delivered by the wires is just fine, and the two USB ports both work. The Firewire port has to be plugged into the back of an existing Firewire output though, due to the lack of headers on virtually all motherboards. However, this brings up a question: why couldn't they just put 3.5mm jacks onto the audio headers, instead of having to plug them into the motherboard's audio pin area? My case uses 3.5mm jacks attached to wires which you plug into the back of your motherboard or sound card. There is no audible difference in quality, and the 3.5 mm jack option is preferable to the many pins-which deprive you of the ability to plug in any speakers to the back of your PC, I might add. In overall functionality, this device performs adequately, but setup could have been made much easier than it currently is. There is one thing that is easy though-adding a hard drive is a piece of cake if you are using the Silverstone drive converter.




This IO panel will allow you to do what you need to do, and can be put into any 3.5" bay. Cosmetically, it is styled like the drive converter, but suffers from some manufacturing flaws. There are two points of cosmetic damage visible. One is on the front below the Firewire port; there is a deformity underneath it. The next is in the USB housing; the panel is slightly bent out of shape. While the damage isn't substantial, I was expecting better than that. The screw holes that you use to attach it to your 3.5"¯ bay (or bay converter) are also not quite in parallel, which makes installing the device a little bit more difficult. It also will rotate a little inside the Silverstone converter due to there being only two screws to hold it in and the gap in the top and bottom of the converter.

The 3.5"¯ panel does what its supposed to do and has a high quality finish, but that's all it really has going for it. With cosmetic damage and a higher degree of difficulty than the packaging implies, this item falls significantly below my expectations from a company of Silverstone's caliber. As a result of this, the Silverstone Tech 3.5"¯ IO panel earns itself a 50 on our revised point scale. While it proficiently does what it's supposed to, it is damaged and difficult to put in. However, a high quality finish prevents it from being dropped from a 50.

Thanks to SilverStone Technologies for sponsoring this review.