Page 2 – Physical Look – Outside
Like other mainstream gaming cases in the market, the SilverStone FARA B1 has a tempered glass side panel. The use of tempered glass allows you to show all your RGB goodies in the case, but it can also be messy if you leave fingerprints on it. The other side panel is made out of steel with a matte black finish. It is less likely to show any fingerprints left behind on the steel side panel, but you probably will not see this side as often. To keep the tempered side glass clean, it is a good idea to have some cloth around, so you can confidently show your computer to your friends. Moving to the front of the case, the panel is stylish. The whole front panel features an asymmetrical design. Air intake can be found on both left and right sides. Interestingly, the front panel design has both straight lines and curved surfaces. The majority of the front face is covered by a plain plastic panel, while the air intake portions are a curved mesh. By pulling off the front panel, we can see the flip side of the mesh is attached with dust filter. Note the air filters for the front panel are not removable for cleaning; they are actually glued behind the grid array. To clean it, a can of compressed air may be needed. Unsurprisingly, there is no opening for an internal 5.25" drive, which means internal CD/DVD drives cannot be installed. I think it is a good idea, since nowadays almost nobody uses these slots on a computer. The dimensions of the FARA B1 are 207 mm in width, 446 mm in height, and 401 mm in depth, which falls into the category of compact mid-tower. It is significantly smaller than the other mid-tower from the SilverStone I reviewed previously, the SilverStone Redline RL07.
The top panel has a ventilation opening. This design will allow users to mount cooling fans and radiator on the top of the case, which yields better cooling performance compared to a closed top panel. On the other hand, it is possible that more dust could enter the case, especially when the computer is turned off. Fortunately, a removable dust filter is provided for the top panel. The dust filter cannot completely prevent dust from getting in your computer when top mounted fans are not running. Therefore, you may need to manually cover the ventilation opening if you plan not to use the computer for long time. A power switch, reset button, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 ports, and a integrated single 3.5 mm audio jack are located on the top panel. It is worth noting the case does not come with any USB Type-C ports. Another thing worth mentioning is the connection between the side panel and the front panel. As you can see from the photo above, the connection is pretty smooth. The gap is really small and there are no sharp edges between the two panels.
The back of the SilverStone FARA B1, like the rest of the case, is simple and clean. There are four major sections at the back; namely, the power supply mounting place, motherboard I/O backplate, rear exhaust, and expansion card slots. According to the shape of the power supply mounting hole, the power supply is horizontally mounted at the bottom section of the chassis. Since the power supply has already taken this bottom position, the motherboard can only be located above it, meaning the I/O backplate opening is at the top. There are seven expansion slots available on the SilverStone FARA B1, which is standard for an ATX mid-tower. As for the rear exhaust, as you can see from the photo above, there is a 120 mm fan included from the manufacturer.
There are four plastic stands with no rubber feet on the bottom of the case to support the SilverStone FARA B1, rising the case up about 2 cm on top of the resting surface for better ventilation. The stands are extremely strong. Without the use of rubber pads on the stands, the friction between the case and the ground is limited. Which means, you can easily move the case around by dragging it. You can also see from the above photo a washable filter is attached to the bottom grille of the chassis. The filter is not reinforced by any hard-plastic structure, so it may not be a good idea to touch the filter when holding the case. On the other hand, the filter itself is removable for cleaning. Note the power supply of this case is bottom mounted, therefore the ventilation area behind the filter is actually designed for the power supply, not for the hard drive.
Overall speaking, the SilverStone FARA B1 is a good-looking computer case made out of sheet metal and tempered glass. The gaps between panels are small and even, which shows a high level of assembly quality. The tempered glass also exhibits quality attributes in terms of distortion, or lack thereof. The asymmetrical design of the front panel is really cool in my opinion.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
