Unpacking the SilverStone FARA 512Z case, installing the 360+280 dual water cooling system, and converting the upright graphics card slot

SilverStone launched the FARA 512Z case this time. The front panel uses a three-dimensional perforated mesh panel with ARGB light bars and fans. In addition to better air intake efficiency, ARGB is also used to embellish the shape of the entire coffee case! Supports mainstream ATX size motherboards and 360mm graphics card installation, the rear adopts a two-way graphics card installation design, and the variable design allows the graphics card to be installed upright without pain!

FARA 512Z Specifications:
Dimensions: 426.77 (L) x 210 (W) x 483.2 (H) mm
Colour: Black
Material: Steel, tempered glass, plastic
Motherboard: ATX, M-ATX, Mini-ITX
CPU air cooling: 162mm
Graphics card: 360mm (length), 169mm (width)
Power supply: ATX 190~160 mm
Pre-installed fan (front): 120mm 3
Fan installation positions (front+upper+rear): 140mm 2+2+0, 120mm 3+2+1
Radiator support: front 360/280mm, top 280/240mm, rear 120mm
Top I/O ports: USB 3.0 x2, USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C x1, HD AUDIO, LED mode control key
Hard Disk racks: two 2.5-inch, one 3.5-inch, one 3.5-inch (2.5-inch compatible)

SilverStone FARA 512Z case out of the box

FARA 512Z is ​​positioned as an ATX mid-tower case, and the length, width and height measurements of the case itself are: 42.6 x 21 x 48.3 cm, the volume and size of FARA 512Z tend to be mainstream.

The overall colour scheme adopts an all-black painting style, which is relatively low-key. The front panel has a full-area perforated mesh design to provide sufficient air intake. It is equipped with three 12cm ARGB fans pre-installed at the factory to ensure heat dissipation inside the case. Air circulation is adorned with SilverStone’s embossed emblem of faith on the lower front panel.

FARA 512Z is ​​a mid-tower case, with dimensions of length, width and height: 42.6 x 21 x 48.3 cm.
The front panel is designed with a full-area perforated mesh panel, which has excellent air intake capacity.
Embossed SilverStone Faith Badge left on the lower front panel.

The side panel of FARA 512Z uses slightly black tempered glass; when the hardware is powered on and running, the hardware installed inside also has a good visual effect, suitable for players who like to display RGB lighting effects with firepower.

The glass side panel is fixed by two thumb screws at the rear without drilling holes. This design can avoid the tragedy of breaking the glass lock when fixing the side panel, and the bottom of the glass side has a support structure extending outward from the chassis. , use the tenon to remove the rearward extraction method, which can prevent the glass side from being directly slipped and broken.

FARA 512Z uses black tempered glass for penetration.
The side view is fixed by the thumb screw at the rear, and the rear pull-out method is used to reduce the risk of falling.

FARA 512Z adopts the current mainstream bottom-mounted power supply structure and hides the power supply in the power supply compartment to separate the power supply from the cooling airflow of the core hardware so that the power supply has an independent air flow without eating the waste heat of the core hardware. Install 120mm size fans and water cooling radiators, with seven slots for PCI-e device installation slots, with reusable PCI-e baffles and no cross-bar settings.

The more special case supports the vertical installation of the graphics card. After the four screws next to the PCI-e slot are turned down, the slot can be converted and deformed through the modular setting, and it can be directly and painlessly converted into the vertical mode of the graphics card. use.

View of the rear of the FARA 512Z.
Two-way graphics card installation design, the default is the graphics card direct insertion mode.
Modular and variable detachable slot design, which can painlessly support the vertical installation of graphics cards.

There is a magnetic dust-proof filter on the top of the case, which can effectively prevent foreign objects such as natural dust in the air or small insects from floating into the interior. The external magnetic dust-proof filter is also more convenient for cleaning. Players After using the desktop for a period of time, you can use toilet paper or a dry cloth to wipe clean the dust

After removing the dust filter, you can see that the top of the FARA 512Z supports two 12/14cm fans for installation or a 240/280mm size water cooling radiator

Pre-installed magnetic dust filter to reduce foreign matter such as dust and insects from entering the case.
Two 12/14cm fans or 240/280mm size water cooling radiators can be installed above.

SilverStone FARA 512Z sets the I/O port on the top of the case, and from left to right provides the power button, hard disk and power indicator, restart button, LED lighting control button, two USB 3.0, microphone jack, earphone jack, USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C, the slots on the front panel are quite sufficient, and the USB Type-C slots that are more and more used are standard, and players do not need to purchase additional installations.

The upper I/O port provides LED lighting control keys, USB 3.0×2, and USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C.

The bottom of the case is located in the air intake area of the power supply, and there is a detachable and cleanable dust-proof sheet. After using it for a period of time, players are advised to lay the case flat and then remove the dust-proof sheet separately for cleaning.

It can be seen from the front half of the case that the composite hard disk rack in the power supply compartment is an adjustable design, and the adjustable distance is 3cm. After removing the entire hard disk rack, more space for the entire line can be made. Let the power supply have a more convenient installation depth.

The bottom of the FARA 512Z at a glance.

SilverStone FARA 512Z installation space

The FARA 512Z has three 12cm ARGB fans pre-installed in the front, together with the full-area perforated mesh panel in the front, so that the chassis has sufficient air intake and heat dissipation performance, and at the same time has the appearance and visual effect of ARGB lighting effect; the chassis It is a pity that there is no pre-installed fan on the rear and top of the fan. It is recommended that players purchase and install additional fans on their own.

The front fan installation position supports two 14cm and three 12cm fans, and the installation of water cooling radiators up to 280mm and 360mm in size.

Three 12cm ARGB fans are pre-installed on the front of FARA 512Z.

In addition, there is an ARGB light bar on the top of the front panel, so you need to pay attention when opening the front panel! There is an ARGB cable connected to the front panel, please be careful not to pull the cable hard when disassembling.

The front panel uses a double-layer dust-proof setting, but the protective layer on the inside cannot be removed and cleaned separately, so players are more recommended to use dry rags or toilet paper to wipe.

An ARGB cable is connected between the front panel and the inside of the case, please pay attention when disassembling it!

The internal core hardware installation space also has a lot of small ideas. It supports ATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ITX size motherboards, graphics cards up to 360mm long, and 162mm high air cooling towers. The overall installation space is very sufficient. Currently, RTX 40 The series shows that the flagship graphics card can also be installed compatible without the front water cooling.

Maximum support for ATX motherboards, 360mm graphics cards, and 162mm air cooling.

There is an integrated water-cooling installation space in front of the power supply compartment, with a depth of 7cm in front, and with the fan installation space in front of the case, players can realize the front Hamburg drainage cooling installation method on the FARA 512Z.

A 7cm water cooling radiator installation space is reserved in front of the power compartment to support the installation of the front Hamburg drain cooling.
A water-cooling installation height is reserved above the case.

On the right side of the motherboard installation position, there is an aesthetic shielding plate, which will have a good tidy effect after installation, and the whole line process will be more convenient. In addition, there is a row of lock holes on the shielding plate. These locks The hole is used to fix the graphics card support bracket in the accessory, so as to cope with the increasingly heavy graphics card and reduce the burden of the PCI-e slot on the motherboard.

There is a line-shielding baffle inside the casing, which can have a certain aesthetic effect after the whole line passes.
A support lock hole is provided on the wire shielding baffle for fixing the support frame of the display card in the accessories.

The space behind the FARA 512Z provides a depth of about 2cm. The original factory provides rubber-covered iron wires for the entire line. The factory state SilverStone has pre-bundled the upper I/O slot cables. Players only need to install the cables Just connect it to the motherboard slot.

Overview of the space behind the entire line.

An ARGB fan hub is installed on the back of the motherboard. The hub provides four sets of ARGB 5V 3-Pin and Fan 4-Pin power supply slots. In addition, because it needs to provide power for more devices, the ARGB fan hub has a SATA power supply connector that needs to be connected.

The lighting effect control of the hub itself can be controlled through the LED buttons on the upper I/O port. After connecting to the ARGB slot of the motherboard, it can also be set synchronously by the lighting control software of the motherboard brand.

A set of ARGB fan hubs that can connect four sets of devices is included.

The storage device expansion part, the whole coffee FARA 512Z supports a total of four hard disk installations at most, which are two 2.5-inch hard disks, one 3.5-inch hard disk, and one 2.5/3.5-inch hard disk. There is a set of wall-mounted 2.5-inch hard disks behind the motherboard. Although there is an HDD installation lock hole in the installation position, due to the limitation of the depth of the whole line of the case itself, it is impossible to install a thicker 3.5-inch hard drive in this position.

The hard disk mounting bracket on the back of the motherboard is fixed by a single screw and tenon.
Supports two 2.5-inch hard drives for installation.

In the lower-mounted power supply compartment, there is a composite hard disk installation bracket, which can install up to two hard disks by using the upper and lower bunk structures. The side lock hole fixing solution supports only one 3.5-inch hard drive.

Demonstration of the installation of the composite hard disk bay, a 2.5/3.5-inch hard disk can be installed on the top, and a 3.5-inch hard disk can be installed on the bottom.

In the lower power supply compartment, it can support the installation of power supplies with a length of 160~190mm. In the default state, it is set to install a power supply with a length of 160mm, which can provide a space for the entire line with a total length of 207mm. Moving to the front, a 190mm power supply unit can be installed, thereby allowing 236mm of space for hiding wires.

The installation space of the bottom-mounted power supply compartment is provided for the installation of power supplies with a size of 160~190mm according to the installation position of the hard disk rack.
The accessories section provides the aforementioned graphics card support bracket, disposable straps, and a bag of screws.

SilverStone FARA 512Z actual installation display

After introducing the details of the FARA 512Z, the hardware configuration part of the installation demonstration uses an ATX-sized ASRock X670E Steel Legend motherboard and a 242mm long NVIDIA RTX 3060ti FE dual-fan graphics card for installation.

After powering on, it can be found that in addition to the three pre-installed ARGB fans, there is an ARGB light bar on the top of the front panel. After connecting the ARGB hub inside the case, the lighting effects can be synchronized with the front fans.

FARA 512Z actual installation display.
There is an ARGB decorative light strip above the front panel.

FARA 512Z has ample installation space, supports mainstream ATX size motherboards and 360mm size graphics cards can be installed, especially the spacious interior space in the case is compatible with both upper 280mm and front 360mm water cooling installations, for Another great news for players who need dual water cooling!

The front water cooling has a 7cm deep installation slot, so it is also possible to install the water cooling inside the fan bracket! But relatively, it will also eat up the installation space of the graphics card. If the author uses the hamburger row installation method this time, the installation space of the graphics card will be limited to within 31cm! In addition, during the installation process this time, it was found that if you want to install an integrated water cooling inside the front fan bracket, you will need to remove the wire shielding baffle next to it. These are the points that players need to pay attention to before purchasing and installing.

The slightly blackened glass see-through makes the exterior design of the hardware itself more low-key, but the RGB lighting effect is still dazzling!

Summary and experience

To sum up, FARA 512Z is a case that can meet all demands. It has a perforated front panel with high air flow and heat dissipation performance, as well as eye-catching ARGB light strips and fans, whether it is stylish or heat dissipation. Performance-oriented extreme school, this coffee case can meet your needs!

The chassis supports the largest ATX-sized motherboard, 360mm graphics card, 162mm air-cooled tower, and four storage hard drives. Can be compatible and installed without conflict at the same time! Even the need for dual water cooling installation can be supported!

If you want to use the graphics card for vertical installation, you only need to change the shape painlessly through the modular slot, and you can install it directly! There is also a display card support frame in the accessories of the case, but the length and thickness of the display card itself are also very difficult, but it is better to have a bonus than nothing!

If this article is helpful for you, please share this article with your friends on social media. Thank you!!

This article is based on the personality of the reviews. You are responsible for fact-checking if the contents are not facts or accurate.

Title: Unpacking the SilverStone FARA 512Z case, installing the 360+280 dual water cooling system, and converting the upright graphics card slot

en_GBEnglish