Leo Builds EK Quantum Custom Kit in SilverStone Seta-A1

Last week the KitGuru audience was treated to the vision of Happy Leo when he unboxed a huge consignment of EKWB Quantum cooling hardware. And now it is time for a PC build to show off a variety of Quantum hardware, including the EK Quantum Magnitude CPU block for AM4 in Plexi and Nickel.

We have not yet reviewed the SilverStone Seta A1 so this is a good opportunity to take a look at this ATX case with dual 200mm front fans and an interesting front panel with RGB lighting.

Main features

• Brilliantly styled with combination of aluminum front bezel and tempered glass side panel
• Beautiful embedded addressable RGB lighting with controller included
• Support up to two 200mm front fans
• Front I/O includes USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port and standard single 3.5 mm audio jack
• Extra expansion slot supports mounting graphics card vertically

Specification:
Motherboard support: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX.
Expansion slots: 7+2 Vertical.
Included fans: 2x 200mm front intakes, 1x 120mm rear exhaust.
Fan mounts: 3x 120mm/2x 140mm front, 2x 120mm roof, 1x 120mm/140mm rear.
Radiator mounts: 360mm front, 240mm roof, 120mm rear.
5.25-inch optical drive bays: None.
Internal drive bays: 2x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 4x 2.5-inch.
Dimensions: 470mm H x 432mm D x 225mm W.

We selected a hefty pile of EK Quantum hardware for our build, including a 120mm Volume FLT reservoir at the rear of the case, a 240mm Kinetic FLT pump/reservoir unit for the front and in pride of place we chose the Magnitude CPU block in Nickel and Plexi.

As you will see in our video, we went overboard with the cooling hardware and the resulting build was a very close fit in the SilverStone Seta A1 with mere millimetres of clearance between the RTX 2080 graphics card and Quantum Kinetic pump/reservoir unit. It may not be obvious but the 16mm PETG tubing runs very close to a number of components including the G.Skill Trident Z Neo RAM and the graphics card.

Case: SilverStone Seta A1
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite
Memory: 32GB G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-3600MHz
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2080 8GB GDDR5
SSD: 240GB Toshiba RC100 M.2 NVMe
Power Supply: SilverStone ST85F-GS Gold 850W

Custom Loop Cooling
Pump/Reservoir: EKWB Quantum Kinetic FLT 240 DDC PWM D-RGB Plexi
Rear Reservoir: EKWB Quantum Volume FLT 120 D-RGB
CPU Block: EKWB Quantum Magnitude D-RGB AM4 Nickel Plexi
Radiator: EKWB CoolStream SE 360
Case fans: 2x EKWB Vardar EVO 120ER RGB
Fittings: EKWB Torque HTC-16 with red accent rings
Tube: EKWB HD PETG 12/16mm
Coolant: EKWB CryoFuel Solid Azure Blue

Performance Testing

Performance Testing Overview

While this is NOT a review of either EK Magnitude or SilverStone Seta A1, we couldn't miss the opportunity for some thermal testing and the fact is our Ryzen 9 3900X suffered in AIDA64. This is an intensive test but even so, we were surprised to see the significant temperature drop when we removed the front panel from the Seta A1. It is tempting to say ‘Make the front panel Mesh' but our current working theory is that the combination of front panel, stock 200mm fans, 360mm radiator and EK Quantum Kinetic pump/reservoir is blocking air flow to a significant extent.

Closing Thoughts.

There is a long list of hardware inside the Seta A1 however the headline part is the Magnitude CPU block. We are going to have to get busy with some serious testing of this part as it is clear the design of the Magnitude hardware gives it the potential to be the best CPU block we have ever seen. That's just conjecture at the moment and we need the facts and figures to back up our gut instinct.

When it comes to the FLT reservoirs we confirmed the first thoughts we had during our EK unboxing, that it is simple to install these parts to get a visual effect but using them without blocking airflow is a different proposition. Now we have a full range of Quantum hardware you can be sure we will devote a good deal of thought to how we use this innovative new cooling hardware from EKWB in future.

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KitGuru says: We love the look of our finished SilverStone and EKWB build.

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