Looking at the current casing market, most of them are already in the shape of the gaming market, but for home use or creator needs, there is no need for too many fancy RGB embellishments. The square appearance and practical design are actually To meet the needs of this group. SilverStone FARA 311 is a small M-ATX case, which leaves some breathing room for some traditional hardware, and provides a new choice for users who need to burn or disc. FARA 311 designed the space in the smallest volume, which can support a variety of installation configurations, and flexibly deploy 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch, and 2.5-inch hard disk installation positions according to the needs of players. The front panel uses the most popular perforated mesh. The air intake design provides more effective heat dissipation inside!
Specifications
Material: steel plate, plastic
Motherboard: Micro-ATX (9.6\” x 9.6\”), Mini-ITX (6.7\” x 6.7\”)
Disk bay: exposed 5.25\” x 1 (convertible to internal 1 x 3.5\” or 1 x 2.5\”)
hide 3.5\” / 2.5\” x 1, 3.5\” x 1, 2.5\” x 1
cooling system: front 120mm x 2 / 140mm x 2, back 120mm x 1
cooling Device Height Limit: 156mm
Expansion Slots: 4
Graphic Card Length Limit: 354mm
Power Supply: ATX
Power Supply Depth Limit: 140mm
Front I/O: USB 3.0 x 1, USB 2.0 x 1, 2-in-1 Audio x 1
Dimensions: 183mm ( W) x 360mm (H) x 410mm (D), 27.01 liters
Net weight: 3.48 kg
Classic design back to basics
FARA 311 is a compact ATX chassis with an overall size of 183 x 360 x 410mm, a weight of 3.48kg, and 27.01 liters. It supports the motherboard with the largest Micro-ATX specification and a standard ATX power supply on the top. It provides four expansion slots for expansion. If you want to install a 5.25-inch device, you can also install two 2.5-inch and one 3.5-inch hard drive. Disk, or 2.5-inch plus two 3.5-inch hard drives.
Regarding heat dissipation, two 120mm/140mm fans can be installed in the front and one 120mm fan in the rear. As for the cold row, a maximum size of 240mm can be installed in the front, and a size of 120mm can be installed in the rear. In terms of a graphics card, it supports a maximum of 354mm graphics card when the front fan is installed, and the CPU height limit is 156mm.
The overall appearance of the FARA 311, unpacked this time, adopts a relatively simple design. Rather it is an appearance designed for excellent internal compatibility. The front panel uses a perforated mesh panel and adopts a straight-in-back-out heat dissipation method. The blank space on the top is the 5.25-inch internal housing; this time, the glass side panel is not used for the first time. From this, it can be clearly felt that the FARA 311 is designed For household or creator users. Although the shape is relatively simple, it does meet users’ needs in pursuit of simplicity and practicality.
On the front of the case, you can see that the front I/O provides two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, one composite audio port, and the parallelogram-shaped power button and reset button. As for the top and bottom of the case, they are made of non-transparent steel plates. Only at the bottom can you see the hard disk installation holes and the non-slip base at the 4 corners.
At the rear of the case, you can see the top-mounted power supply configuration that has not been seen for a long time. A 120mm fan is pre-installed at the rear and supports 120mm cooling radiators. There are 4 PCIe expansion slots at the bottom.
Next, we disassemble the FARA311. To open the side panels on both sides, turn down the 4 hand-turned screws and pull them back to remove them. However, it should be noted that this coffee case does not have a side panel safety latch, so just pull it up. The rear pump can be removed immediately, but because of the steel plate, it will not break if it is accidentally dropped. As for the front panel, it is also detachable. Just move it outside. After disassembling, you will see that the front panel has a non-removable dust filter. If it is dirty, just wash and wipe the front panel together.
FARA 311 can accommodate M-ATX, M-ITX motherboards, and standard ATX power supplies. More special is that FARA 311 retains the installation space of traditional 5.25-inch devices and the configuration of top-mounted power supplies. Two 140mm or 120mm fans can be installed on the front; a 120mm fan can be installed on the rear (a 120mm fan is pre-installed). As for storage, in addition to the 5.25-inch device in the upper right corner, there is also a 3.5-inch hard disk shelf underneath, which can be installed through screws, and then you can see the 2.5-inch hard disk installation space in the lower right corner of the lower half and the bottom 2.5/3.5-inch hard disk installation space. However, these are all specifications without considering hardware conflicts, and the actual situation will be mentioned in the installation.
Next is the backspace. It can be seen that the back space of the FARA311 is only about 1 cm thick, which is different from ordinary casings. It cannot be used to hide cables and install hard disks. It can only be used to move some fan cables, such as power supplies. Such a thick and hard wire cannot be pulled to the back for routing.
Actual installation
In view of the fact that today’s users still do calculations or play games in addition to documents, the actual installation uses an M-ATX motherboard, 240mm water-cooling radiator installation, and a standard ATX power supply. Due to its compact design during installation, it is very necessary to consider the sequence of hardware. For example, when installing the power supply and I/O, it is recommended that players first pull all the wires and install them. Otherwise, it is really a test of patience. When installing the front cooling, if the player wants to use the 2.5-inch hard drive in the lower right corner to install the hard disk, it must be installed first to dissipate heat. Otherwise, there will be problems, such as the inability to install it.
Next, the configuration of the hard disk space. Since I don’t have a 5.25-inch device, I can only use photos to show the space. After the actual installation, you will find that if the player installs a 240mm water cooling radiator or a 140mm fan, the original 3.5-inch hard disk installation position will share the upper position with the 240mm water cooling radiator and cannot be installed at the same time, so the hard disk rack needs to be removed before installing the cooling radiator. It should be noted that the 2.5-inch lower right corner needs to be installed first before installing heat dissipation. As for the 2.5 / 3.5-inch shared space at the bottom, there is no order problem. Just lock it with screws.
Summarize
FARA 311 adds a 5.25-inch front installation space, compatible with CD-ROM, 3.5-inch, or 2.5-inch, making the configuration more flexible. But if the player does not need to use a 5.25-inch device, the editor here recommends installing a 2.5-inch hard drive in the 5.25-inch space and using the rest of the space to hide the cables. After all, there is no space for the entire cable on the back of the FARA 311. If the player does not find a place to hide the wires, the wires will be in a mess in the front, but after the side panel is covered, nothing can be seen.
The price of FARA 311 is $1290, which is a very affordable price. The case size of M-ATX can accommodate hard disk configurations close to that of ordinary ATX cases, and the most special thing is that there is still a 5.25-inch installation space. FARA 311 is relatively suitable for general household documents. Still, if players want to use it as a game console or for calculation processing, it can be easily installed as long as they pay attention to some places. FARA311 is a machine that can accommodate 5.25-inch devices in the current market. The case is rare and can be said to leave a good breathing space for some elders or users who need CD-ROM drives.
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Title: Back to basics SilverStone – FARA311 case / M-ATX, front 5.25″
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