By: Hai Wang
January 17, 2020
Before the beginning of a brand new year, I always believe there are two important things to do. Firstly, we need to make our New Year’s resolutions. A good list of New Year’s resolutions is the key to live a successful and productive life for the coming year. For me, it is a good idea to make my New Year’s resolutions in the form of a plan instead of a list of objectives. For example, I would put “going to gym at least twice a week” into the list, but not something like “losing 20 pounds”. Secondly, upgrading our gaming system is another important thing to do during the New Year holiday. One good reason is Boxing Week in Canada. There are lots of good deals for all kinds of stuff either from the actual stores or the online stores. We can buy new jackets, new TVs, or even new furniture. Most importantly, it is a good time to upgrade our computers. A faster computer could improve our productivity, so it somehow can help us achieving our New Year’s resolutions, right? With this motivation in mind, let us waste no time to build a new PCr. The first thing we are going to need is a brand new computer case. A new computer should look new from the inside and outside. Luckily, I happen to have a new case by my hand, the SilverStone FARA B1, as today’s review unit. Is this product a good starter for your New Year computer build? Let us read on and find out!
Today’s review unit was shipped from Chino, California, USA to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Chino is the location of SilverStone’s office in North America. Although you may see a beat up corner on the parcel, there are actually no signs of unacceptable damage on the shipping box itself that may make you nervous about the safety of the case. After more than a thousand miles of transportation, I can take one hit on the corner haha. Usually, a good retail package design can draw people’s attention and make the product itself stand out among hundreds of other products on the shelf. However, the realm of computer cases is different. Most of the time, the dealer will either directly put sample cases on the shelf or just demonstrate some fully built computers using those chassis. Therefore, it is mostly unnecessary to have a fancy retail package for a computer tower. At least for me, I would not buy a computer case just because it looks great on the box. The retail package of SilverStone FARA B1 is a brown cardboard box. It shows a nice black-and-white sketch of the product. On the front, the company’s name is present. The model name "FARA B1" is located on the right side of the product picture. The clean look of the retail package may suggest the product itself will be compact and clean as well.
Upon opening the box, you will see the case is wrapped inside a big plastic bag. The plastic bag is strong enough to prevent the panels from getting scratched. You can keep the plastic bag, since it can be reused if you want to take your computer to other places. An extra layer of protection has always been a good thing. Since the whole chassis is supported by two pieces of foam brackets around the case, there is no direct contact from the shipping package and therefore no damage is found on the case. As a computer case with a sleek design, there are not a lot of things in the box other than the computer case and a user’s manual. The bag that contains all the hardware is located somewhere inside the case. We just need to take the tempered glass panel off and see.
Before we do anything else, let use quick look at the specifications of the SilverStone FARA B1 mid-tower case from their official website:
-Model No.: SST-FAB1B-G (black)
-Material: Steel, plastic, tempered glass
-Motherboard: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX
-Drive bay: External N/A; Internal 3.5” x 1, 2.5” x 4
-Cooling system: Front 120mm x 3 / 140mm x 2; Rear 120mm x 1 (120mm x 1 black fan included); Side N/A; Top 120mm x 2 / 140mm x 2; Bottom N/A; Internal N/A
-Radiator support: Front 120mm / 140mm / 240mm / 280mm; Rear 120mm; Top 120mm / 240mm; Bottom N/A
-Expansion slot: 7
-Front I/O port: USB 3.0 x 2; USB 2.0 x 1; Audio x 1
-Power supply: Standard PS2(ATX)
-Limitation of expansion card: Support up to 322mm with front fan, width restriction 170mm
-Limitation of CPU cooler: 165mm
-Limitation of PSU: 160mm with 3.5” drive cage installed
-Net weight: 5.75 kg
-Dimension: 207mm(W) x 446mm(H) x 401mm(D), 37 Liter; 8.15" (W) x 17.56" (H) x 15.79" (D), 37 Liter
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
