A Closer Look - Inside

Both side panels are also covered in the same, heavy-duty sound-dampening material. A foam knob has been placed towards the rear edge to better line the panel up with the screw mounting holes of the frame. The interior of the SilverStone SETA Q1 looks pretty traditional with a solid metal shroud on the bottom to hide your PSU and 3.5" storage drives. It also features a few cutouts, including an opening through which you may easily route the PCIe power leads. SilverStone could have included mounting possibilities for additional storage drive here, which would have been handy for professional workstation users more so than enthusiasts.


You can clearly see the five grommets covering the major cable-routing holes on the back of the motherboard tray, along with several plastic covers on the front edge of the case. This area is tooled to allow for individual 3.5" hard-drive trays, but for the SETA Q1, SilverStone has re-purposed it to allow for the largest motherboards. There are also two classic 2.5" hard-drive mounting plates below the large CPU cooler backplate opening of the tray.


In the front, at the bottom, is a fairly tall 3.5" hard-drive cage. While tall, it may only hold two drives. I wonder if SilverStone could have squeezed three in—it sure feels like it. Above that are the two previously mentioned 140 mm intake fans.


SilverStone placed two movable covers next to where the motherboard will go. You may loosen the screws these are attached with and slide them forward to give you the room you need for an E-ATX board. If you go for the SSI form factor, you will have to remove these covers. The domed screws these are attached to are very tight, and frequent loosening and tightening with a screw driver will eventually wear down the heads. Using thumb screws, or at least classic case screws with their hexagonal shape, would be an improvement. Each of the covers may also hold various components, like pumps or an SSD each. This bring the total maximum number of drives to six, which is fine; however, only two are 3.5", which may be insufficient for those professionals who need long-term RAID storage, for instance.


In the rear, starting at the bottom, is the large PSU bay, which can easily hold a PSU of up to 225 mm in length—ample room for high-capacity units, it further underlines the target audience of heavy duty professional users. Above that, the 7+2 expansion slots come with individual, reusable covers. Each is held in place by domed screws, which is a little departure from the classic hexagonal case screws or thumb screws we have seen in the past. In the very top is that third 140 mm fan, which comes with a 3-pin connector just like the two in the front. Nowadays, fans that do not sport ARGB tend to opt for PWM for these type of cases; unfortunately, those within the SETA Q1 do not.


Taking a peek at the ceiling, you can see that the sound-dampening material makes good contact with the fan/radiator mounting holes to encapsulate sound. There is heaps of space for an AIO of classic thickness, so you won't have to worry about it interfering with your motherboard in any way.


All the leads within the SilverStone SETA Q1 are sleeved completely black. Noteworthy is that all of them utilize flat cables, which makes for easier cable routing.