Silverstone Alta F2

[CoolColJ]

Modern version of FT02
Should be on sale in Asia by next week

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/produ ... s/alf2b_g/

[Japanese Capacitor]

Once again Silverstone tries hard to be unique, but brings nothing to the table and (I suppose) wants absurd money for it. Probably once again this will be Asia + german Caseking's only to make it look exclusive. It seems like these completely nothing special, but just extremely limited shoes/clothes which day before drop create one kilometer long lines of children next to store's door. Maybe there're ones liking something like that, but it's placing limited over better.

[CoolColJ]

Silverstone rep said it will be in the US and other countries in a few weeks time.
Case was made to celebrate their 20th anniversary without the usual design budget constraints

Our goal for this case was to make the best out of the box cooling possible utilizing all the best way we know. So besides using our best fans (Air Penetrator 180i PRO), we tested for months on the most optimal position and angle for the card to be installed alongside the rest of the components. The final result was a case that can cool better than any cases we've built (and we've build many that were class-leading over the years). It's also better than having everything out on a test bench.

Big thanks to all of you for the early feedbacks on the ALTA F2, as you can clearly see already, this case isn't for everyone. But we needed to build something like this for ourselves (for our designers and engineers to not have to build cases to a strict budget and to try cool ideas they had in mind for years) and for customers of our old flagship Temjin & Fortress cases who have waited over a decade for something like this. So please don't take this the wrong way that we have somehow lost our senses as a company with the ALTA F2, we still build and will continue to build other sensible cases for years to come. But for 2023, our 20th anniversary, we want to celebrate by doing something that is more out of ordinary. So please cheer up and celebrate with us as we see what cool builds people would do with this magnificent PC case!

9 PCI slots and , 4 slot riser



from a trade show

[Japanese Capacitor]

OK, when you said about avaialability in Asia, I assumed it's similar to previous Alta, F1 which was exlcusive to Germany and Asia (or States, don't remember). If this case is their way of celebrating, fine. I just look at cases from practical point of view (good cooling to noise ratio; dust filtration; doing whatever being easy and comfortable), so such ones don't impress me. Examples of what I admire: great allrounders Fractals Meshify 2 and Define 7; smart design of Lian Li Lancool III or much toolless Cooler Master HAF - such cases present solutions which later become common, so raise standards of designing cases. Silverstone just used to do things different, but not better, so looking at my likings it's like mission failed.

[CoolColJ]

Well looking at the case when using the side GPU mount it does seperate the GPU heat from the CPU.
Which is hard to do in other cases.
Even when using a vertical mount on a riser cable. Maybe only on the O11 Dynamic Evo, with it's Upright GPU kit, is kinda similar.
But the heat from the GPU will shoot sideways into the CPU, from the fans blowing down into the GPU heat sinks

If your using the standard PCIe GPU position, heat gets trapped against the motherboard's side of the GPU heatsink
I did a test yesterday on my FT02, using a riser cable and have my RTX 3070 sitting outside, without any fans blowing on it.
There was no difference between it sitting horizontally as per normal, or vertically as in the FT02, around 59-60c degrees in Furmark.
Whisper quiet with fans at 30% speed.
But once I mounted it into the case, with side open, it went up 3 degrees to 62c, from the heat trapping against the motherboard side, even with case fan airflow.
And once I closed the case up, the temps went up to 65-66c degrees

So the goal of a case IMO is to cool both the CPU and GPU as close to open air as possible, if not better.
So my FT02 does OK in the CPU, cooling my 5950x just fine with a Thermalright PA120, at 850rpm with Silent Wings 4/T30 rear fans at near inaudible levels from 1m
46 degrees above ambient in Cinebench 20 with stock settings, or +56 degrees with PBO on and max settings.
But not so good on the GPU.

This is where I see this Alta FT2 will be able to do much better.
You have the airflow acting along the whole length of the GPU.
Having the GPU sit at an angle and away from the CPU, allow the fans to blow the hot air out the top, without getting trapped against the motherboard or into the CPU.

second bonus - you can use all your PCIe slots with these huge 2-4 slot thick cards!
O11 Dynamic Evo, with it's Upright GPU kit can also do this.

[Japanese Capacitor]

With GPU placement or airflow patterns you talk about differences which seem making a difference, but it is likely that later tests will show that not so much, not worth bothering, so not selling point. It's like with this inverted layout they are famous of, convection helping fan airflow. It seems like a great idea, but few testers moved the cases 90 degree (bottom fans became front fans) and it showed no difference in temps. True is, convection is force too weak to noticeably help active, generated by fans, ariflow. These cases were all about big fans, so ones being able moving much airflow with relatively low noise. I just wouldn't expect Alta F2 making much difference, if any, compared to their older vertical cases.

[CoolColJ]

This pic shows what I mean by having clean GPU exhaust airflow

The first pic would be like the Coolermaster SL600M

[Japanese Capacitor]

I understood that you meant better GPU position where it sits in more open space, so it's exhausted air is less obstructed than "traditionally" where it hits motherboard or CPU air cooler. My point was I suspect it not making much (if any) difference compared to "traditional layout" airflow cases and being just next airflow-gimmick SilverStone specializes at. I generally really appreciate SS for experimenting with things seeming stuck forever, but I would prefer it making worth bothering difference or not being advertised as such when doesn't, so end up just looking different (and probably costing more than represented quality). Add to this that if you count every degree, you buy GPU with the best cooler, which also reduces impact of case airflow so e.g. experiments with repositioning card or adding case fans. Combining these two thoughts you see why I'm not so entusiastic about F2, but as always reviews will show it's value

[CoolColJ]

I saw it for sale on Amazon US yesterday, for a crazy price of around $800!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5LF52TL

There were 12 units, but either they all sold out like that, or the listing was removed....

[Japanese Capacitor]

Normal thing - I would suspect 12 people waiting for new Silverstone's Fortress case. Especially given that it being not something typical, so more attractive for modders or just ones aiming showcase build. And such people don't look at the price or value much. To me it's exactly this kind of product for this kind of buyers.

[SST Guy]

Thanks to both for the discussion here! Just want to chime in regarding the effectiveness of our designs over the years. It's true that given enough airflow from the fans, cooling performance would become the same for vertical or horizontal orientation. But the difference is definitely there if you tested a fanless build or similar. There is also the beneift no graphics card sagging issue in vertical orientation and having the fan drawing air from the bottom rather than from the front so that the case fan noise are farther away.

We learned after releasing the Fortress FT04 that going for ultimate cooling performance was going to be under-appreciated due to the fact that most people simply don't have hot-enough components to notice the difference anymore. As multi-GPU setup fall out of favor, most cases with proper airflow can cool nearly as well as our extensively researched designs. It's only when you load the case up with two or more hot-running GPUs and a top-line CPUs that the advantage of our cases become apparent. This was part of the reasons we haven't released follow ups to RAVEN and Fortress for years. Now with CPU and GPUs getting hotter and bigger, we thought it was the right time to try our hands on producing the best cooling case again (plus it's our 20th anniversary!). But like all things, there is a point of diminishing return, the ALTA F2 will cool better than all cases we know (better than open bench), but if you are only testing with moderate hardware, then there is likely to be little difference again. So yes, if you aren't planning on putting in an overclocked RTX 4090 and top of the line CPU (or CPUs), then ALTA F2 is probably not worth it from the performance standpoint!

[Japanese Capacitor]

It's really awesome that on this forgotten forum, in SilverStone's case's thread, discussion is joined by somebody from SilverStone :] Great to see you! And your point is right - the more heat needs to be removed from cases, the bigger difference will make case with better airflow. I would like to see your case tested with some serious configuration and confronted with the best "traditional-airflow" ones like e.g Lian Li Mesh series, because suggesting only with reviews of your kinda similar previous cases tested with older, so quite different hardware is not fair to F2 and not really comparable.

In general it seems to me that there were no better times to produce high(est)-airflow cases and no better times for you to attack with your unique designs like Fortress or Raven series. There were always (and rather will be) power hungry configurations making such cases sensible. Plus airflow cases were never as praised and popular as now and innoations in this regard are praised even more (look at Fractal's Torrent's success). Having the best airflow (and ARGB ) on the market seems now like having bestseller, but if I was SilverStone, I would ask myself if it's possible to create inverted-layout case being able to score top in terms of airflow (and airflow to noise ratio) and cut whatever corners to make it worth selling for not more than 100$ :>

[SST Guy]

We haven't completely forgotten about this place yet as our case product manager loved SPCR (when it was still doing regular reviews) and always strive to make our cases with as good of noise to performance ratio as possible!

It's hard to make a compelling lower cost 90 degree rotated tower case because all else being equal, the cost will also be higher. You need top cover to cover the main I/O ports whereas traditional cases you are OK to be expose them on the rear. The bottom needs to be more elaborate to work as case feet with sufficient air intake whereas in traditional cases, you only need to slap on a mesh front and call it a day. We tried doing a sub $100 RAVEN back in 2015 due to demand from several retailers/distributor partners but sales were below expectations. Lukily with ALTA F2 now, the demand came from old SilverStone case users and ourselves only so there are no sales expectations. Just the fact that we can actually release this product to the retail market has already been a success for many us (not including those in the accounting or sales department) .

[Japanese Capacitor]

I always wondered what is the cost of producing various kinds of pc cases - not counting all early costs like engineering, marketing etc, just pure producing a unit in factory and delivering to sell. What is usual % of brand's margin in retail price of pc case? Of course I don't ask you about SIlverStone, because it's rather not public information, but I ask you as somebody from the industry who knows how it looks like in general.