Review: Silverstone SETA A1 Cabinet

When it comes to mid-tower cabinets, the range of options is pretty much endless. The competition is stronger than ever, but yet, it feels rather uniform, which most of the gaming cabinets opting for similar looks. Well, today we’re taking a glance at the Silverstone SETA A1, which tries to tread a different path. How does it fare? Let’s find out.

The Silverstone SETA A1 is a mid-tower ATX cabinet that comes with a rather novel front design that we haven’t seen before in a lot of cabinets. While most competitors tend to show off the front fans with flashy RGB, the SETA A1 takes a radically different approach, covering the entire front with a raised shroud, which has diffused RGB lighting falling off from the top and bottom. It’s relatively subtle, and looks elegant and kinda premium too. Behind the shroud, following a small gap you’ll find a mesh front with two huge 200mm intake fans. The rest of the interiors, by and large, is actually very standard mid-tower stuff.

The front RGB can be connected to the motherboard for direct control over the lights, if yours supports it. And thanks to the subtle lighting effects, this case can fit as easily in an office setting as it can in your gaming room. And there’s a glass panel on the side for you to show off your rig as well.

The top of the cabinet is mostly perforated to allow for airflow, with a mesh on top and pretty solid set of front I/O options. There are 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB Type-C, and a 3.5mm audio jack along with the power and reset buttons, which should be more than enough for your regular needs.

Coming to the internal layout, there isn’t really anything that stands out about the SETA A1. You get the standard ATX-sized space for the motherboard, a PSU shroud where you can also fit in two 3.5-inch hard drives, and there are two trays behind the motherboard for 2.5 inch drives too. The width of the cabinet allows for a CPU cooler up to 175mm height, and the maximum allowance for the GPU can fit in a card that’s up to 350mm long. If your power supply it too big in size, you may need to remove the 3.5-inch drive bays. The cabinet comes pre-installed with two 200mm fans in the front and a 120mm fan at the back, and the top can support a 240mm radiator, while it’s possible to fit a 360mm radiator in the front with three 120mm fans. There’s a filter at the bottom too, to prevent dust going into the cabinet.

From a performance perspective too, the SETA A1 did not disappoint one bit. The big front fans make sure the system runs silent as well as cool. Testing our Ryzen 7 2700X with a stock AMD Cooler, the idle temp stabilized around 31C while under full load the max temp was 74C. Our benchmark GPU, which was a Galax RTX 2070 Super, reached a max temperature of 70C under full load. Take a look at the benchmarks yourself.

While there’s something to be desired when it comes to internal space, the Silverstone SETA A1 is a highly impressive cabinet in terms of overall design and performance. It strays away from the overly obnoxious RGB-filled visuals, option for a much classier look, and we can’t help but admire it. There are plenty of options to cater to gamers and creators alike. It’s a bit on the pricier side, but if you have the budget and/or can find a good deal, it’s definitely a solid choice for your next PC build.