Silverstone SST-FP37

The FP37 is like the Ferrari version of the FP35, gone are the eSATA, FireWire and front panel audio ports, added is tire squealing performance. The card reader + USB 3.0 pass through single port, is one of the few true USB Super Speed Card readers available. The specification are as follow.

The box is not much larger than the included device (yeah efficiency). It follows color patterns of the other Silverstone devices, black background with white type that covers the company name and the model number on the front as well as the multi-lingual features and specifications on the back.

The only additional feature include in the package is the optional silver faceplate. Much like Optical drives the faceplate can be changed rather easily with a flathead screw driver to push in some buttons and a firm finger to pull the faceplate off. Black is on by standard but silver is the replaceable unit. Unlike most Silverstone products the faceplate is plastic not brushed Aluminum. Despite that, the FP37 still feels like a “classier” product than the 3.5” faceplate that comes with the EC03. The main reason is the size and weight of the body.

Using a floppy drive style enclosure adds a serious amount of girth to the product, much like ASUS’s 3.5” USB faceplate you find on the deluxe version of their boards. Hearty is good. It costs more to ship, it costs more to make. It just feels like a well-built product. The only wires coming from the device are the paired USB 3.0 cables that meet the 19pin USB 3.0 internal header found on some add-on cards like the EC03 and EC04 as well as most modern motherboards. The cable is sufficiently long to reach any part of a motherboard in almost any case.

Universal compatibility can not be guaranteed especially with so many unique chassis designs available today and custom chassis builds becoming more popular. The length of the cable should be long enough to reach an internal header in almost every PC case. The two wire rather than single heavy gauge wire adds enough flexibility that wire management should not be an issue for smaller form factor case includes.

The front panel doesn’t just include the half-dozen slots for various cards, including miniSD slot with recessed thumb grab. It includes LEDs for monitoring not only power but activity much like any case does for Hard Drive monitoring. A single USB 3.0 Super Speed pass through port is also included. If your case does not have front cover or you do not like the LEDs a small piece of electrical tape hides them completely.

At the root of the Card readers Super Speed performance is the GL3220 Genesys Logic Super speed Multi-LUN controller. It is a driverless controller and supports everything already mentioned in the specifications of the product. With support for CF 4.1 up to 133 MBps and SD v3.0 UHS-I up to 104 MBps the reader is going to allow serious performance from your high-speed data card.

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