Silverstone Tek FT02B-USB3.0 Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Uni-Body Frame Computer Case with 2X USB3.0 Front Ports Cases (Black)

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Price: $229.00    

Product Feature

• Revolutionary 90 degree motherboard mounting from RAVEN RV01
• Innovative 4.5mm aluminum unibody frame from Temin TJ07
• Three 180mm fans for unprecedented positive pressure and stack effect cooling
• Supports liquid cooling radiator mounting
• Motherboard back plate opening behind CPU area for quick cooler assembly
• Foam padded interior for advanced noise absorption
• IF 2010 Product Design Award
• Supports 11-Inch wide ATX motherboard

Product Description

Combining two of SilverStone's most distinctive computer chassis breakthroughs - the unibody construction of the Temin TJ07, introduced in 2005, and the 90 - degrees rotated motherboard mount of the RAVEN RV01 from 2008 - the Fortress FT02 advances both chassis construction and thermodynamics in a dynamic, streamlined design. With the Fortress FT02, SilverStone engineers have combined the rigidity of unibody construction with the unparalleled cooling layout of the RAVEN chassis, adding a hot - swappable hard drive cage and an acoustically padded interior for maximum versatility. The result is increased structural strength, increased storage capacity, and whisper - quiet operation. Available in black and silver colors, its elegant outer shell is perfectly accentuated by the U - shaped unibody aluminum frame that not only provides unique styling, but also functional purpose. The bottom gap from the frame to the main body actually serves as the main air intake area for its three massive 180mm fans, making it even suitable for use on carpeted surfaces. For professionals and enthusiasts looking to build a silent workstation or gaming machine with maximum performance, there is no better than the SilverStone Fortress FT02. Now updated with USB3.0 ports.

Silverstone Tek FT02B-USB3.0 Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Uni-Body Frame Computer Case with 2X USB3.0 Front Ports Cases (Black) Review

Despite the four stars, this is one of the best (if not the best) air-cooling cases money can buy because of its thermodynamic design and shear aesthetic beauty derived from simplicity. It's a high performance case that isn't outlandish in appearance.

Pros:

-Extremely sturdy chassis construction
-Very nice aluminum body with nearly all exposed surfaces made of aluminum or steel (very little plastic)
-For air cooling, there are less than a handful of cases that can beat this case in terms of component temperatures
-Very quiet, but NOT silent (a lot of people have unrealistic expectations)
-The easily removable dust filters on all intakes make this case extremely easy to maintain
-This is the USB 3.0 Updated version: includes some things that weren't in the first FT-02 cases - standard AP181 fans (no removable fan grill now, so fits a 12in HD5970 graphics card), black sleeving on the fan cables (except for top exhaust fan), HDD drive trays all have 2.5 in mounting holes for ssd's
-Everything else not mentioned here or in the cons section

Cons:

-Very Heavy, difficult to transport when fully loaded without bear-hugging it (no handles - the price to pay for good looks)
-GPU cooler specific - this case works best with a blower type heatsink, the twin fan designs will fight against the natural airflow of the case (still viable, but not ideal). Heatsinks that with fins that aren't parallel to the case's natural airflow will render the heatsink solution near useless! (excess heat will build up) AKA ASUS direct CU II (gtx 680 version) will not work, but MSI Twin Frozr will be fine.
-Not enough space for 7th expansion slot gpu - most of you won't run into a problem here unless you decide to put a card here; it will run into the hard drive bays.
-Along the same lines, long optical drives will not fit in the top 5.25 bay and the other bays will run into the 7th expansion slot.
-You may need to buy PSU cable extensions as some components like HDD's or graphics cards may be very far away (I had no trouble installing an HDD in the furthest slot and two graphics cards, but it came really close to not reaching).
-Quality control is lacking! - see below
-Top panel is composed of too much plastic, although the exposed parts are steel. The underlying frame is plastic, which makes you feel like you might snap off pins when trying to remove it.
-Metal parts of top panel shields significant amounts of wireless signal from pcie slots or motherboard i/o area ~ 1 bar;DON'T USE SHORT ANTENNAS;ethernet or extended antennas are OK.
-Power/HDD LED is obnoxiously bright. Seriously, the blue light can light up an entire room at night, and can be very annoying when flashing in sleep/hibernate.
-Only one hot swap HDD bay is included - at this price, it should be on all of them.

Quality Control - mine came with a misplaced padding strip on the side panel that was halfway melted off, which also had the consequence of having some of the paint chipped - VERY UNHAPPY ABOUT THIS, although I don't know if it's enough of a justification for RMA or request for another side panel. Honestly, I would have given the case five stars if it weren't for this defect. The front panel i/o audio port was defective with my unit and after contacting Silverstone, they promptly shipped me a replacement panel.

I know it seems like I listed a lot of negatives, but you must remember that many of these are nit-picky so that you can understand all the major/minor flaws. All other aspects of this case are near perfection. If you value a high performance case that has subdued beauty, there really is very little you can chose from.

Other thoughts:

PSU is hung from four screws and nudged by a small bracket beneath it. It looks more dangerous than it is. Although it is a mid-tower, the case is very deep; make sure this case fits where you intend to put it. Also, this is an air cooling case; water cooling this case present lots of issues with radiator mounting configurations (bottom of the case only). You will sacrifice one or more of the following:
-Securely fastening the radiator and fans to the case
-Fitting a x*180 radiator without running into the motherboard tray
-Getting rid of the dust filters and/or hard drive bays to fit a radiator
Please just stick to air cooling here.

Update: 2012/11/30

Dust filtering of this system is utterly flawless. Extremely easy to clean. It's easy to accidentally chip a tiny bit of paint when removing the side panels and/or installing new pcie cards.

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