Page 3 – Physical Look – Inside
After removing the side panel, you can see the internal design of the SilverStone FARA B1. On initial glance, the internal layout is very similar to the SilverStone Primera PM02 we have reviewed previously. To be consistent with the exterior, the interior of the case is also painted matte black. The paint is sprayed evenly inside the chassis. At bottom of the case, there is a power supply chamber with ventilation holes on it. Not only is it designed to shelter the power supply, the chamber is also the place for you to put up to one 3.5" and one 2.5" HDDs. The cool air for the power supply can be blown into the case through the dust filter protected ventilation holes at the bottom of the case directly. If your SilverStone FARA B1 is fully loaded with fans, graphics cards, and long radiators, cool air can be pumped by the fans into the chassis through the air filter at the front panel, hit the graphics card, and be expelled out through the exhaust grille at the back panel. Since no 5.25" drive bay is present in the product, there is nothing to obstruct airflow.
As a mid-tower that pushes the size envelope, the SilverStone FARA B1 can support ATX sized motherboards and, of course, smaller boards such as micro ATX and mini ITX. All motherboard risers were screwed on to the tray from the factory. Users do not need to apply the required risers according to the size of motherboard that will be used. After bolting the motherboard into position, the heatsink or water cooler block can then be easily installed and removed, thanks to the big rectangular opening on the tray. From the above photo, you can see there is a 120mm fan from the factory on the case’s rear exhaust opening. If the user wants to use a closed loop water cooler system, it requires an extra step to install the radiator directly onto the chassis, which is to remove the preinstalled fan. The expansion slot covers of this chassis feature slotted holes to allow better ventilation, but I would prefer for it to be a solid piece for better dust prevention, since I really doubt it makes a significant difference to just have several small holes here.
5.25" drive bays have been on personal computers since early 1980s. Now it is the time to get rid of them, since we have the internet, and for everything else we cannot, there are USB flash drives, which can be used for installing the operating system. As such, the SilverStone FARA B1 has no 5.25" drive bays. I like this design a lot, since it means better airflow and a generally cleaner appearance. From the above photo, it can be seen the place has enough room for up to three 120mm fans behind the front panel. However, not a single fan is provided at the front by SilverStone and I would like to see at least one fan at the front. In the photo, you can also see a SilverStone logo on the front panel. The logo is actually transparent, so if you have an RGB fan behind it, the logo will be illuminated by the LEDs behind it. To keep the computer components clean, two dust filters are provided to cover the ventilation holes on the front panel. In the FARA B1, the dust filters are glued behind the meshes, therefore they are not easily washable. The case can fit graphics cards up to 322mm long without the front fan mounted. For those long and heavy graphics cards, no accessory GPU holder for additional support is available in the FARA B1.
Upon removing the right side panel, you will see the other side of the basement chamber and the motherboard tray. An internal drive cage that can hold one 3.5" HDD and one 2.5" HDD is located to the left side of the power supply area for easy installing and removing of the hard drives. If you do not want to install any drives in the power supply chamber, the cage can be removed by unscrewing the thumbscrews. As you can see from the above photo, two 2.5" drives can be installed on the motherboard tray. Regarding cable management, the FARA B1 did an alright job here. Between the motherboard tray and the right side panel, the room for cable routing is about 15mm, which is a bit tight for some thicker cables. In the above picture, zip-tie mounting holes are present on the motherboard tray, which can provide for better cable management. Meanwhile, there are six long openings to route the cables.
Generally speaking, the interior design of the SilverStone FARA B1 is pretty good. All of the components you need for building a computer can be nicely accommodated and kept cool. The paint job quality of the interior is also good. More importantly, you do not to be an expert to route cables to do a good job, since there are big openings to allow easy cable connection from the PSU to the motherboard. The product could definitely be more attractive if air intake fans for the front panel were included.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
