SilverStone Fortress FT01 Very stylish all-aluminum case

Author: Jouni 'Jipa' Vasama Published: 02.09.2009 Manufacturer: SilverStone Product Group: System enclosures In English Suomeksi

Outside

The FT01 truly is a thing of beauty with the clean and stylish lines following the footsteps of the TJ07 very closely. The unibody structure, meaning the bottom, front and top panels having been bent from a single piece of 6 mm aluminum makes the case very sturdy.

Majority of the front panel is covered by the five 5,25" drive bays. At the bottom there's one of the large meshes covering the 180 mm fans, and on the middle of that there's the SilverStone logo. Between the drive bays and the mesh there's also one of the two power buttons and a blue power led with a dim red HDD activity led in the middle. Unfortunately the drive bay covers aren't made of the same lovely 6 mm aluminum as the unibody chassis, but of the same thin sheet as the side panels. This means that they look ever so slightly different from the rest of the front panel. On the other hand they go nicely together with the mesh, and overall it's just such a tiny detail in an otherwise lovely looking case.

On the top of the case, in a recessed plastic mount there are the front panel connections, as well as the second power button. It really depends on personal favor which of the buttons one wants to use as the power button, and which as reset, as using the smaller top-button as power makes sense if the case is sitting on the floor.

The front panel connections include the usual two USB-ports, headphone and microphone jacks, and a single firewire connector.

Moving on to the bottom of the case, there are two feet shaped from thick aluminum, and four rubber feet to prevent vibrations. There's also a hole for the power supply air intake, but the dust filter on this one is very hard to remove (i.e. you have to remove the PSU to access it).

The rear of the case doesn't hold any major surprises. The power supply is mounted at the bottom, over that are the seven ventilated PCI-slot covers and right at the top there are two holes with rubber grommets for external water cooling hoses. As for the ventilation there's a single 120 mm exhaust fan, and some extra ventilation holes next to the PCI-area.

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