SilverStone Fortress FT01
Examination:
In designing the FT01, SilverStone engineers had started out with the Temjin TJ07 and went from there. The FT01 inherits the excellent uni-body construction found on the TJ07, but its size is smaller and there are other modifications. The body of the chassis is made out of 3.0mm to 6.0mm aluminum and the overall dimensions are 211 x 486 x 494.5 mm. The net weight for the SilverStone FT01 is 8.66 kilograms. On the front of the chassis there are five external 5.25" drive bays and below that is the power switch along with a 180mm intake fan. This case has no external 3.5" drive bay unless modifying one of the 5.25" bays. The front I/O ports are located on the top of the chassis and consist of two USB 2.0, one IEEE-1394 Firewire, and two audio ports. No eSATA ports are available.
With our SST-FT01B-W, on the side was a window that shows off much of the interior. Removing and installing the side panels is a bit different from most computer enclosures on the markets. There are thumbscrews securing the panels in place, but then a lever must be pulled on each side in order to release the doors.
At the rear of the Fortress chassis are two pre-drilled water-cooling holes near the top for tubing and below that is the motherboard tray, 120mm exhaust fan, and seven expansion slots. Below the motherboard area is the reversible power supply mount. On the bottom of the case is a filtered vent for additional airflow. Behind the front I/O ports at the top of the case is a 180mm intake fan.
Inside the case everything is colored black except for the expansion slot covers and fan grilles. The five 5.25" drive bays support tool-free installation of devices. There are seven internal 3.5" drive bays with a similar mounting/installation mechanism to that of the SilverStone Kublai KL02 and other enclosures. One SilverStone CP05 is installed by default with the FT01, which allows for hot-swapping of SATA devices, but additional CP05 adapters can be installed in the other bays. Directly cooling installed disk drives is the 180mm front-intake fan. At the top of the chassis is the 180mm intake fan that helps cool the motherboard area.
For those concerned about the noise level of their chassis, there is foam padding on both side panels to assist in dampening any noise. The Fortress FT01 is compatible with micro ATX and ATX motherboards, but not with the extended ATX specification.