Hardware SilverStone Fortress FT03 Review

lovely case, shame i just spent a fortune on the equally good FT02, because I do love mATX.

 

If I had the money it would be at the top of my list. It's a hard sell at that price though.

 

I just built my new setup yesterday with this case, P8P67-MPro and an H70 (with some GTs) so far so goood!

 

I picked one of these up last week. By far the best looking and coolest case I've ever had. Cables are really neatly packed away too.
I did have trouble getting the side panel seated on the PSU side though. The plug on the PSU (NorthQ PSU) sat right on the lip where the grill clips in. I used a few motherboard stand-offs to sit the PSU a little further back and everything was dandy.
Running two HDD's (F3) didn't cause too mush trouble with cable routing and their respective temperatures are cool too. There is also plenty of space behind the PSU to bundle spare cable into.
The hot-swap HDD cage has been fettled and now holds a card reader.
Fantastic case.

 

infernalmachine, tipz69 get your rigs on the project logs. Would be good to see them in action.

 

Any idea if its available in white, as seen in the exhibitions? It just looks nicer/cleaner lines in white.

 

The other variant isn't white, it's aluminum with a white plastic side vent. IMO it looks just wrong, but AFAIK it should be available as well.

 

I love everything about this slick little case, but how are you supposed to get a disk out of the optical drive if you aren't in an operating system??

 

Evening all,

I'm fairly new to the forums at Bit-tech but have been a long time reader of the site.

I've literally just got this case in myself, along with an Asus Maximus III GENE and a CoolIT ECO A.L.C. (Thank you Scan)

If i may, to Snips & wuyanxu : I've actually got an Coolit ECO i'm installing with an intermediate 25mm shroud. Will let you know how this plays out since the H70 radiator is that little bit thicker than the ALC. but if definitely does fit. Arrangement (case top exit): case; fan; shroud; radiatior, with the fan blowing out the back of the case.

I'm going to put a project log together as i put this thing together, though i'm re-using a few parts out my old system so it's taking time to merge the two systems.

With a bit of luck i can get on to it this weekend!

 

We need to see photos of what this looks like with all the leads (PSU, dvi, USB etc) plugged in please. The photos you've posted could be from the company, but don't reflect in any way what the case would be like to own.
Thanks

 

Cheers jaffa, I was pretty sure it would fit at the top. Look forward to seeing your build.

 

Strange that the main Air intake sucks up the exhaust of the PSU

 

Currently using a SG05 and while nice, I can catagorically say I'm not buying another sfx psu powered chassis. They simply can't supply enough power, as it is i'm struggling to power even 3 usb ports... Given that this has a custom psu, I'd give it an extremely wide berth.
Fractal have it right, their chassis's support atx psus but are still pretty small and look gorgeous.

 

This case takes any ATX PSU

 

A great looking case. But don't leave your coffee cup on top...

More eyecandy here.

+1
If you look at this vid, it seems the cables come out of the top (very last frames), which looks pretty messy to say the least.

 

The cables come out of the back of the case at the top. There are 2 usb / audio ports on the top (one is being used in that video). It looks much neater than a standard rear facing port case IMO.

 

Sounds messy, first mod would be to get the cables routed back through the case and out of the bottom then

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAvtfV2dU_0&feature=related

Good demo of this case.

 

Sorry if im being silly here. But the CD/DVD "slot", doesnt seem to offer up an eject button from what i can see.

While i know you can eject easily from within windows, but what happens if your not in windows. (During install or similar).

Ahh, i see from the above youtube video, if the worst was to happen, it seems simply enough to just whip the front of the case to access the eject button. Maybe inconvenient, but i suppose that was a design decision in keeping it as clean lined as possible.

 

will be a Fractal matx mini for me once available!!!!!