On paper, the SilverStone FARA R1 PRO checks all the boxes of a $90 to $100 case. It is ATX, comes with four ARGB fans alongside a controller, has a glass side panel, and can hold radiators in the top and front of the chassis. All those we expect to see. Unfortunately, SilverStone has gone for an entry-level frame, and on one hand included those price-increasing ARGB components while, on the other, not picking the best options to soften the shortcomings of the frame, or going the extra mile for some tooling or material changes.

Looking at the frame, one of its selling points is that it is a more compact ATX chassis, which certainly holds true. This also means you simply will have less space for extravagant AIOs or liquid cooling, but still get all the necessary room for a potent gaming rig. Thus, there are no real negative surprises here. While the frame is the same as for the B1 Pro variant of the FARA line, SilverStone has equipped the R1 line with a simpler HDD cage, possibly in an effort to hit the same price point as the front is slightly more expensive to produce. That choice turns out to benefit the user as well since most cost-conscious buyers would probably opt for a second spinning drive to expand storage instead of a more expensive SSD.

That more expensive front translates into metal mesh as a main material choice for the front of the R1 Pro, which gives the case a much higher quality feel than the acrylic of the B1. That being said, there are still the unsightly thumb screws holding the glass side panel in place—not what you want to see in a chassis of this price point. There are lots of options out there to make it look completely clean, with the cheapest being gluing metal components onto it to hold the panel in place.

The interior of the case comes with its own issues simply due to the frame, like limited radiator-size support because of its shorter nature, but other issues SilverStone could have avoided by simply offering a complete set of re-usable covers with thumb screws or including a fully fledged fan hub and ARGB controller combination, or, as a bare minimum, a 3-way fan splitter cable.