Credit: Alaina Yee / IDG
These days, optical drive bays in cases have all but gone the way of the dinosaurs. Whenever you do find one, it’s usually in an ultra-budget model—hunting for a more premium case that supports a Blu-Ray or even DVD drive can be rough going.
So our late discovery of the SilverStone Redline RL08 was a delight, as it doesn’t make you choose between your media collection and having an attractive PC case that’s easy to build in. As you’ll see in the video above, this unique inverted micro-ATX case sports a 5.25-inch external drive bay, while still offering a modern look, better materials (no cheap plastic here!), and support for radiators, plenty of fans, and removable elements. It’s roomy too, with a volume of 36 liters.
This case’s only real drawback is the potential conflict between a thick graphics card and longer optical drives—due to the flipped layout of the chassis, the bottom PCIe slots of the motherboard sit at the top of the case—but overall, the RL08 ticks most boxes for anyone looking to juggle aesthetics and more old-school components.
You can grab the SilverStone Redline RL08 through Amazon in two colors, black/red or white/black. Currently, the white/black is available at its MSRP of $120, while the black/red (sold by a third-party) costs a slightly inflated $128.
