SilverStone Fortress FT02
Examination:
In December of 2008 we reviewed the SilverStone Fortress FT01, which was the first case to launch this Fortress series of cases. The Fortress series was sought after by SilverStone to take the original Temjin TJ07 uni-body design and to build upon that into a new line-up of high-end and reliable enclosures. The FT01 had a great deal, was constructed incredibly well (though it is hard to find anything that falls short of perfection from SilverStone), and was designed around having a positive pressure design for optimal cooling. The Fortress FT01 continues to be used within our test labs, but the Fortress FT02 takes this design a step further.
The Fortress FT02 is still derived from the Temjin TJ07 aluminum uni-body frame and FT01 in some regards, but it has incorporated some of the design from the Raven RV01 with rotating the motherboard tray 90-degrees, its massive bottom-mounted triple 180mm fans, and other characteristics. The Fortress FT02 certainly looks different from the FT01 and the TJ07 due to the rotated motherboard tray it ends up being longer than it is tall. The dimensions for this case are 212 x 497 x 616 mm (W X H x D). The weight on this case that is made of a 4.5mm aluminum frame and 0.8mm steel body is 15 kilograms.
On the front of the Fortress FT02 are the five 5.25-inch drive bays without any door or other covering for the bays and below that is SilverStone's logo. On the top of this case are the power and reset switches (along with LED indicators) and then the front panel ports. The front panel ports on the SilverStone FT02 are concealed behind a door that then exposes two USB 2.0 ports and headphone/microphone connections. No eSATA support has yet to work its way into SilverStone's designs. The back portion of the top of the case pops off similar to the Raven RV02 for exposing the expansion slots and motherboard I/O connections. The bottom of the case is a bit different from the FT01, RV02, and other SilverStone cases in that the metal frame continues and runs the length of the case while elevating the enclosure by a few millimeters to allow the three intake fans to sufficiently pull in air. This is good compared to the RV02 design to ensure the airflow is not inhibited if you end up sitting the case directly on carpet or other surfaces that are not flat. There are, however, two rubber strips to prevent the case from sliding around.