SilverStone is understood for meticulously constructed PC circumstances made from premium supplies. (See, for 2 prime examples, the fantastically constructed Alta circumstances we noticed at Computex 2024 a number of months again.) The $99.99 Fara 514X enters the market, although, from the opposite finish: It marks SilverStone’s newest soar into the mainstream DIY pool. That pits it towards a bevy of $80-to-$120 circumstances contending for the largest chunk of the most important market phase. (Competing fashions embrace Corsair’s 3500X ARGB and NZXT’s H5 Movement.) Whether or not the Fara can prevail is a matter for evaluation, however the TLDR: 4 enticing followers for round $100 give it a reasonably efficiency edge.Design: Piling on the AirflowThe Fara 514X is designed to offer probably the most attainable airflow for the bottom sensible value, forgoing widespread options like mud filters that may hinder airflow and add value. That’s to not say that it’s an inexpensive case. Its traditional mid-tier supplies nonetheless push a mainstream-typical 18.7 kilos, regardless of most of its sheet metallic face panel having been reduce away to provide an airflow-friendly mesh. The remaining mesh seems effective sufficient to entice most family mud with out including a filter, in order that anybody who operates from a dusty house will seemingly want to scrub it regularly. It’s good, then, that it snaps off.
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The case’s front-panel connectors (two USB 3.x Kind-A, headphone, microphone, and one USB 3.x Kind-C) are lined up alongside the proper fringe of the highest panel. Forward of these are a drive-activity LED, an LED mode button for the built-in ARGB controller, a suitably tiny reset button, and a lighted energy button with a blacked-out middle.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
Round again are the facility provide mount, a recessed slot panel, and a 120mm fan mount with round an inch of vertical place adjustment for the pre-fitted ARGB fan. The unventilated metal panel of the case’s proper aspect can also be seen from this angle.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
The cabling behind the motherboard tray isn’t fairly, however you get loads of room to prepare it. We will additionally see right here the motherboard’s large entry gap for putting in CPU assist plates with out eradicating the board, in addition to the 2 2.5-inch drive trays that reside beneath that enormous gap.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
Many of the cable mess feeds to and from the ARGB controller, which additionally consists of an unregulated energy hub for followers. By “unregulated,” we imply that whereas there’s an ARGB enter for coloration management, there’s no PWM or voltage-level enter for RPM management. The hub takes 12-volt juice from a Serial ATA power-supply cable and splits it out to 4 fan headers.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
We needed to transfer many of the above-mentioned cables out of the best way to disclose the two-unit 3.5-inch laborious drive cage, in addition to its screw. Whereas the sting of cage is just 217mm from the facility provide mount, eradicating the cage opens this house to over 400mm of clearance. Another in-between mounting location offers 249mm of clearance to the rear panel, by lowering the radiator-mounting house on the again of the entrance panel.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Fara 514X’s three ARGB consumption followers are mounted to the entrance of its entrance structural panel. An around-96mm hole within the energy provide shroud behind that panel permits thick radiators to be mounted there, although builders ought to perceive that the angle required to tilt lengthy radiators by the outlet will outline the radiator’s most thickness.Additionally observe the places of cable-passage holes and of the somewhat-NZXT-reminiscent cowl that hides the vertical cable passage in entrance of the motherboard mounting space.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
The explanation we needed readers to note the situation of the vertical cable passage is that just like the decrease drive cage, it, too, could be moved ahead or eliminated. Whereas the inventory place proven above is designed to work with commonplace (9.6-inch-deep) ATX motherboards, the ahead place proven beneath (left) is spaced for motherboards as much as 11 inches deep. Issues get unusual from right here, as a result of whereas SilverStone’s description cites 11 inches as the utmost motherboard depth, eradicating the duvet fully (beneath proper) permits full-spec (13-inch-deep) Prolonged ATX boards to suit. Furthermore, on the motherboard tray you’ll even spot a few standoff holes marked “E,” and the additional standoffs to make use of these holes are included within the Fara 514X’s set up equipment.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
As for that detachable cowl, it consists of an adjustable-height graphics-card brace and a bunch of holes to broaden that brace’s vary of adjustment.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
Getting again to the radiator house, the highest of the Fara also can maintain a 360mm-format radiator as much as 406mm in whole size, or a 280mm-format unit of any sensible size, although the latter will certainly crowd any cables that you just’d prefer to run excessive of the motherboard. That’s as a result of the mount rests about 58mm above the motherboard’s prime edge.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Fara 514X’s sole mud filter covers its energy provide air inlet. Secured by way of tabs on its periphery, this kind requires direct entry (that’s, tipping the case) and is just a little tedious to take away.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
Constructing With the SilverStone Fara 514XThe Fara 514X doesn’t embrace a guide, and once we completed constructing out and testing the case, one hadn’t but been posted. [Update: A digital one had been posted by the time we edited and published this review, at this link.] However the accent equipment seems to have the same old assortment of screws and cable ties. In actuality, we discovered that if we deal with the hex/Phillips combo head screws as power-supply screws, we had solely sufficient #6-32 screws remaining to put in the 2 3.5-inch laborious drives or to fill the PCIe card slots with playing cards. A shock inclusion is the beforehand talked about set of three additional standoffs required by 13-inch-deep boards, and one of many causes that it’s a shock is that solely two of the holes for these mounting positions had been bored and tapped by the producer.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
Cables embrace the traditional front-panel button and LED group, HD Audio for the headphone and microphone jacks, USB Gen 2×2 for the Kind-C port, and traditional 19-pin inner USB 3.x for the 2 Kind-A ports.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
We began our set up with the motherboard and an AIO CPU cooler, solely to find once we went to put in our tester graphics card that the PCIe card slots are full of breakaway covers, and that these covers wouldn’t break free with our motherboard put in. So, we pulled the motherboard, broke away three covers, and reinstalled the board. That was a little bit of a drag.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
We additionally found that the cable entry gap cowl was too near the tray to permit our graphics card cable to go by. So we eliminated the duvet, solely to find that it couldn’t be moved out of the best way with the cardboard put in. And so we eliminated the cardboard, ran the GPU and foremost 24-pin energy cables by, reinstalled the cable gap cowl, then reinstalled the graphics card. To make certain, the ultimate set up appears spiffy, however attending to that time, by way of all these reinstallations, proved a bit irritating. Study from our ache!
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
The construct could have been just a little extra work than we’re used to, nevertheless it nonetheless appears simply as good as some other that we’ve performed with our set of ordinary ATX case-testing {hardware}.
(Credit score: Thomas Soderstrom)
Testing the SilverStone Fara 514XSo right here’s a recap of the usual take a look at tools we use for ATX circumstances…
On to our thermal assessments. There’s solely a 10-degree C distinction between the perfect and worst cooling outcomes of comparable circumstances in our take a look at set right here, however the Fara 514X falls proper in the midst of this group’s CPU temperatures. We had been stunned to see it fall flat in GPU temperature, although the distinction between it and the Montech Air 903 Base was solely round 2 levels C.
The Fara 514X is available in second behind the Thermaltake View 270 TG ARGB in noise, although anybody contemplating an 18.7-pound case middleweight case just like the Fara 514X most likely wouldn’t take a second have a look at a 14-pound light-weight just like the View 270 TG ARGB. On this case, the additional weight comes from the added structural integrity of thicker metal.
Verdict: A number of Air, However A number of Competitors, TooThe worth argument is a borderline one to make on the Fara 514X’s $100 MSRP. Although that pricing could sound low-cost for a brand new SilverStone mannequin, it’s inside $10 of the not too long ago awarded Corsair 3500X ARGB, which retains its Editors’ Alternative award within the midprice ATX case class for its snazzy wraparound-glass look, three followers, and also-solid construct high quality. It’s additionally considerably undercut by a case that has each a slide-out power-supply mud filter and screwed-in slot covers: the Montech Air 903 Base. We may even see the worth alter as time goes on, however for now, the Fara 514X, whereas a superbly stable, aggressive case that we advocate, may have a Hamilton or so of value trimming to convey the harm to the remainder of the sphere.
Execs
4 put in 120mm ARGB followers
Helps two 360mm radiators
Sturdier supplies than some rivals
Good cooling at low noise
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Extra
The Backside Line
A bit pricier than some rivals, SilverStone’s Fara 514X ATX case presents loads of efficient, handsome followers and a largely stable construct expertise.
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About Thomas Soderstrom
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Years again, when a small web site known as out for product-review editors. I leapt on the alternative: I’d simply wrapped up a four-year stint as a methods provider. That have supplied the credentials I’d want for the transition from trade provider to trade observer. For one factor, I’d been the primary supply for an exposé on capacitor plague (“Obtained Juice”) at EDN. By that point, I’d already self-published some pointers on hardcore PC stuff: pin-modifying processors to defeat compatibility checks and overclock non-overclockable methods. I noticed an opportunity to receives a commission for my data, and have since written greater than a thousand items (a lot of them for the seminal tech website Tom’s {Hardware}) earlier than discovering my newest alternative: with PCMag.
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