A Closer Look - Outside

Out of the box, the Alta F2 feels just as massive as the F1, but the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that the Alta F2 feels a lot more refined and detail oriented that its predecessor. That is both good and sorely needed, as SilverStone lists an MSRP of $1000, making this one of the most expensive premium cases out there.


In the front, there is a large glass panel with its bottom right corner sliced off to give it a bit more of a distinctive look. You may pull this off revealing two diagonally installed 3.5" HDD cages. These are held in place by screws, so if you want to install any drives here, you will have to take off the glass and detach them first. The case also has mounting holes so that you could install fans or an AIO here, but due to the glass, such a setup would not be able to come to its full potential. SilverStone could have designed the panel so that the glass itself could be exchanged for a mesh panel and then include said secondary panel in the box.


To the right of the glass panel, there is a brushed aluminium strip that holds the power & reset buttons above a white power LED. Below that are four USB 3.0 ports, an audio combo plug and a fully-fledged USB-C connector.


As the SilverStone Alta F2 employs a 90° rotated layout within, the rear of the chassis is essentially completely solid. That said, there are four PCIe expansion slots, as the chassis is designed to allow for three different GPU configurations as we will see later on. To keep things clean there is a magnetically attached plastic cover above these expansion slots. At the very top of the back panel, there is a spacious opening so that you will easily be able to route cables though to the upward facing connectors of the motherboard. There are buttons on either side, which are spring loaded mechanisms to release each side panel.


The main side panel sports a large, gently tinted glass panel with the top right corner sliced off as a design element. Thanks to the invisible, spring-loaded mechanism, the panel is nice and clean to look at. Below that, there is a compartment used for storage. This is covered by a two piece magnetically attached filter. This is made out of plastic and feels distinctively cheap for a case of this price range. There is also no apparent reason for this to be in two pieces.


Turning the case around, you will find a steel panel on the backside of the motherboard. There is the exact same vent cover here, as SilverStone has reversed where the little triangle pokes up on this side. This may be a design choice or a deliberate move to reduce the tooling or mold needed. By reversing the design here, that plastic dust filter becomes the exact same shape as the other, meaning one mold and manufacturing process to get both parts. Our sample had the issue that the magnets on these kept coming out of the sockets as SilverStone employs a dab of glue to keep them in place, which clearly isn't enough. This component of the Alta F2 certainly does not feel at home in a case of this price segment. In this cost bracket you rightfully get to expect material, tooling and manufacturing that pushes the envelope and this clearly does not. Lastly, there is a stylish vent on the panel towards the rear to provide the PSU area on the other side of this with access to fresh air. It looks great, but also a little bit restrictive - however that should not really make a major difference considering modern high-efficiency PSUs.


On the top, there is a thick, aluminium panel, with triangle cutouts. Considering the clean looks everywhere else that rely on a bit of depth by diagonal accents to transition between materials, it is nice to see something a bit more over the top here. This also is the one place of the case where SilverStone has opted for a non-traditional material mix. On all other areas of the case, you will find usual glass, plastic and brushed aluminium inlays in a plastic tray. However at the top, it is one thick sheet of aluminium. Underneath of it, you will find the usual layout for a full size tower, but with nine expansion slots. At the very end, there is basically an additive element for the PSU and this provides four additional expansion slots.

Besides all this, there is one other unique element in terms of AIO mounting possibilities. SilverStone has provided mounting holes that overlap all the expansion slots, so you could mount a radiator of up to 480 mm in size at the ceiling of the Alta F2, if none of them are used. That is a good example of how to easily allow users to make the most of the massive room in this case and giving the user some of that expected flexibility.


On the underside of the case, there isn't much to see as the floor is used for two individual storage trays, whereas the sides of the case allow for the internal Air Penetrator fans to pull cool, fresh air into the chassis. That means there is no need for the underside of the SilverStone Alta F2 to be perforated anyways.