For those that are having the Big Case Fetish. I found while looking around the weebly wobbly web at silverstonetek. a new release of a case
The Silverstone Alta F2.
It seems to be bigger than the Define 7 XL
Here is the link
https://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/en/product/info/computer-chassis/alf2b_g/
Thoughts on this case?
I like the approach with alternating GPU position via risers. It isn’t gamechanging and I wouldn’t trust riser cables to be PCIe 5.0-ready. There is a reason why everything 5.0 is located close to CPU.
I never had a problem with front fans and you get more Airflow in a Fractal Torrent. Although the hotspot with CPU+GPU+ M.2 underneath the GPU will of course be less troublesome.
90° tilt and fans from below is the same as standard mounting with front fans. It’s very much a personal preference. It’s still bad for memory airflow on most consumer boards if your memory likes to get hot.
Interesting case. 3x180mm certainly will have good airflow even at very low rpm. I love the 180mm in my Torrent.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Silverstone 90 degree rotated motherboard cases. It seems like they left alot of empty space in the F2, the ft02 had alot more functional space i.e. 5x5.25" and x5 3.5" in it.
180mm fans are where its at. I recently learned that 180mm radiators exist
If the customer is fine with larger form factor cases, you may as well use the width to get equal amount of airflow at lower rpm.
I’m not sure about static pressure values on larger diameters. May be less optimal for radiator use. 1000rpm on a 180mm is very different to 1000rpm on a 120mm as far as noise goes.
Its named after a ski resort 
Also its beautiful
love the raised floor! with filters
I do wish you could have more SATA 2.5 ssds in that airflow of those fans so to allow for a Z3 array for example. But you could do something similar with an SSI EEB motherboard and some NVME expansion cards
This is an extremely - clean case. Who makes a respectful 180mm radiator?
I ended up getting a Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTS 180X2 for my Alta, it barely fits in the top chamber
Not sure it’d be worth upgrading to from a Fortress FT02, but definitely ticks all the Silverstone quirky boxes and still looks like a killer air cooling case. My main complaint with the FT02 over the years has been how heavy it is to move, especially when loaded, and this one looks no different in that regard. The intake filter on this one does use the space under the intake fans better (letting you mount storage there), whereas on the FT02 it’s just a dust collection spot. Though in my case, I’d put some extra sound damping material there to kill the reflected fan noise, and that wouldn’t really be an option with the storage mounted there without creating other issues.
From a build perspective, the trouble one may run into is PSU cables not being long enough to reach the HDD bays. All the more so since they tilted the front cages downwards (presumably either for extra quirky points - ditto the ‘show the drive label behind the glass’ mounting they’re doing, or to ease the SATA cable length required). This one also seems better able to accommodate a radiator and a long GPU, at least - the FT02 can only just barely fit a 3080 in it, with a radiator in place the only way the GPU would fit is if it’s a short PCB and you add it to the (custom) cooling loop.
On the other hand, I was super excited when the Fractal Torrent cases came out, but was lamenting the lack of drive cages. This one seems to fill that niche rather nicely.
As another Fortress FT02 owner, yes its heavy but I remove the drives when I give it the dusting out in the garage when it gets bad.
I’m glad Silverstone has continued with this cooling design which makes sense to me at least, there have not been any new cases with this orientation in some time. The Alta F2 does have some odd config items, the angled GPU mount at the rear and angled drive holders at the front of the case. Then if you move the GPU to the top rear the cables seem to be a mess. I can envision dropping a hot swap drive bay in the GPU alternate locations though as I need/want hot swap drive bays as there are no 5.25" drive bays.
This topic was automatically closed after 273 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
