At PCMag, we’re resolutely not reviewing pedestal servers, being primarily a consumer technology publication. But this PC case blurs the line. SilverStone’s super-configurable $799.99 Alta D1 resurrects a bunch of server-style features that once graced high-end desktop PCs of a certain classic type. By “classic,” we mean back when putting a bank of hard drives and a brace of graphics cards in a single build would give home users a fair substitute for the storage and rendering racks of their workplace machines. The Alta D1, however, not only evokes such old-school iron, but it provides the flexibility to replace the feature modules you’re not likely to use with more of the ones you will. It’s a forward-looking throwback, and we give it an Editors’ Choice award for modular workstation-grade chassis.
Design: Modular to the Extreme
A bit of history first. Way back at CES 2008, a few top journalists had the privilege to see why so many 10-slot PC cases were hitting the show floor: Hidden in the back of a hotel suite was a 10-slot motherboard that Foxconn was calling its “F1 prototype,” in a form factor that Foxconn was calling Ultra ATX. Nothing came of the board at the retail level, but the cases persisted, at least for a few years. Interestingly, they were mostly shaped like the Alta D1…
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Turning the latch handle at the left edge of the front door allows it to swing open, revealing two installed cages for external drives at the top, a front fan filling a module mount at the center, and a second fan partially covered by yet another bay cover at the bottom. There’s also a cable-passage notch at the center of the door’s bottom edge, just in case you’d like to run something out through it.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The two drive cages are designed to hold four 5.25-inch optical drives natively, but they have additional holes on the sides to hold 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drives instead. A small point that will get past most of us is that each cage might technically qualify as a full-height bay because the two optical-drive-size bays are joined without a separator. We looked inside to verify and found that there is a sheet-metal ledge protruding around a quarter inch into the center of the cage to help positively locate half-height devices. The reason we mention all of that minutia is that while most removable backplanes that are designed to fit three 3.5-inch hot-swappable drive trays into a full-height 5.25-inch bay are also designed with a notch on each side to accommodate this lip, your grandfather’s 5MB full-height hard drive probably isn’t. If you’re looking to recreate a server-grade retro PC using actual classic hardware, take note.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Lighted power and unlit reset buttons are located below the front-mounted drive modules, and the Alta D1 includes an extension finger on the front door that reaches the power button even if the panel is locked. Below those buttons are a hard drive activity light, two USB 3.x Type-A ports, and a Gen 2×2 Type-C port. The Alta D1 doesn’t have any audio jacks, though it does have a row of four breakaway covers beneath the Type-C port that are designed to fit the DB-9 headers of classic serial-port breakout cables. This is all business.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
In addition to the previously mentioned extra expansion slots (11 in total), the Alta D1 provides, in its stock configuration, a second rear power supply mount. But hang on: Four of those slots are part of an extension panel, and SilverStone also includes a bay mount panel that can go down there instead of the extra slots.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The two power supply bays are each removable and sized/attached identically to the drive bays, so that builders can install their power supply up front and their drives out back if they’d like. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen SilverStone offering replacement modules with which one might fill the case with more drives or more power than it was originally equipped to support…at least, yet.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Here’s a close-up of that removable portion of the Alta D1’s lower expansion-slot panel.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Now, as for the side panel. Splitting the side panel into two parts benefits both the builder and end user with easier handling and less vibration, but the removable bar that affixes two panels at the center seems a little cumbersome. Behind it, we see an EATX-depth motherboard tray that’s been extended to 15.12 inches from top to bottom, a pair of the company’s Air Penetrator 180mm intake fans, a Vista 140mm exhaust fan, and a removable fan bracket that’s capable of holding two 140mm or three 120mm fans.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Alta has side brackets for fans near the case’s top that pivot on shoulder screws, secured by sliding tabs a bit farther down. The sliding tabs themselves are locked in place using standard screws. Unfortunately, anyone hoping to install a 360mm-format radiator will have to reach those brackets from the inside, as the fan bracket’s mounting hole is only 365mm wide: Radiator end caps generally add around 40mm (give or take 6mm) to a radiator’s overall length. While the 420mm of space between the front and back panels is plenty to support the resulting 394mm to 406mm of the typical “360mm”-class radiator, those who want to install one must also remove the closest front and rear power/drive modules to make space for it. You’ll want to plan accordingly, as well as install your cooler gear early in any build to avoid boxing yourself out.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Don’t want to mess around with a radiator up top? Fortunately, there’s also around 42mm of space beneath the intake fans to mount a long radiator on the bottom. Those who prefer a proper updraft orientation want to do that in a “pull” configuration with the fans on top, though, since the gap below the front fans is the only space you’ll find for the end cap of a 360mm-format radiator. Also note that most closed-loop liquid cooling systems rely on the top of the radiator being above the CPU in order to purge the tiny air bubble that remains from assembly from the pump. So a bottom mount may not be in the cards for you.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Alta D1’s right side features the same center bars and fan bracket as its left but leaves only an approximate 11.3mm gap between the backs of its center bar and motherboard tray. Some builds will require the builder to temporarily remove the center bar (two screws at each end) to route cable ends past its location.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Secured via two spring-loaded knurled screws, the motherboard tray slides out with its entire back-panel portion (including the four-slot replaceable portion) attached, old-school style. The interchangeable drive and power supply modules slide out in a similar manner. We can again see the holes on the sides of the drive modules, which allow their natively 5.25-inch bays to instead support a single 3.5-inch drive or two 2.5-inch drives on the inside of each side.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Building With the SilverStone Alta D1
We can’t cover every possible configuration of a case that has module placement as flexible as the Alta’s, but we should mention that the adapter shown with the power cord in the accessory picture below is designed to support either a power or drive module after removing that module’s screwed-on sliding bracket. It replaces the lower portion of the expansion slot panel (slots eight through eleven) and combines whatever you put in that module with the slide-out motherboard tray.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Also included in the kit are two module hole covers, a 160mm fan bracket, a power extension for internally mounted power supplies, a vertical card brace with four horizontal support brackets, keys for the door latch, and several bags of installation hardware.
Once we choose a method for our build, we’ll finish it up by plugging in the Alta D1’s Type-E cable to connect its Type-C port, its classic 19-pin Gen 1 connector to connect its two Type-A USB ports, and its F_PANEL combo header to connect its power button, reset button, power LED, and hard drive activity LED. For those who don’t recognize that last connector, it’s a decades-old configuration taken from Intel-branded motherboards that enough third-party manufacturers eventually adopted to become an industry standard. As for the missing audio header, it makes sense, given the lack of any audio jacks.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
We chose the easiest build path, placing our 240mm closed-loop cooler on the right side of the case by removing the right power-supply and drive-bay modules to make room for it. We left the left-side power supply module in its factory location and put our power supply there. And, since we didn’t have a third module bay cover to fill its void, we put the drive module of the left side back in its factory location after completing our build.
The included graphics card brace is screwed to the case’s center bar, and those who zoom in will see five additional screw holes that allow the card brace to be adjusted further forward or rearward.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
We only noticed that the power indicator isn’t visible from in front of the Alta D1 after powering it on: The plunger that reaches through the door to push the power button is opaque. But, the hard drive activity LED is visible from most angles, and the power-on indicator can still be viewed from an angle, as shown.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Testing the SilverStone Alta D1
Our latest case-testing build includes a Core i7 that’s been locked down to provide a consistent power draw. Here’s a recap of what we use in ATX and later cases.
Last spring’s InWin ModFree Deluxe was the only truly modular case we could find in our collection to compare with the Alta D1’s performance, so we picked the rest of our comparison cases based on price. And, since nothing in our inventory approached the D1’s $799 tag, we decided to include every full-size case priced over $200.
As our first set of charts show: Big fans help! The Alta D1’s 180mm intakes provided enough airflow to push our mid-size CPU cooler to its best temperatures of this group. Graphics temps, on the other hand, were middling, so we’re thinking that most of the flow from the case’s lower fan probably went elsewhere.
Of course, all that airflow isn’t going to come without some noise. Since decibels use a logarithmic scale, our Alta D1 build is about as loud as two of our Asus ProArt PA602 builds. Then again, the PA602 can’t support most of the alternative configurations presented in the modular Alta D1.
Verdict: A Luxe Apartment Tower for All Your Components, Past and Future
Were most of us not using cloud storage, NAS drives, and local removable storage to stash our vast data collections, we’d probably load up the Alta D1’s external-facing bays with removable backplanes for banks of hard drives and packrat-party like it was 1999. Alternatively, if it were still possible to churn Bitcoin profitably from retail graphics cards, we’d probably load up 10 of the case’s 11 expansion-slot positions that way.
We dare not suggest what you might do with its combination of space and flexibility, but if you have ideas, the Alta D1 has the space and structure to make them work. It’s especially attractive if you’re wedded to some legacy drive-wares like an optical reader or two, or a bank of high-capacity platter drives, both items that most modern cases have banished or dialed back on, big-time. To be sure, it’s priced like server-grade gear, but it’s a fine framework on which to hang your dream-machine aspirations not just for today, but for foreseeable future builds, too.
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About Thomas Soderstrom
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