SilverStone FARA B1 Pro Review 2

SilverStone FARA B1 Pro Review

Assembly & Finished Looks »

A Closer Look - Inside


To access the interior of the chassis, simply remove the thumb screws holding each of the panels in place. The interior of the SilverStone FARA B1 looks pretty straightforward and is solid enough, but having seen this frame before, it usually doesn't appear in the $90–100 price range and has a few fundamental drawbacks to other OEM options. There is a shroud with two 120 mm fan-mounting positions and the ability to place two 2.5" drive plates as well. SilverStone has put a 3-mm-thick glass panel on here. It clocks in just under that target, which can be chalked up to manufacturing tolerances.


On the opposite side are the two rows of openings for cable management on the side of the board area, with a few more on the top edge. It would have been nice if those on the side had grommets to hide cables just tad more, but that is not a deal-breaker in any way.


That said, with this chassis, you are able to install two SSDs directly to the frame towards the very front. However, SilverStone has done the smart thing by not advertising it, as it would block the only remaining cable-routing holes when installing an ATX board, since those cover the second column. SilverStone has put two 2.5" trays underneath the cutout for the CPU cooler bracket. Interestingly enough, removing those, there are two further mounting holes that are meant to be used with rubber rings and screws instead. SilverStone could have included metal pins like Cooler Master, with rubber rings, and used these two as they are and then moved the two trays to the shroud instead—they then would not have had to advertise those getting in the way of the cable routing. It would have only taken rubber rings and pin screws.


Taking a look at the the front, there is a removable drive cage for a 3.5" and two further 2.5" drives underneath the shroud. I would have liked to see a cage for two 3.5" bays instead, as a user probably won't go for a 5x 2.5" SSD setup in this price segment. That said, the cage itself is the most elaborately engineered piece within the entire chassis. Besides that, you will find the three 120 mm intake fans in the front. As the case is shorter than traditional ATX units, there is no way to fit a 360 mm radiator, but SilverStone advertises up to 280 mm compatibility, which resides wholly above the shroud.


In the rear, the PSU bay is standard-fare and should fit a mainstream unit without issue. Above that are the expansion slots, with the top two being removable. In the very top is that fourth ARGB 120 mm fan. All fans come with both a 5 V, 3-pin ARGB and an RPM connector. Nice would have been the inclusion of at least a 3-in-1 splitter—not every motherboard will have four system fan headers.


Taking a quick peek at the ceiling of the SilverStone FARA B1 Pro, you can clearly see the offset fan mounts. In general, things should fit, but it will be a bit tight for radiators and motherboards with big heatsinks, as the 120 mm mounting holes are situated a tad lower than at the bottom edge of the rear exhaust fan, which marks the top edge of the height of the motherboard backplate.


All the cables within the SilverStone FARA B1 Pro are sleeved black. The reset lead is the one that needs to be re-purposed for the ARGB controller if you want to be able to toggle through the lighting modes by using the button on top of the chassis.
Next Page »Assembly & Finished Looks
View as single page
Aug 28th, 2024 15:12 EDT change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts