Silverstone showed off our favorite case from Computex, an old-school HTPC case, a home NAS-style chassis, and more
The Highlights
- The Alta D1 is our favorite case from Computex and features excellent mechanical design that is unique
- The CW04 is an old-school style HTPC that’s also quite big and can fit modern GPUs
- The SUGO 15 is one of the first NVIDIA “SFF-Ready” cases we’ve seen
- At $100, the Fara 514X is Silverstone’s attempt at getting back into the more midrange case market
- The Alta T1 is the spiritual successor to the tj07 and features a huge extruded aluminum body
Table of Contents
- AutoTOC
Intro
Silverstone often has some of the most unique and mechanically advanced cases at Computex. We most liked the Alta D1 for its modularity and ability to swap components all around the case with a simple rails system. Silverstone also had some new budget PC cases, like a $60 Fara 515X, $100 Fara 514X airflow case, and more. Let’s dive in.
Editor's note: This was originally published on June 8, 2024 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.
Credits
Host, Writing
Steve Burke
Editing, Video
Mike Gaglione
Camera, Editing
Vitalii Makhnovets
Writing, Web Editing
Jimmy Thang
Alta D1
The Alta D1 is our favorite case from Computex 2024, and it was at Computex 2023, but now it’s finally getting done. Overall, the Alta D1 has excellent mechanical design that is interesting and different.
It has 5.25” drive support, which is rare, but what makes it interesting is that things pop in and out pretty easily using a rail system. The Alta D1 also has space for an optional, secondary power supply up top, which also uses the same rail.
At the show, we saw the case with a 360mm radiator that’s able to slide into place and hook into the chassis. It also has latches that secure it to the case.
The motherboard tray is removable and uses bolt action screws on the back. Personally, this design makes it cool for us as a test bench.
The front of the case has 2 180mm fans, which can be removed. You could also install an additional 160mm fan above it as well. It also has a magnetic dust filter in the front.
The back side panel is split into 2 and has buttons that allow you to slide them off.
We think the objective with the case is to be for workstations, which isn’t as popular as ATX cases or consumer-gaming cases. There’s no price yet but Silverstone tells us that it will be expensive. We think it will be in the high hundreds, as in approaching $1,000, but we’ll have to wait and see.
CW04
Next up is the CW04, which Silverstone says stands for “crown.” It’s another expensive case and we wanted to talk about it because it’s super cool, interesting, and different.
It’s an older school HTPC case that’s big with its 5U sizing and can fit modern GPUs. The chassis also comes with a GPU support with large plastic feet that can be manipulated to hold video cards in place if needed. The GPU area also has some pass through ventilation in the rear for airflow.
The front of the chassis also has a nice opening mechanism. It also has a cover for the hard drive activity LED.
The CW04 has 360mm liquid cooler support on a central rail that can hinge up and come out of the case. It also has 3 fan slots on the side and 1 fan towards the middle rear of the case.
The case is topped off with a large aluminum panel that has a dust filter on it.
Pricing is TBD and Silverstone is currently targeting a Q4 release.
SUGO 15
We’re quickly going to highlight the SUGO 15 mostly because it’s one of NVIDIA’s new “SFF-Ready” cases we’ve seen. If a case and video card have the “SFF-Ready” badge, then that indicates they are compatible.
Fara 514X
We covered Silverstone’s Fara R1 case years ago (watch our review here). At $100, the Fara 514X is the company’s attempt to get back into the more midrange market. It will come with 4 120mm ARGB fans along with a hub.
The case has a chamfered, almost trapezoidal front panel. Its bends here should support its edge-to-edge mesh to offer some structural support. It also allows the front of the front panel to jut forward past its fans, which are mounted on the exterior of the chassis. This allows its fans to breathe a bit more.
H2M
Silverstone also had a Micro ATX case called the H2M that should cost about $100.
515XR
Next up is the 515XR, which Silverstone is targeting at the Asian market. The company is still trying to figure out whether it wants to ship the case to the US.
What makes it unique is that the case is relatively short front to back, which makes it feel like an older style tower from decades ago. Its biggest limitation here would be in regards to fitting modern video cards. Silverstone is worried people might buy the case and find out that their video card doesn’t fit.
The 515XR will include 4 120mm fans, which Silverstone says are rainbow style. The case is expected to cost around $50-$60.
CS383
We built a storage server for our office with a CS381 case, which was a relatively flat chassis. Silverstone’s new CS383 is a different variation on that but is still in the same family. We wanted to call attention to this case because we really like the CS381, which we built with Wendell from Level1Techs back in the day. The layout we saw had two sets of four 3.5-inch drives.
The sleds pull out and it has connection options in the back pre-installed. It’s basically a home NAS type of option or mini server.
The top of the case has space for a 5.25” drive bay.
The bottom of the CS383 has an optional space for a second power supply, which comes with a removable cover plate. Users could also use that space to put in another set of 4 drives.
Within the case, it has a very rigid GPU support structure and the chassis fits huge motherboards.
The CS383 is aiming to release in Q3 for $400.
Alta T1
The Alta T1 is the spiritual successor to the tj07, which originally launched in 2006 and was sold for 10 years. It has a huge extruded aluminum unibody, which starts in the back and comes all the way around the bottom and ends on the back again.
Silverstone is technically wrapping 4 sides of it. It’s made by first extruding a gigantic sheet of aluminum, and then the company uses a press multiple times to get its shape. There’s also some manual fine tuning at the end of the process to get it all into position. We wanted to call attention to the really interesting manufacturing the case poses. They’ve also partnered with EK Water Blocks on it…