SilverStone Unveils ALTA F2, its 2023 Flagship Full-tower Case

[Carlyle2020hs]

So this is a "thank you" to the old guard?
Like FT02 owners?
Like me?

Well thanks

Are there some vents topside that nudge the airflow to the back a little?
Cause 10 years of dry eyes with my FT02 was and still is no fun.

The Backside is almost closed off!
Why don´t you direct hot air and sound to the back?
That would be a "prosumer" move!

Because my ears wil not appreciate hearing the mechanical harddrives at the front opening.

And if anyone ever takes the time to test the new 180 "pro" fans long term, you are in deep trouble!
Mine did not last 3 months before the bearings startet "krrrkrrr".

The fan filters are the BEST though. I have never had to clean my case from within.

Last and biggest issue of them all:

No Silverstone Case with 180mm fans can run silent, EVER!

That's because of the 180mm hard mounts that intensify the fans sound to the point that you think you are in fireflys engine room.

For your own bottom line if would seriously try anything to get the 180mm fans running silently in idle by decoupling them.
Nobody needs 1500 rpm fans if they still can be heard whilst running 250 rpm.


I will watch out for this case and its successor.

True words from an old fart
Best of Luck!
Carlyle

 

[Slncskr]

No Silverstone Case with 180mm fans can run silent, EVER!

I completely agree.

180mm fans are what turned me away from FT02 and made me opt for FT03 instead years ago.

Perhaps no Silverstone fan seems to be so great with regard to noise. Even with FT03, I replaced its fan by a quieter one and eventually removed it altogether, which was possible with 4670T and without a discrete GPU.

In my Alta F1, with 12900 and without a discrete GPU, I now use three NF-S12A's at bottom and a NF-A12X25 LS-PWM on NH-P1, which are controlled to run only above certain temperature thresholds.

 

[Athlonite]

the case is expected to be priced in the USD $900 to $1,000 range.

WTF are Silverstone smoking is the case made of carbon fiber or copper oh nope it's just steel and plastic just like the RV02 which is cheap as fudge what makes this thing worth that much money

 

[SilverStone Technology]

There hasn't been anything close to the tj-06 since it's release (20yrs ago?)

The Temjin TJ06 was released in 2004, it had a beautifully machined aluminum front panel and was a well engineered case! The closest case model to the TJ06 and a spiritual successor to it was the Fortress FT04 released in 2013 ( https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/FT04/ ). It had the same upside down layout as the TJ06, had more aluminum and vastly superior cooling performance. Its performance was almost too good that most reviewers didn't have sufficiently powerful/hot enough system to see the difference it made!

Thanks to all again for the feedbacks and especially to SilverStone users who chimed in and share your thoughts! Building cases with great cooing performance has always been our passion, often times taking priority over styling, cable management, and other aspects of case design that isn’t readily apparent upon first glance. We have already contacted quite a few prominent reviewers about checking out the ALTA F2 so hopefully they’ll validate the work we’ve done on this with appropriately powerful test systems!

The ALTA F2 also includes three of our best fans that retail for around $35 each and a thoroughly tested/validated (a year worth of testing and prototyping) PCIe Gen4 riser. We have an excellent track record with products like these, having included risers in many of our SFF case models for nearly a decade without incidence or recall.

 

[Slncskr]

The ALTA F2 also includes three of our best fans that retail for around $35 each

Well, unfortunately, please note that it could end up being completely wasted investment on your as well as our parts. Even if those fans are your best fans in accordance with certain standards, they may not be to the interest of certain prospective buyers of ALTA F2. There are use cases where those fans turn out to be undesirable. Not everyone seeks for better cooling at the expense of noise. Please note that, for instance, 14 cm fans pre-installed at the bottom of Alta F1 can be untolerably noisy even at the minimum rpm for certain users purchasing it.

It would be much better if there were a version of ALTA F2 without any pre-installed fans, preferably at a lower price. As I noted above, Alta F1 is better in this respect as it offers choices to users. I can replace its bottom fans by any other 12 cm 14 cm fans or remove them altogether. By the way, I am now experimenting by removing NF-S12As I've installed at bottom and moving them to the top as I thought this placement was more suitable for NF-S12As given their characteristics.

IMHO, case manufacturers, including but not limited to Silverstone Technology, should give a greater freedom of fan choice to users. They should not presume only one possible kind of use cases but take into account more diverser use cases. I hope case manufacturers consider following Lian-Li, who launched O11D Evo without any pre-installed fans.

 

[claes]

This forum so salty

Thanks @SilverStone Technology, seems like a great case to me. Too big and expensive for my tastes, but if I were doing a showcase water cooled build this’d be my choice. Might’ve been nice to sneak an itx mount in there.

For folks complaining about motherboard compatibility, I’m a little confused? Looks like it supports SSI-EEB according to the product page, it ought to handle most workstation boards without an issue.

IDK about all of these 180mm noise complaints, the FT02 is still the quietest case I’ve ever built in (probably 100 or so cases, and I’m a noise freak myself). Sure, I had to limit the voltage, but the cooling performance/noise has been unparalleled in my experiences. Too much for anything but enthusiast components, for sure, but these aren’t cases meant for the midrange. Maybe the F1 had mount issues? I never got to build in one

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[SilverStone Technology]

Well, unfortunately, please note that it could end up being completely wasted investment on your as well as our parts. Even if those fans are your best fans in accordance with certain standards, they may not be to the interest of certain prospective buyers of ALTA F2. There are use cases where those fans turn out to be undesirable. Not everyone seeks for better cooling at the expense of noise. Please note that, for instance, 14 cm fans pre-installed at the bottom of Alta F1 can be untolerably noisy even at the minimum rpm for certain users purchasing it.

It would be much better if there were a version of ALTA F2 without any pre-installed fans, preferably at a lower price. As I noted above, Alta F1 is better in this respect as it offers choices to users. I can replace its bottom fans by any other 12 cm 14 cm fans or remove them altogether. By the way, I am now experimenting by removing NF-S12As I've installed at bottom and moving them to the top as I thought this placement was more suitable for NF-S12As given their characteristics.

IMHO, case manufacturers, including but not limited to Silverstone Technology, should give a greater freedom of fan choice to users. They should not presume only one possible kind of use cases but take into account more diverser use cases. I hope case manufacturers consider following Lian-Li, who launched O11D Evo without any pre-installed fans.

The ALTA F1 was more cost constrained so we included the entry-level 140mm Air Penetrator model that didn't have the IC capable of spinning at lower speeds. This didn't change the price of the ALTA F1 much so was good decision to make at the time to showcase the case's baseline cooling ability. But your points about enthusiasts case not needing fans included were valid so if we have to do it again, we would defintiely consider not including any fans for the ALTA F1.

For ALTA F2 however, the situation is a bit different, the fans included in the ALTA F2 are the newer generation, highend fans that are now capable of spinning down to incredibly low RPM (basically to a stop from high of 1200rpm), so there should be no need to replace them for cooling performance or quietness. 180mm fans, which this case was designed for, are on a completely different level of performance/noise ratio compared to 120mm/140mm fans so it'd be a shame not to use them. If there are many choices for 180mm fans on the market and we didn't make the best ones, we would probably choose not to include them. But we do make the best 180mm fans on the market so we had to include them in our 20th anniversary flagship case!

If you can, please give our new Shark Force 140 ( https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/fans/SF140B/ ) a try, it has superb performance/noise ratio and should work better than the NF-S12As in your ALTA F1. Like the Air Penetrator in the ALTA F2, it is also capable or spinning down to zero so you can fine-tune it to exactly the speed you like.

 

[Slncskr]

The ALTA F1 was more cost constrained so we included the entry-level 140mm Air Penetrator model that didn't have the IC capable of spinning at lower speeds. This didn't change the price of the ALTA F1 much so was good decision to make at the time to showcase the case's baseline cooling ability. But your points about enthusiasts case not needing fans included were valid so if we have to do it again, we would defintiely consider not including any fans for the ALTA F1.

For ALTA F2 however, the situation is a bit different, the fans included in the ALTA F2 are the newer generation, highend fans that are now capable of spinning down to incredibly low RPM (basically to a stop from high of 1200rpm), so there should be no need to replace them for cooling performance or quietness. 180mm fans, which this case was designed for, are on a completely different level of performance/noise ratio compared to 120mm/140mm fans so it'd be a shame not to use them. If there are many choices for 180mm fans on the market and we didn't make the best ones, we would probably choose not to include them. But we do make the best 180mm fans on the market so we had to include them in our 20th anniversary flagship case!

If you can, please give our new Shark Force 140 ( https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/fans/SF140B/ ) a try, it has superb performance/noise ratio and should work better than the NF-S12As in your ALTA F1. Like the Air Penetrator in the ALTA F2, it is also capable or spinning down to zero so you can fine-tune it to exactly the speed you like.

Thank you for your reply.

Your 180mm fans on ALTA F2 do seem to be considerably better than 140mm Air Penetrator fans that come with ALTA F1, although its highest noise level seems to be a bit too high for me. Still, if it can spin down to 200-300, even to 0, rpm, I may not have to worry so much about bottom fans of ALTA F2. As I noted above, bottom fans are the only thing I was concerned about with regard to ALTA F2, which I thought was otherwise perfect. I look forward to its launch.

Thanks also for letting me know of Shark Force 140, which I haven't heard of. I'll look into it.

 

[saaqwm1312]

Will this item come out on time? I'm worried that it will come out 4~6months late with only being revealed like ALTA F1.

 

[SilverStone Technology]

Will this item come out on time? I'm worried that it will come out 4~6months late with only being revealed like ALTA F1.

Yes, the ALTA F2 will be available to purchase as soon as this week for parts of Asia. North American availability is expected in a couple of weeks with Europe to follow by the end of May.

ALTA F1 was initially slated for release in China only after pandemic, tariff, and other factors as chronicled in the thread about it on Hardform ( https://hardforum.com/threads/new-silverstone-alta-f1.2001003/ ). So the situation with ALTA F2 will be different, it is our 20th anniversary product after all, so we want to have worldwide release this time!

 

[bobbybluz]

My SilverStone Cosmos 1000 (bought for $20 off the local Craigslist in 2010) and Cosmos II (another $20 at a local yard sale last year) have been great cases so far. The side panel latching mechanisms failed years ago on the Cosmos 1000 so I replaced the panels with 99 cent furnace filters. Extremely ghetto looking but the internal temps dropped drastically.

With some though and creative engineering I was able to externally mount an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 on top of the Cosmos II and still have the sliding top front panel work correctly. Even better if in the future I decide to remove the 420 the stock top panel will go back on with no signs of any modding ever being done to the case externally. That damned this sure is heavy though! I only buy cases with at least two 5.25" front drive bays and nothing with glass side panels. Modding for personal tastes, function and airflow is why I never buy expensive new cases. I wish somebody would do a clone of the Corsair Carbide 500R, my idea of the perfect case (I have two I bought new when they first came out. Under $70 each after rebate including free shipping).

 

[SilverStone Technology]

My SilverStone Cosmos 1000 (bought for $20 off the local Craigslist in 2010) and Cosmos II (another $20 at a local yard sale last year) have been great cases so far. The side panel latching mechanisms failed years ago on the Cosmos 1000 so I replaced the panels with 99 cent furnace filters. Extremely ghetto looking but the internal temps dropped drastically.

With some though and creative engineering I was able to externally mount an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 on top of the Cosmos II and still have the sliding top front panel work correctly. Even better if in the future I decide to remove the 420 the stock top panel will go back on with no signs of any modding ever being done to the case externally. That damned this sure is heavy though! I only buy cases with at least two 5.25" front drive bays and nothing with glass side panels. Modding for personal tastes, function and airflow is why I never buy expensive new cases. I wish somebody would do a clone of the Corsair Carbide 500R, my idea of the perfect case (I have two I bought new when they first came out. Under $70 each after rebate including free shipping).

Many of our original founders used to work for Cooler Master, but those Cosmos cases were not created by us. Our contemporary cases during the launch of those two cases were our Temjin TJ07 and TJ11.

You should definitely also check out our SETA D1 that was released a couple of months ago, it has four 5.25" bay in a modern, capable chassis!

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/SETA_D1/

 

[Slncskr]

Yes, the ALTA F2 will be available to purchase as soon as this week for parts of Asia.

I hope it will be available in Japan soon.

 

[bobbybluz]

Many of our original founders used to work for Cooler Master, but those Cosmos cases were not created by us. Our contemporary cases during the launch of those two cases were our Temjin TJ07 and TJ11.

You should definitely also check out our SETA D1 that was released a couple of months ago, it has four 5.25" bay in a modern, capable chassis!

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/SETA_D1/

View attachment 295028

My bad, am on the pain meds today. 5 year 6 months stage IV cancer survivor. Things get foggy at times when under the influence. No mistake about the SilverStone fans though, I'm a dedicated long-time customer.

 

[SilverStone Technology]

I hope it will be available in Japan soon.

Our Japanese office is planning on launching the ALTA F2 there around Computex time (May 30 - June 2).

 

[SoTOP]

No Silverstone Case with 180mm fans can run silent, EVER!

That's because of the 180mm hard mounts that intensify the fans sound to the point that you think you are in fireflys engine room.

For your own bottom line if would seriously try anything to get the 180mm fans running silently in idle by decoupling them.
Nobody needs 1500 rpm fans if they still can be heard whilst running 250 rpm.

Not true. My FT05 with fans running ~550RPM is silent enough that people don't catch PC turning on, unless it's middle of the night in dead silence. Fans and mounts are stock and in the past I had removed them twice for cleaning, still no problem you described.

 

[SilverStone Technology]

Amazon just listed ALTA F2 with a significantly lower introductory price than expected so if you have Amazon prime and wants this case, you should probably get it now. The ALTA F2 has a shipping weight of 61 bs. and a box over 9 cuft., so regular shipping cost easily top $100 from our California warehouse to east coast. Amazon likely has massive discounts from the major shipping companies but it's still hard to imagine they could have any meaningful profit selling this case at their list price now:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5LF52TL