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 R1 Pro 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 compared to other OEM options. There is a shroud with two 2.5" drive plates on it, but this area may alternatively be used to mount two 120 mm fans. SilverStone put a 3-mm-thick glass panel on here. It clocks in just under 3 mm, which can be chalked up to manufacturing tolerances.


On the opposite side are the two rows of openings for cable management next to the board area, with a few more along 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.


Theoretically, 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 since it would block the only remaining cable-routing holes when installing an ATX board, as those cover the second column. SilverStone has put a third 2.5" trays underneath the cutout for the CPU cooler bracket. Interestingly enough, there are two further sets of mounting holes in the motherboard tray 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, either. It would have only taken rubber rings and pin screws.


Taking a look at the the front, there is a simple removable drive cage for either two 3.5" or a mix of 2.5" and 3.5" drives. As such, the FARA R1 Pro has a slightly more balanced drive setup than the B1 Pro since users of this price segment are more likely to have two 3.5" spinning units than four 2.5" SSDs. 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, so it should fit a mainstream unit without issue. Above that are the expansion slots, with the top two removable. In the very top is that fourth ARGB 120 mm fan. All fans come with an RPM and a 5 V, 3-pin ARGB 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 R1 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 because the 120 mm mounting holes are situated a tad below the bottom edge of the rear exhaust fan, which marks the top edge of the motherboard backplate.


All cables within the SilverStone FARA R1 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.