SilverStone SETA A1 Case Review

One of the most impressive features of the SilverStone SETA A1 is that the case comes with two 200mm cooling fans and unless you looked in the manual or bothered to remove the front bezel you would never know.

The top of the case features a magnetic filter that is mostly there to dress up the top of the case.  The holes are big enough that very little dust will get captured and yet small enough to restrict some airflow but, not enough to really impact much.

The top fan locations support 120mm and 140mm cooling fans and radiators between 120mm and 240mm.  You will notice that the fan mounting slots are offset slightly and this is to provide clearance around the motherboard for a radiator and fan combo.

At the front of the case you have a little more flexibility in cooling solutions.  For fans the SETA A1 supports the two 200mm fans that come factory.  Alternatively, the SETA can support two 140mm or three 120mm fans with radiator support is limited to 360mm and smaller.  For the longer radiators a nicely sized gap in the basement is provided for ease of installation.

With 200mm fans there is the potential of massive air movement so, how does all that air get into the case?  Behind the aluminum panel you’ll find a 10mm gap (or about a half an inch) which opens up into a rather large hourglass opening protected by a fine mesh filter. 

These filters are amazing at capturing dust and dirt and flow extremely well.  

It should be noted that the hourglass shape doesn’t match the fan location and is sized as large as it can be without intruding on the ARGB lights at the top and bottom. 

Now, I know what you are thinking, “Someone on YouTube told me that this will restrict airflow and my computer will overheat in a matter of seconds”  While this is one way to look at it the reality is, the 200mm fans only spin at 800rpm and flow around 61CFM.  Considering that the SETA is designed to support 360mm radiators you have to also realize that to mount that radiator there will be tabs in the way along with other bits of metal. 

So, sure you might not get the maximum output of these 200mm fans BUT, that also isn’t the point as you will get maximum output from a 360mm radiator.