Silverstone Alta G1M review – Vertical And Versatile

Introduction

After covering the release of the Alta G1M last year in one of our news articles, Silverstone contacted us if we would be interested to check it out, together with their SX1000 PSU. Featuring a vertical layout, loads of hardware support and a high airflow setup in a ~30L chassis, this will be interesting to cover.

Specifications

Exterior

The case comes in two colors, white and black. Silverstone chose to send us the black version of the case. Featuring a very minimal look, the case blends in well with everything from an office or living room to a more minimal gaming setup. It’s not flashy, there’s no direct visibility over your components like many gaming-oriented cases have, but the Alta still wouldn’t look out of place in such a setup.

Featuring a mesh panel with plastic cutouts, the front allows the GPU to get plenty of air on the side, which it can exhaust to the top. The left side is a solid panel, hiding away your cables like many others do. The right side houses everything from radiators, fans or storage, just like the back.

The top is a magnetic panel that hides away the I/O of your motherboard and GPU, also using a similar mesh setup to easily exhaust air out of the case. A lack of room to keep the case compact makes it unable to mount any hardware here like the side and back of the case. Here you can also see a clip to hold all cables together, routing out to the back. This leaves the cables out of sight, improving the minimal look even more.

The bottom leaves some room between the feet it’s standing on, allowing the included Silverstone AP184i-pro fan to take air into the case, exhausting it to the top of the case. Below the fan is a dust filter, which is removable without opening any other part of the case, making it easy to clean.

The overall build quality of the case is excellent, though this should be expected given the higher asking price. The only notable thing here would be the top of case, where the top panel only fits on one way. After a while it gets clear how it fits on, but at first it might take you a second try to get it on.

front

back

right side

left side

top 3

top 2

Interior + Assembly

Now let’s get this thing open! Most of the case doesn’t require any tools, as the top is magnetic and the screws below it are thumbscrews. However, you do need a screwdriver for the GPU, motherboard, fans, radiator, storage and PSU. All standoffs come pre-installed.

The case uses a bracket removable with two screws that can mount either up to a 360mm radiator, two 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives or 3 120mm fans. It’s technically possible to combine certain configurations, but this is not always the case. Below you can see how each configuration would look.

The only real complaint I have here is the back allowing little room compared to the rest of the case, making it harder to put in things like the 8 pin EPS header. This is usual for most cases, but is worth noting on a case that’s otherwise mostly modular. On the back you can also house an SFX or SFX-L PSU, which connects with a short wire to the bottom of the case, allowing them to be completely out of sight, just like the top I/O.

There are instructions written on the back that show you which screw holes each type (2.5″ drives, 3.5″ drives and fans/radiators) are meant to be mounted with. The screws used for the 3.5″ and fans/radiator are the same, with the 2.5″ drive using slightly smaller screws that are rounder. Below these instructions you can mount either two 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives or two 120mm fans. A radiator is unlikely to be practical here.

The case requires a USB 3.0, USB 3.1, HD audio and front panel connectors for the power switch, reset switch, HDD LED and power LED to be fully used up front. The front panel headers are separate connectors, which is nice for non-standard boards to work, but harder to work with on most motherboards. A nice touch would be something that merges them all together, so you don’t spend 10 minutes trying to connect everything.

Open 2

itx+gpu

fan bracket 2

3.5 inch bracket 2

rad 1

fan bracket

3.5 inch brakcet

itx

mobo

GPU

GPU 2

2.5 inch bracket

top

SX1000

psu

2.5 inch

3.5 inch

bracket

Filter

panel 3

panel 4

panel 5

PSU 2

PSU 1

panel 1

panel 2

top 2

GPU open

Personal Usecase

For assembly I’ll be using my personal build as I started using this for my daily system, the specifications are all listed below.

I chose for a combination of storage and extra fans for my build, installing two Noctua NF-A12x25’s and two 2.5″ SSDs on the side bracket. Physically it feels like it should’ve been possible to make screw holes for 3 SSDs here, but Silverstone chose to limit it to two. The case doesn’t act nicely with the combination of a downdraft and side-angled SATA power, almost hitting the top fan in my case, but this isn’t an issue with usual air coolers.

Conclusion

Silverstone delivered something unique with the Alta G1M. It’s a versatile, classy looking case with a small footprint. The asking price for it is higher than most would spend on a case, but given it’s one of the few parts that can last you well over a decade without becoming obsolete, it’s worth the investment for a unique case like this. I’ll leave a few alternatives below this to check out.

Alternatives