SilverStone Intros ALTA G1M Micro-ATX Case

[btarunr]

SilverStone introduced the ALTA G1M, a vertical tower-type MicroATX case. with a desk footprint of just 20 cm x 30 cm. With your hardware stacked vertically in this 50.7 cm tall case, you get to free up space on your desk. The design allows for an stack airflow cooling mechanism, with just one intake at the base, and an exhaust up top. The Micro-ATX motherboard tray is oriented such that its rear I/O points upward, letting you install your graphics card along the height of the case. Exhsust from a tower-type air CPU cooler would point upward, too. Additional cooling, in the form of two 120 mm exhausts pointing to the rear, and three to the side, provide space to mount a radiators along the side panel. The case takes in an SFL-L power supply using an internal AC cord extension. and a fixed-location AC receptacle.

Available in two color options—graphite black and matte white, the SilverStone ALTA G1M can house graphics cards up to 35 cm in length, and CPU coolers up to 15.9 cm in height (if there's clearance from the side fan vents). The bottom intake fan for the cooling stack is a 180 mm SilverStone Air Penetrator that's pre-installed. Other vents include two 120 mm rear exhausts, and three 120 mm side exhausts. Up to four 3.5-inch/2.5-inch drives can be mounted in place of the side-panel radiator. The ALTA G1M is expected to be available in Asia by October 2021, and in North America and Europe in the following two months. Prices are expected to be around USD $170.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

kinda nice to see vertical cases around still.

 

[Crackong]

FT03 with modern meshed redesign

 

[dyonoctis]

It's nice, way better than their last attempt at a vertical ITX.

There's a typo "SFL-L "

 

[aktpu]

Now all we need is a real highend mATX motherboard :| The case looks really cool though

 

[FreedomEclipse]

The first thing that comes to mind is that they tried to pull a 'Corsair One'

 

[EzioAs]

FT03 with modern meshed redesign

Too bad it doesn't have the same feet design as the FT03. Those look better in my opinion.

 

[claes]

This looks nice and all but like the F1 it’s still too big! I just wish they’d do a 2x180mm chassis that’s ~30l with ATX compatibility.

 

[aktpu]

This looks nice and all but like the F1 it’s still too big! I just wish they’d do a 2x180mm chassis that’s ~30l with ATX compatibility.

Considering how long GPUs are, that's not going to happen

 

[Turmania]

Lovely case but the pricing put me off.

 

[Mistral]

Very nice. Now all it needs is a version with a glass side panel.

 

[milewski1015]

Lovely case but the pricing put me off.

Agreed. Maybe could justify if there existed a high-end mATX motherboard, but since they tend to be budget oriented, pairing with a 170USD case is sort of out of touch

 

[Operandi]

I like it overall, clean looks and seems to be well thought out. I keep cases forever (I'm still using a Lian Li PC-9F) so yeah, $170 is bit steep but if its something I wanted and the build quality justified it I don't think it would stop me.

That layout looks like it would be bit more work to get put together and I'm guessing you are really going to want to use custom cables or have a bunch of weird cable slack due to the layout and small size. One thing I don't like to see non-standard fan sizes so that kinda sucks in my opinion. Also, did I not see it or did they not say what the materials are? For $170 I'd expect it be pretty much all AL or AL and steel and minimal plastic.

 

[Chrispy_]

Why the waste of space at the top? I get that the bottom is air intake but that's only because of the dumb vertical format that also has all the cables exiting the case in a far more awkward, visible place.
MicroATX is supposed to be smaller, they could just tip this over and chop something like 130mm off the length of this case and reduce its volume by like 30%...

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah first time I've seen all cables coming out the top and routing down and out somewhere very strange approach to cable management
Must need longer cables for everything now lol

 

[TheLostSwede]

Hi,
Yeah first time I've seen all cables coming out the top and routing down and out somewhere very strange approach to cable management
Must need longer cables for everything now lol

Looks like that's what the rubber grommet at the top rear is for, routing the cables out.

 

[ThrashZone]

Looks like that's what the rubber grommet at the top rear is for, routing the cables out.

Hi,
Yep they didn't show where the cables came out that I noticed must be on top/ back also ?

 

[Operandi]

Why the waste of space at the top? I get that the bottom is air intake but that's only because of the dumb vertical format that also has all the cables exiting the case in a far more awkward, visible place.
MicroATX is supposed to be smaller, they could just tip this over and chop something like 130mm off the length of this case and reduce its volume by like 30%...

View attachment 214071

Horizontal vs vertical spacing I guess. If I were to put a case like this on my desk I don't really care how tall it is but horizontal spacing is valuable.

Valid points though and I think you just described the Jonsbo V9.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Hi,
Yep they didn't show where the cables came out that I noticed must be on top/ back also ?

Like right there, hence the rubber grommet.
The A shape on the bottom seems to be for the power cable.

 

[PCL]

Meanwhile I just want to tip this bad boy on its side and build one hell of an HTPC.

 

[jeremyshaw]

Why the waste of space at the top? I get that the bottom is air intake but that's only because of the dumb vertical format that also has all the cables exiting the case in a far more awkward, visible place.
MicroATX is supposed to be smaller, they could just tip this over and chop something like 130mm off the length of this case and reduce its volume by like 30%...

View attachment 214071

All cables come out the top, and Silverstone doesn't like leaving their vertical cases with and exposed topside (see FT02 and FT05 as well). I guess they still want users to be able to put things ontop of their case? Dunno.

Tangent: like the FT03 I still have, the case is more meant to be floorstanding (IMO). I stuffed mine behind my desk and a moving cabinet (elevated a dozen or so cm). Downside of the FT03 was it wasted a lot of space here and there, IMO it was just a cm away from being capable of hosting a fullsize ATX board. We'll see if this new case does the same. I liked the FT03, since it had the same footprint as a SG06 mITX shoebox case, but was capable of hosting much better mATX hardware. Well, back in 2011 that is. Nowadays, decent mITX boards will exist, even if they are sometimes a bit late to the market. Decent mATX boards basically don't exist, late or not (IMO, anyways).

However, after moving a few thousand km with my Ncase M1 stuffed in my carry-on luggage, I don't think I will ever go back to a mATX case, despite how many good years my FT03 (and Antec P180 Mini before it) has served. Too bad Silverstone couldn't (and still can't, IMO) get their heads out of the rear end, and they just had to ruin the FT03mini.

 

[Chrispy_]

All cables come out the top, and Silverstone doesn't like leaving their vertical cases with and exposed topside (see FT02 and FT05 as well). I guess they still want users to be able to put things ontop of their case? Dunno.

Tangent: like the FT03 I still have, the case is more meant to be floorstanding (IMO). I stuffed mine behind my desk and a moving cabinet (elevated a dozen or so cm). Downside of the FT03 was it wasted a lot of space here and there, IMO it was just a cm away from being capable of hosting a fullsize ATX board. We'll see if this new case does the same. I liked the FT03, since it had the same footprint as a SG06 mITX shoebox case, but was capable of hosting much better mATX hardware. Well, back in 2011 that is. Nowadays, decent mITX boards will exist, even if they are sometimes a bit late to the market. Decent mATX boards basically don't exist, late or not (IMO, anyways).

However, after moving a few thousand km with my Ncase M1 stuffed in my carry-on luggage, I don't think I will ever go back to a mATX case, despite how many good years my FT03 (and Antec P180 Mini before it) has served. Too bad Silverstone couldn't (and still can't, IMO) get their heads out of the rear end, and they just had to ruin the FT03mini.

I had an FT03 at home for a couple of years. I know exactly what you mean. It could have been a full ATX case if it was just 2% larger! (doh!)

Smaller towers are definitely a market segment and the problem with mITX is that if the board isn't a perfect match for what you need, you're screwed. Given that almost every GPU you'd plug directly into an mITX board needs 3 slots (2+ for the cooler itself and 1 slot of space for the fans to have some intake clearance), moving up to an mATX board is basically a no-brainer. You get a far less cramped layout and room for another m.2 drive or two and rather than needing 3 expansion slots for the GPU it needs 4. Hardly a difference worth worrying about.

So yeah, microATX cases for me are judged by how much bigger they are than an mITX case because the real world difference in dimensions is one PCIe slot.

 

[jeremyshaw]

I had an FT03 at home for a couple of years. I know exactly what you mean. It could have been a full ATX case if it was just 2% larger! (doh!)

Smaller towers are definitely a market segment and the problem with mITX is that if the board isn't a perfect match for what you need, you're screwed. Given that almost every GPU you'd plug directly into an mITX board needs 3 slots (2+ for the cooler itself and 1 slot of space for the fans to have some intake clearance), moving up to an mATX board is basically a no-brainer. You get a far less cramped layout and room for another m.2 drive or two and rather than needing 3 expansion slots for the GPU it needs 4. Hardly a difference worth worrying about.

So yeah, microATX cases for me are judged by how much bigger they are than an mITX case because the real world difference in dimensions is one PCIe slot.

I agree with all points, especially mITX mobo feature selection and GPU sizes. It has always been a balancing act with mITX, even as the quality of offerings has increased.

Right now, I am constrained by my decision to use a SFP+ card and a GPU in my Ncase M1. I got an ebay M.2-->PCIe riser to take the backside M.2 slot and feed it into the 3rd expansion slot location. It limits my cooling, since I cannot mount a 120mm fan (slim or large) under that SFP+ NIC, and any GPU that isn't a true dual slot does not fit (many GPUs are subtly larger than 2 slots, even if not advertised as 2.5+ slot cards).

To resolve that constraint, I have a blower GPU. Not ideal by any means. 10GbE mITX by other methods (TB3, native 10GbE) is extremely costly or extremely costly + limiting on mITX (server boards).

I like your mATX judgement criteria. Here is one more: as a fellow FT03 owner, you've probably run into the 1st slot lip on the case. Makes it very hard to use non-DVI display outputs in the first slot, since it blocks most DP and HDMI cable boots. I deliberately stripped away the plastic shell from one end of a DP cable to get it to fit. But that lip is part of my criteria for mATX boards as well: I wish more mATX boards would put an x4 slot in slot 1, and the x16 slot in slot 2. That way, an expansion card won't block the GPU air intake path, while allowing for higher bandwidth cards to be used (TB3, SFP+/SFP28, etc). Even PCIe4.0 x1 would be limiting to an USB-c 3.2 gen2x2 20Gbps card, so I would prefer an x4 slot up there. Even though the latest Marvell AQtion 10GbE chips support PCIe 4.0 (enough for 10GbE over PCIe4.0 x1), no one has released a card that uses such a form factor. They all require PCIe3.0x2, which really means a PCIe3.0x4 slot (since the physical x2 basically doesn't exist).

 

[Tardian]

507mm tall and no ODD ... Fail!

 

[Chrispy_]

507mm tall and no ODD ... Fail!

No VHS cassette deck either.