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  • brett.bdy - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Definitely has its issues, but still better than the FT03. Still unsure about which case I'm going with my next build. The Fractal Design ones are stellar for a company I only just learned about.

    PS
    Fitting review for my birthday!
  • headbox - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link

    $250 for a case that is still junk compared to a Mac Pro. Seriously JUNK! People wonder why Macs cost more? It's because they don't just round 2 edges of a cheap ATX case and have a jungle of cables inside. WHEN WILL WE SEE A PC CASE THAT ISN'T OVER PRICED CRAP???
  • truthbeacon - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link

    " WHEN WILL WE SEE A PC CASE THAT ISN'T OVER PRICED CRAP??? "

    You see them all the time in (for instance) the Level 10 GT.

    When will we see anything from Jobsland that isn't overpriced crap? Never.
    When will we see anything that hints at creative diversity from Jobsland? Never.
    When will we see anything terribly original from Jobsland? Those days ended a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

    Damned crApple troll.
  • DallasWits - Monday, August 29, 2011 - link

    Second this.

    I thought the apple trolls stayed over at Engadget and Arstechnica.....
  • Bobben49 - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link

    Three years ago I built an air cooled 2700K sandy bridge system (I ordered MB and CPU on January 9th 2011 the day it was released) installed in this Silverstone Fortress 2 case. I had the system up and running stably at 4.4GHZ (I have all 4 cores locked at that speed none of that turbo stuff) on day after these two parts arrived. The longest downtime I've had since then was swapping out the MB with the B3 upgrade that I got free when the intel chipset problem was detected. I've had about 5 BSD's in 3 and a half years mostly from doing dumb things like rebooting the machine during the middle of a MS system upgrade. I've never had never had an overheating problem the cores are running at 38-44 degrees C right now and in the 70's C when I run Prime95 stress tests. Hey Mack trol. go look at the 1984 introducing the Mac ad. Your one of the zombies watching the movie not the one throwing the sledgehammer at the screen
    BTW! Until your new Mac Tube Steak came out, three years after I built my system, there was not a MacPro out there that could do an Adobe Photoshop HDR Merge faster than the system built by this schlup with no EE degree a couple grand and no multi million dollar budget. By the way what is your framerate on running Battlefield 4 on your Mac Pro. . . Oh! I forgot you can't run real games on a Mac . . My Mistake.
    Bob Benson
    My real Name "headbox" I don't have to hide my name like you Mac Zombie Trolls
  • IAMTHEPROCESSOR - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    ANYMOO take off the steal grill at the top of the case improves airflow a lot i mean unless you know you have a wire that would fall in there if so do some cable tying on top of you case with your cables and just leave the top panel off for better temperatures you won't have to put fans on high! Put a noctua nhd14 then you never put those fans on high ANYMOO did you forget that not all the fans need to be put on high at the same time to get better temperatures! Now if you really want good temperatures change those fans on the bottom to 180mm fans without grill that are faster but make less noise then actually do some cable tying and don't complain like a noob about how lazy you are that you need to shovel your wires in the back of you case!!!! Also takoff psu fan grill!

    My PC specs

    GTX 590 700MHZ!

    2600K 5.0 GHZ!

    COUGH CABLE TYING COUCH!!!! NEAT LIKE A PRO!
  • JarredWalton - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    What the heck is with the CAPS and ANYMOO comments? It almost reads like a spam comment with the additions of random comments. "COUGH CABLE TYING COUCH!!!" Thanks for that -- very useful. I'm not even sure it's worth responding, but at the risk of stating the obvious:

    This is a review of a case, and as such it looks at how the case ships. Given this is a $250 case, it should include everything you need for optimal performance. Do the filters restrict airflow? Yes, a bit, but they also keep out dust. Does the top cable cover do the same? Sure, and it also makes the top of your PC not look like a mess of wires.

    As the review points out, there's plenty that can be done to improve the case, but a lot of what can be done requires extra investments into an already expensive case. Different fans? $20 a pop for good quality options. USB 3.0 top ports? Probably another $20-$40. The FT02 is still a very good case, and the review is very positive overall, but that doesn't mean the case is perfect. Your suggestions amount to taking several of the key features of the FT02 and removing them, so why even bother in the first place?
  • mtoma - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    You're right, the above comments are unusual, to say the least! It implies a lack of basic english. However, I have to pretty-please ask Dustin to put some extra photos in his future Silverstone cases reviews. Those extra-photos should present the case attached to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I hope I don't ask for much, but I am concerned about the external cable routing (because of the I/O ports located on top of the case), and how neat it is.

    Maybe this would convince me about SIlverstone's original motherboard assembly, because, altough it's efficient, I want to see some esthetics to it.

    To date, my reference case-design is Antec P183 and future Antec P280.
    Thanks a bunch!
  • Dustin Sklavos - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    That's a little more tricky to do, but for what it's worth the cable bundle spewing out of my tower through the routing hole in the back:

    3x DVI, one HDMI, 4x USB, Ethernet, FireWire, optical audio, eSATA, and a power cable.

    It's not the most attractive thing in the world, but I leave the top cover on and my GTX 580 barely hits 70C under load. I'd say aesthetically it's probably fine. Actually more than fine, because having to route all the cables through the back winds up bundling them together quite nicely. :)
  • Samus - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    FT01 owner here, and I'll say for sure it has its problems (low quality, odd sized 180mm stock fans, expensive additional SATA backplanes, top fan filter that is irremovable without partial case disassembly)

    ...but it's still the best case I've ever owned.
  • sweetca - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link

    Thank you so much! I laughed so hard and ended up choking on the M&M I was eating.
  • ACEkombatkiwi - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Great review as all ways but I hope you cleaned up those cables :)

    It is one of the few cases that can fit a HWlabs Black Ice SR-1 560 internally without heaps of modding.

    Where did you get those USB 3.0 connectors from that is the only reason I had against this case for a build that is coming up.
  • Rick83 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I actually see a USB 3.0 version being sold in Europe.
    Not sure about overseas.
  • Bobben49 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link

    I just got a USB3.0 version from Amazon on July 28th 2014 to build my wife's new system in. They are currently in stock listed as "Silverstone Tek FT02B-USB3.0. . ."
  • Affectionate-Bed-980 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    While I realize review data may be old, this is a CLEAR competitor against Antec's P183 or P182. I forget if you guys even did a P183 review, but this is clearly one of those ATX cases that come to mind.

    P183/Define R3/HZXT H2/Silverstone FT02 are very commonly debated cases on forums and stuff.
  • radium69 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Jarred,
    When are you going to review the Lian Li a70F case?
    I've heard it's great value and a lot of nice features.
    Just need a little push to open up my wallet :)

    http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php...

    It's quite an old model, but it looks very sleek. Especially if you take the LED fans out and replace them with normal black ones.

    Pricing is around 180 euro's in europe, can't get a hold of it though.
    The A77 is her bigger brother and looks very nice also!

    Cheers,
    Kevin
  • don_k - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Seconded for a Lian Li review :)
    Kevin you can get the A70 from caseking.de for 170EUR + shipping. They have most Lian Lis in stock. I actually have the A77F - it's a thing of beauty, words don't do it justice.

    To mention just one thing, humongous full tower case that weighs just about 9Kg (20lbs)..
  • JarredWalton - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Talk to Dustin, not me! ;-)

    I think we've pinged Lian Li before, as well as Fractal Designs. I'll tell Dustin to try again on both, though.
  • R3MF - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    i have this case too, and it was worth the money.

    i agree with more room behind the tray, and side-mounted optical drives.
  • Sunburn74 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    The writer is wrong on anumber of accounts. These criticisms of his opinions come from someone who has owned the case for about 9 months now.

    Criticisms
    The writer says it is in dire need of an eighth expansion slot but doesn't say why. I yet to have found myself deficient in expansions and I have a dual slot gpu, a single slot sound card, and a single slot tv tuner card.

    There is an issue with the top 5.25 bay and the last expansion slot, but its something that can easily be avoided by populating your 5.25 bays from the bottom up. It still looks aesthetically pleasing and is perfectly normal.

    The FT02 doesn't need more ports in the top cluster. The fact that the vertical orientation puts all the difficult to reach ports normally in the back of your board right on top, makes it unnecessary to have an all inclusive top cluster at all. I'm even surprised you went as far as to add a USB 3.0 front port, when whever I need to use my 3.0 slot, I can pop the mesh and I have as many of them right there.

    The PSU strap is fine. Its only purpose is to hold the psu in place whilst you screw it in on the initial install. Once you've done that, the screws do all the work. The writer fails to understand that.

    The case costs 250 but its fit and finish and appearance is in line with the "premiumville' cases the writer mentions. No case is perfect, but at the 250 its just as clean and beautiful looking as the more expensive 800d and the lian li x2000f both of which I was considering at the time.

    The real issues with the case are as follows:

    The 2.5 mounting system is pretty lousy for running SSD raid setups. I ended up just sticking both my ssds into one of the 3.5 drive bays without any screws. They are ssds and do just fine, but it'd be nice if there were a cleaner solution. You can purchase SSD mounts but they don't work very well with silverstones railing system for some reason (i tried).

    The dust trays are easily accessible and relatively effective, but nonetheless a ton of dust will build up on the fans and cause them to get slightly noisy over time. The sata bays take a bit dust hit too despire the presence of filters. The internal mobo and etc will however remain very very clean.

    The back psu air supply is questionable and has cord reach issues with certain PSUs (corsair psus in general).

    Overall I don't see myself replacing this case for 3-4 years (this coming from a guy who replaced his case at a clip of every 5-6 months due to one issue or another). My internals are clearn and the case is quiet. Its also a stoic monolith in my room. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 8.7 after 9 months of ownership.
  • Dustin Sklavos - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    It's hard to say someone is wrong when you're citing what I think are largely opinions and my own personal experiences with the FT02.

    An eighth expansion slot would be appreciated because as an X58 board owner, I personally did make use of the eighth slot in my 600T by spacing my second video card down to the bottom PCI x16 slot to improve airflow between cards. YOU may not have run into this issue, but I sure did.

    Placing the optical drives from the bottom up instead of the top down is frankly asinine. This case is under my desk, I want the ODD as close to the top as possible to be more easily accessible, and frankly to me it DOES look weird to have them at the bottom instead of the top. This is a problem with the design.

    Popping the top panel off of the case to access ports also defeats the purpose of even having the panel there to begin with. And I don't know about you, but the one on my FT02 actually does take a little force to remove. PLUS, those ports are recessed, making it hard to see them (at least from where I'm sitting) to even access them.

    I didn't use the PSU strap when I installed the PSU in the FT02 in testing and in my personal system; I use the screwed in "support ledge" which is honestly a bit wonky. But the PSU strap seems awfully clunky to begin with. Also keep in mind that while the screws are doing the work to keep the PSU in place, they're also having more stress placed on them than they would in a traditional case.

    And it's true the case does feel like a premium, $250 case. That doesn't really negate the fact that it's $250, which is NOT a mild amount of money to spend on an enclosure.
  • Bobben49 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link

    I have owned my original FT02 for 3 1/2 years and have not once missed crawling around on my hands and knees to plug in a new external device. My initial thought and my firm opinion now is that why in the heck did it take case manufactures 30 years to figure out that a vertical orientation is both thermodynamically and ergonomically vastly superior to the horizontal orientation of the motherboard in a tower case. What I wonder is why in heck would any manufacturer make a horizontally oriented tower case?
  • rpg1966 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

  • Dustin Sklavos - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    SilverStone sent it to me. Let me get in touch with my contact and see if he can give me a link to where you can order it, but failing that I'm sure if you get in touch with their customer service they'll make it available to you. I know Antec's really good about that having dealt with them personally and off the record before; if SilverStone doesn't help you out, come back here and let us know. ;)
  • justaviking - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    "undoubtedly cable of pulling more"

    Undoubtedly you meant to say "capable of pulling more". :)
  • Stotty01 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Great review however the overclocked results simply don't seem to make sense. Unless I am reading it completely wrong, which I doubt, you are suggesting that a stock Antec Sonata IV results in a cooler CPU temperature than a Silverstone Fortress FT02? Other reviews also seem to contradict this result.

    What is your control over your ambient temperature?

    Apart from sponsorship agreements, is there any justification for using the Zalman CNPS9900 MAX? Because it seems odd for testing thermals and noise ratios that one of the loudest and least efficient coolers would be chosen. Wouldn't it make a little more sense if on next revision, a quiet and efficient cooler was chosen?

    What was the fan settings set to and has there been any software or bios updates allowed that could have affected the aggressiveness of fan response?

    Personally, for testing cases I think it would be great if a fairly mainstream, efficient cooler was selected that was set to say 9 volt or equal to the PSU noise to completely eliminate such issues and provide a more useful comparison between cases. That being an isolated one based on their included fans and configuration.

    Also if there was a test for each with the GPU fan speed set to say 70% or 90%, we could also get an accurate idea as to how well the air is circulated to the video card without having to worry about the dynamic fan speed adjustments compensating for lower or higher temperatures which depending on model works off ranges and not necessarily absolute ratios?

    Your feedback would be appreciated.
  • JarredWalton - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    The HSF wasn't used because of sponsorship agreements; it was selected as a reasonable cooler that quite a few people use. All of the components are basically there for the same reason -- they represent a reasonable setup. Since we're doing apples-to-apples case testing, we have to use the same components in each case. Would a different CPU HSF change the results? Undoubtedly, but it would change the results on every case we've reviewed. You also need to factor in the noise levels with the performance, so even if a case doesn't run as cool, if it runs quiet that's a bonus.

    If you're going to buy the FT02, you might as well splurge on a good HSF, make sure to get blower-style GPUs (so not the HD 6990 or GTX 590), and perhaps even look into alternative 180mm fans that aren't as loud.

    Personally, I'm not as concerned with 5-10C extra on the CPU when it's still running at less than 70C as I am with 10-20C extra on the GPUs. Right now, I have a couple HD 5870 cards in my gaming system, spaced too close together, and under load the things get LOUD. A different motherboard and case would help, but for now I'm using what I have.
  • radium69 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Hey don,
    Just bought the Xigmatek Elysium from casekings.de incl shipping for 173 euro.
    It is a BEAST. Look at the size of that thing. I find it a real big black beauty.

    Maybe interesting for AT review aswell.
    It costs 160 Euro's normally in Germany, US might see good prices aswell.
    Hard to resist so I bought it just a moment ago. I fell in love :')

    Dustin,
    http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&la...

    When are you going to review this baby!?
    Johnnyguru did a review but I know you guys can do way better :)
  • Gascogne - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I love my FT02 case. =D

    The only things I wish for is a smaller version of the FT02 since I only use one 5 1/4" and two 3.5".
    We will see what Silverstone brings us in the future. ^^
  • Zoeff - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I've got the RV02-E, which is basically the same case but with a slight amount of raven styling. The only practical difference that I can see would be the screwless design on the 5.25" bays which as the reviewer mentioned is a bit odd considering the left side needs screws anyway.

    I agree with all of the downsides but I've managed to work my way around all of them. If you have a tower CPU cooler and a GPU that blows air out the top but you're put off by the price of the FT02 then I recommend getting the RV02-E instead (Make sure it's the E model). It's about 50 to 80 euros cheaper where I live, depending on the store. This made it an obvious choice for me.
  • veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Hi everyone! This is my first post and would like to say that I really like Anandtech.com, guys you're great!

    So right on the subject - I think that there is some general issue with testing methodology or accuracy of temperature measurements.

    OK, let see what are the temperatures reported by the SSD:

    Stock speed/ IDLE
    FT02 33 C (low fan)
    RV03 29 C

    Stock speed/Load
    FT02 35 C (low fan)
    RV03 31 C
  • veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Difference 4 C, both Idle and Load.
    How is this even possible?! It's a HUGE difference for the same piece of hardware and same conditions (same ambient temperature, same mount method)?!

    Again, the SSD was mounted in a way, that airflow inside the case doesn't affect it's temperature. This statement is more true for RV03 then FT02, because RV03 doesn't have a 180 mm fan under hard drive bay. So for FT02 still there is a little chance to "catch" some of the airflow from third fan. But in thermal diagrams we can see that the SSD in RV03 is cooler then in FT02

    So I have to conclude that the ambient temperature was NOT the same when both cases are reviewed. Which means that all other thermal results (CPU, GPU, chipset etc.) are not relevant.

    Please, let me know what do you think.
  • Uritziel - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly; however, I think the answer you're looking for is that the SSD in the RV03 is mounted behind the mobo, where it receives a fair amount of air flow due to one of the fans being offset.
  • veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    No, I want to say that in both cases Raven03 and Fortress02, the SSD was mounted under the motherboard tray and the airflow created by the fans affects it's temperature very little, if any.
    In FT02 a little amount of air is possible to reach the SSD, hence the SSD should be more cooler in FT02, then in RV03. But the thermal readings shows exactly the opposite results, which means that something is wrong.

    I intentionally choose to compare the thermal results of two Silversone's cases, because they are using same mounting method for SSD's.
  • Uritziel - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    While both cases can mount the SSD behind the mobo, it seems to me the similarity stops there. The RV03 has an air channel back there. The fans actually extend behind the mobo, and the air can continue past the SSD to exit via venting holes in the top.
    I'm not as familiar with the FT02, but looking at the top-down view in the gallery here, there seems to be no air channel behind the mobo. The fans don't appear to actually extend behind the mobo, and I see no venting at the top either. Also, does the FT02 also use the newer "air penetrator" fans (or whatever they're called) that the RV03 uses?
    I just recently put my RV03 build together, so I'm trying to help you make sense of the thermal discrepancy since Dustin hasn't responded to you yet.
  • veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I make my conclusions only by using images from the gallery.

    Please take a look here:
    http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1235#3

    Please show me where is that air channel?
    As I can see there is a metal folded plate which "hide" the SSD from airflow.
  • banthracis - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    It's stated that ambient varies from 71F to 74F so it's not a constant. If fact, unless the room is temperature controlled, I'd also assume the variance is greater as as these systems increase ambient over time.

    It would be much better IMO to measure delta's like bit-tech or normalize the data like HardOCP does, rather than simply give the temperature.
  • veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Yes, I agree with you that thermal results as delta is more accurate.
    And I suspect that that big difference in SSD's temperature comes from different ambient temperature.
  • don_k - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Just to point out that a 4C difference on an SSD is simply down to ambient temperature or positioning of the SSD and even then, it does not matter.

    It's an SSD. It uses just a few W of power, it's not going to get hot in the first place.

    Worry about gpu/cpu deltas, not SSD temps.
  • banthracis - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    The point he's trying to make, is that if the SSD's should have been the same temp, yet are 4C off, then does this mean there was a 4C ambient temp difference?

    If so, that makes all the thermal tests results invalid for comparison, not just the SSD ones.

    So basically, vs the RV02 for ex, the FT02 could temps should be 4c lower than what's on those graphs, a significant difference considering how close temps are.
  • veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Exactly!!!
    Thank you!
  • banthracis - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I did find the FT02 vs RV03 temps odd since bit tech has the FT02 on low beating the RV03 on high.

    Also, over on HardOCPs FT0 thread, Tony Ou, Silverstone's sales rep mentioned that in their internal testing that the RV03 should get very close to the FT02, but implies it shouldn't be better.
    somewhere in this thread
  • veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I'm sorry this is my short post version, because Anand didn't allow me to post all the text at once
  • Devoted - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Hi Dustin, and congrats on another great review.

    I'd like to know if you'd be able to test the FT02 with a graphics card with a non-reference cooler, like a Twin Frozr from MSI or a WindForce from Gigabyte... Since these coolers don't push air outside the case, I'm curious if the vertical aiflow orientation will be detrimental to their performance.

    I've been reading conflicting results allover the 'net, both from people who have consistently good results and from other who claim the GPU's temp steadily climb until it's over the card's threshold...

    Anyone has any opinion/data on this? I'm considering moving from an Antec P182 to a FT02, but I'll also be getting a new graphics card, so I'm cautious about this...

    thanks!
  • runavaio - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link

    I've used for a year and a half a FT02 housing a very hot GTX295, without problems, despite it being the dual pcb earlier design.

    A few months ago I switched to a GTX570 and so far, so good, despite this one is a zotac non-reference design with a central fan. Probably not the best choice for this case, but for me, it is a lot cooler than my old gtx295.

    With neither of them I have had cooling trouble, nor feared for the temps, always cool and as quiet as those cards can be.

    Just this week I have also updated from a Q9450@3,55ghz with noctua C14 to a 2600K@4,6ghz with noctua d14, awesome difference!

    I always wanted to set up a water-cooled rig, but I have settled for a very good air cooling solution.
  • Devoted - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link

    Thanks, just the kind of I needed...

    I'm considering going from a Q6600 to a 2500K and from a 8800GTS to a GTX570 SOC, and maybe change the case later on... we'll see..

    I've been entertaining the notion of watercooling for quite some time but I always end up going for aircooling, too.
  • danjw - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I would really like a review of the P193 v3. I haven't found any English language reviews of it.
  • sakanade - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    Nice review.

    Could you elaborate more on swapping the usb2.0 panel for a 3.0?

    Where did you get one that fits the FT02?
  • sakanade - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link

    I mean the cables...

    sorry
  • burningrave101 - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link

    You can contact Silverstone RMA here in the USA to order the USB 3.0 upgrade kit and last I called about it it was $12 shipped.
  • TheYeti - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link

    But seriously, positive pressure cases always out perform negative pressure cases in cooling tests. Fans will often increase air pressure by 2 psi, or 12%. vs the same pressure drop you might get 25% more cooling, maybe even more since the intake fans are supplying the exhaust fans, not fighting them for air.

    The trade off for positive pressure cases has always been the noise that they produce. I like the way that was managed by letting the carpet eat it up.
  • shenjing - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link

    Come go and see, will not regret it Oh look

    http://www。ifancyshop。com
  • dac7nco - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link

    some of these guys have legit beefs with the review. I may know 1 person in 50 who still uses a Zalman CPU cooler, and they would probably be rocking a C2D or AM2 CPU. As to snapping the "roof" off of the case to access USB3 ports... look at yourself in the mirror and recommend that. I've built systems with this case and Pus/Pull Megahalems you wouldn't believe had fans at all. Yes, I hate the dreadlocks out of the rear: being able to daisy-chain displayport ala SCSI will clean that up a LOT.

    A tip: I've found that rigid toslink (optical audio) cables don't clear the closed roof well... look for "thin".

    Daimon
  • dac7nco - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link

    Edit: and your love for Lian Li's side-mounted optical bays is bizarre. Those are an abomination, which I'm sure you fancy, but have never used. New to this, eh?
  • hurrakan - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link

    I've been planning to get this case for my next build.

    scan.co.uk seem to have a new version with USB 3:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-fortres...
  • bramdb - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link

    I just emailed SilverStone sales with a request to give me a price for the part. My request got forwarded to RMA EU (I live in Slovakia).

    Here's the result:
    part (no G113032): 20 euro
    shippping: 19 euro
    VAT on both: 7,58 euro
    total cost: 47,48 EURO

    outrageous!

    I expected it to be somewhere around 10 euro for the part (they're already making a profit like that) and another 5 or so for the shipping (this thing fits in a bubblewrap).

    This is the last time I bought a Silverstone case with this kind of aftersales on such a high-end product.
  • Gonemad - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link

    I guess vertical (90º rotated, whatever) cases like this are not something extraordinary, but I guess they are not exactly common either. I've been under a rock in the past 6 months and didn't see many of them, nor I know anybody that owns one. So I ask this, isn't it a bit of a concern the PCI-E socket being forced in a specific direction (I am trying to say short-circuit sliding here) specially if the case is under a desk where it may be close to people with 'happy' feet?

    Y'know, won't some bumping and nudging cripple the graphics cards, especially our 2-pound gaming rigs? Yes, mine is screwed tight and all, but running it on vertical still looks dangerous to me. Bending it on the side, OTOH, never appealed to me either. I'm still looking for a good design in desktop fashion, where the card sit its weight straight on the slot...

    On another view, USB ports are closer and more usable than ever. Instead of being tucked in the back, they are on top, which is great for cases that will be on lower shelves. I liked the design, and I'll look into it...
  • Bobben49 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link

    I've been running vertically for 3 1/2 years and have never had a problem with card slippage even with double wide dual-fan video cards. The FT02 are very well manufactures so that the cards line up perfectly and the steel of the superstructure is stiff and thick enough that it does not warp down and the screws holding the card ends don't strip their threading. The thing weights over 30 pounds empty and is built solid as a tank.
  • Oxygen12 - Tuesday, September 15, 2020 - link

    I have an FT02 since 2013 and still using it. I still like the case despite it's many quirks and shortcomings. I would buy an updated version in a heartbeat.

    Something I really don't understand with these results are the temps between low/high modes under idle. Under Idle: Almost always the results seem to show a much lower temp for CPU/GPU on the low fan setting compared to the high fan setting - that is completely counter-intuitive - a higher fan speed should have a lower temp at idle than a lower fan setting. At Load: The high fan setting manages to edge out the temps vs the low fan setting, this directionally seems correct, but i would have expected a bigger difference.

    What I conclude from this, is the tests done at the high fan speed had a significantly higher ambient temperature than when the tests were performed at low fan speed. It just doesn't make sense any other way to me - someone correct me please.

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