You had one—no, make that two jobs! The key missions of any desktop PC case (beyond housing your system’s parts, of course) are to keep noise in and let heat out. Other functions such as EMI shielding can be important, too, but we’ve seen too many chassis that throw the basics to the wind to improve style. SilverStone’s $219 Seta Q1, a midtower case designed for quiet operation, doesn’t make such compromises. One reason is that, with all the silencing sheets that line the case, there’s simply nowhere to put windows or any other trivial trappings. This is a serious black box for serious PC builders, and it does its two jobs well.
The Design: Enjoy the Silence
SilverStone doesn’t fudge any specs when it comes to the size and capacity of this chassis. At 19.4 inches tall, the Seta Q1 is a true midtower that earns that designation, despite certain gaming cases of similar height wearing other names. And with room inside for a 13-inch-deep motherboard, there’s no compulsion to exaggerate: SilverStone mentions SSI-EEB compatibility, which is just server-spec speak for the same 12-by-13-inch board size.
The Seta Q1’s front-panel ports are located at the leading edge of the top panel and include one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-As, power and reset buttons, and a combo audio jack for which the company does not provide a headphone/microphone splitter cable. Behind it, the steel top panel features diamond-pattern vents covered from beneath with a removable noise-blocking sheet.
Around back are the standard seven slots of ATX, an extra pair of slots for anyone who wants to mount their graphics card upright on a riser cable (not included), and a 140mm exhaust fan with slotted mounts for vertical adjustment and a second set of mounts that provide a 120mm fan option. Depth measured from the center of the curved front panel is 19.4 inches, with the +2 slot bracket adding another half-inch.
Peeling away the face reveals a flexible-latch center dust filter surrounded by ducts that extend out the side edges. Baffles between the center slot and side ducts are probably meant to reduce reflective noise.
Baffles alone wouldn’t kill noise if it could simply bounce from one hard surface to another, so SilverStone puts a sheet of damping material on the back side of the face in this multi-piece design.
Another dust filter covers about half of the bottom panel and slides out from its rear edge.
Like the side panels, the top panel is covered in a bitumen damping sheet with a cloth face. Unlike the side panels, the top panel’s damper is removable, thanks to a plastic backing stuck to the lid via magnetic strips.
Loaded with two 140mm intake fans and one 140mm exhaust, the Seta Q1 supports up to three 140mm fans up front and three 120mm or two 140mm fans on top.
Inside the Seta Q1 are three holes in the power supply tunnel to ease cable routing, two adjustable brackets for mounting water pumps and/or reservoirs, and enough space to mount a 32mm-thick radiator behind the front fans and/or a 50mm-thick radiator/fan combo above the top edge of the motherboard.
The top-panel fan mounts are also offset to provide 30mm to 48mm of horizontal motherboard clearance when installing a radiator with 140mm or 120mm fan sizes, so feel free to factor in component overlap as needed. Things won’t get as tight up here as they can in many other cases with top radiator mounts.
SilverStone says the Seta Q1 will support power supplies up to 250mm deep, but those willing to sacrifice some front radiator space will find a second set of mounting tabs that let the lower drive cage slide forward another 30mm. In addition to the drive cage, two 2.5-inch trays reside above the power supply tunnel, on the back of the motherboard tray.
Removing and reinstalling the lower drive cage might be necessary to maneuver some super-long power supplies into place, since the cage has a protruding edge that could otherwise block the path. The cage itself supports two 3.5-inch drives, mounted via included shoulder screws to vibration-damping grommets.
The Seta Q1 comes with a warranty sheet, enough additional motherboard standoffs to support a full (13-inch-deep) E-ATX motherboard, various motherboard and drive mounting screws (including the shoulder type needed to prevent damage to the 3.5-inch drive cage grommets), two pump/reservoir mounting brackets, and a separate set of hardware for mounting various liquid cooling devices.
The chassis cables include the standard LED and button cluster, a Gen 2 cable for the front-panel USB-C port, a Gen 1 cable for front-panel USB Type-A, and an HD Audio cable for the front-panel combo jack.
We were able to retain the FSP Dagger Pro 850W power supply from our previous review thanks to its long cables and inclusion of an old-fashioned PS/2-pattern adapter plate, but stepped up to the Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero motherboard to fill some of the vast space within the Seta Q1’s interior. To preserve the case’s top-panel noise damping, we removed one of its included intake fans to install Corsair’s iCue H100i RGB Pro XT up front.
Testing the Seta Q1: Thermal Performance
Here’s a look at the full testing configuration for the Seta Q1. We haven’t tested another full-size silence-minded PC case with our current hardware loadout, so the comparison case here will be the smaller Lian Li A4-H2O.
The designed-for-silence Seta Q1 kept CPU temperatures surprisingly close to those of the tiny Lian Li case when both were closed up, but the uncramped quarters certainly dropped temperatures on the open platform. Keeping the latter data will make less sense as we move toward comparing cases of similar size.
Airflow over the voltage regulator was a concern we had regarding front-mounting our liquid cooling system in the Seta Q1, since top-panel placement usually pulls more air over those heat sinks. The sufficient results you see here quelled our concerns.
The only surprise was an apparent heat buildup surrounding the graphics card during the Seta Q1’s regular (closed case) test. It’s almost as if the exhaust fan was pulling air up and over the card without any flowing past the card’s fans…hmmm.
We were hoping for at least 6dB of noise reduction given the SilverStone’s advanced front-panel design, but we’ll accept 5dB as adequate proof of concept.
We were surprised to see more noise coming from its right front corner than its left, and can only associate the 0.3dB difference with our SPL meter being better aligned to the angle of its right vent.
Verdict: Effectively Quiet
The ability to quiet noisy hardware with minimal sacrifice in temperature is a clear win for the SilverStone Seta Q1, and it’s sure to put this case under at least a few desks. While deploying the top fan mounts for a second 360mm radiator obliges you to remove one of the noise dampers, cavernous space for a 360mm front-panel liquid cooling system offers a great build opportunity to those who choose to add even greater cooling power.
In short, you’ve got a lot of options with this hefty, noise-suppressing chassis. Its plain looks won’t wow, but this case is all about stealth, and by that measure, it’s a quiet, cool customer.
