SilverStone Fara B1 Review: An Affordable, Stylish PC Case

SilverStone released a handful of new cases and coolers a few months back, targeting an array of price points for DIY PC builders. One of the more affordable additions to the line-up was the SilverStone Fara B1 mid-tower we're evaluating today. The Fara B1 is priced to move at about $60, but it has the looks and features of much more expensive cases. Of course, looks can be deceiving, so we decided to get our hands on the Fara B1 to see if its worthy of consideration for your next budget-friendly desktop #PCMasterRace build.

We are going to get down and dirty with the SilverStone Fara B1 and build-up a full gaming system inside it, to ascertain whether or not it is a worthwhile purchase. Even though it's an affordable option, certain criteria still needs to me met. For example, is it visually appealing? What's thermal performance like? Is installation easy work with, and does it support high-end hardware? We'll try to answer all of these questions on the pages ahead, but first lets take a look at the full specs and features below...

SilverStone Fara B1 Case Specifications & Features

For a budget case the SilverStone Fara B1 includes a healthy array of high-end features. First off, there's ample room for airflow. The front of the case features a large open grid on both sides of the chassis that allow air to freely flow in and out. The B1 also has ample support for water coolers. The front of the case can accommodate radiators up to 280mm in length, while the top can accommodate up to a 240mm radiator. In addition, there's ample room for high-end graphics cards and even large tower-style air coolers.

The SilverStone Fara B1 is a mid-sized chassis that stands nearly 18-inches tall and is just over 8-inches wide. That's right on par with other mid-sized cases, so there's nothing extraordinary to point out in regard to the B1's dimensions. With these dimensions it'll easily fit on top of, or under any battle station and the all black exterior with tempered glass panel, looks good to boot. 

Upon initial inspection, it becomes obvious SilverStone tried to produce an affordable chassis with the looks and features of more expensive designs. For instance the tempered glass panel is a nice touch, but the rest of the chassis' aluminum is thin and light. There's plenty of ventilation throughout the case, but the plastics don't feel particularly premium. These are all common trade offs of cases targeting affordable price points though, and so far none of them are deal breakers for us. 

The top panel has a large vent that's 11.2-inches long and 6.5-inches wide. That's a pretty large ventilation port for such an inexpensive case. Most options in this price range offer just a narrow vent. In addition, the top has multiple screw holes of various lengths, so you can adjust the fans or radiator positions to best fit your needs.

At the top front of the case, you'll find all of its built-in front panel IO. In total you have dual USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, and a combo headphone / mic jack, in addition to power and reset switches, of course.

The rear expansion slot bays come with two reusable expansions slot covers and five throwaway covers. We have to consider the relatively low price of this case when evaluating it, so we're not going to subtract any points for this, but the position of the first PCI Express slot on our motherboard only used the lower reusable slot, since we have a dual slot graphics card (like most gamers do). As such, we had to remove one of the throw away covers. Not a huge deal since you can just move the reusable cover around, but if you accidentally remove the wrong one or take out an expansion card down the line, you may end up with exposed bays, with no slot covers. 

For a $60 case we were happy to see SilverStone included a magnetic dust filter. The filter worked about as well as can be expected . After a couple of months of use, we can say it's done an effective job at filtering out any large dust particles and it's super easy to clean. The case we tested though is the base configuration, so it doesn't come with any fans at the top. Regardless, the dust cover is a welcome value-add for such an affordable case.

The Fara B1 we were sent include only a single fan; a 120mm rear exhaust fan. The rear port doesn't support fans larger than 120mm, but it has multiple holes that allow a fan (or 120mm radiator) to be positioned in multiple locations.

The front panel of the Fara B1 stands out for a case in its price range. The front intake bay is able to support either a trifecta of 120mm fans, dual 140mm fans, or radiators that range from 120mm to 280mm in length. 

The back of the motherboard tray is pretty standard flair for most modern cases. There's a massive CPU bracket opening as well as plenty of cable management options. There are also two rear mounted SSD brackets just below the CPU cut-out, and at the bottom of the case you'll find more storage mounts as well as the power supply bay.

The bottom of the case left something to be desired, though. It was difficult to work in, cramped and had clearance issues. We'll explain in detail a little later.

We also want to point out that the SilverStone logo on the front of the case is translucent. So, if you have RGB fans the logo will glow through the font of the case. Since we were sent the non-RGB version of the case we weren't able to experience the effect, but for a little more scratch you can make that logo shine.

There's a lot like here, but we have some complaints as well, which we'll cover on the next page...