Hands-On With SilverStone’s Latest Cases: Blending Old School and New Cool

Taiwanese case and power supply maker SilverStone brought several new cases to Computex last week, including compact chassis starting at $70, and an E-ATX Alta S1 beast with wrap-around glass look that starts on the front and flows around to its swing-out side panel.

SG14

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Starting at the lower-end of the price and size spectrum is the SG14, a silver $70 Mini-ITX case that’s squat but long (11.6x8.7x14 inches), to make room for large graphics cards and full-size power supplies and other beefy components. To show that hardware off, the side panel will be offered in tempered glass. And if you’re lamenting the fact that most modern chassis lack 5.25-inch bays for optical drives, the SG14 hides one here behind its pull-down front panel. The case also has an old-school Shuttle PC-like look, which manages to avoid looking dated thanks in part to the transparent side panel.

Fara B1, Fara V1

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Sticking with the same $70 price point, the Fara B1 and Fara B1 are a pair of ATX cases based on similar interior designs. The B1 has a flat front with mesh on either side, with an RGB Silverstone logo up front and a tempered-glass side panel and addressable RGB fans. The Fara V1 has a more aggressive-looking mesh front panel, for even better airflow and an included addressable RGB light strip, but foregoes the glass panel for acrylic.

Seta A1

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The $100 Seta A1 has a retro-sci-fi feel with clean, swooping silver lines up front and RGB light coming from behind the angled edges on the top and bottom. There’s support here for a vertically mounted graphics card, and the requisite tempered-glass side panel to show it off, alongside your other components. Radiators can be mounted on the front (360mm), top (240mm) and rear (120mm), and cooling is handled by a couple of large 200mm fans up front behind the aluminum face.

Raven Prototype

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Stepping up above the $100 price bracket, Silverstone was showing off a new Raven Prototype case, which isn’t quite finalized, but which Silverstone says will be priced at $189. It sports the same 90-degree motherboard rotation as previous Ravens (and the Fortress line before that), which turns your expansion slots vertical and pulls in cool air at the bottom and lets it rise naturally through the top.

This Raven has a dark translucent front, which lets you see your graphics card from the front. And the space at the back can be used to install a 360mm radiator. Airflow for these kinds of cases tends to be quite good, in general, but Silverstone will be helping out on that front by including two of the company’s 180mm Air Penatrator fans at the bottom. Storage support for this Raven will be a pair of 3.5-inch drives and a pair of 2.5-inch SSDs.

Alta S1

For those with the budget for truly massive builds, the Silverstone Alta S1 supports E-ATX motherboards (up to 14x14 inches), and sports a unique look that sees a partially glass angled front that continues around to the right side panel. The side panel swings out from the front of the case, so you’ll need a lot of clearance to work with this case, but then if you’re building an E-ATX rig, space probably isn’t a primary concern anyway. It also sports the same 90-degree motherboard rotation that puts your ports and slot access up top, where warm air exits after cool air gets sucked in from the bottom.

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Priced at $400, the Alta S1 is certainly expensive. But you’ll be spending much, much more on whatever hardware you decide to pack this chassis with, especially if you max out the three 3.5 and seven 2.5-inch drive bays and support for a 140mm radiator up top and up to a 560mm radiator at the bottom. Given the aluminum shell (around a steel frame), glass sides, and massive size of this case, the $400 price point here seems reasonable. In Win’s similarly sized 925 case is expected to sell for up to $100 more, without the snazzy glass front.