Silverstone Fortress FT02B-W Owners, Your thought's please!!!

C64 · 12 Dec 2010 at 02:18

R5GTT said:
I love my fortress

Really shows the sheer build quality their fortress ft01 is the same exudes quality.
I often find myself looking at it admiring it, never done that before.
And yea the whole window on right side thing is definitely a big oversight as pretty sure most would prefer this case other way round.

daddyorchips · 8 Jan 2011 at 15:10

Any clues about when these might come back into stock? No-one has them!!

Vidar · 8 Jan 2011 at 15:24

I can't wait to replace my Antec 902 with one of these.... After a while those blue lights really get on your wick!

gillie · 12 Jan 2011 at 14:28

Anyone know if the top 120mm fan in the Fortress FT02B case is a Penetrator fan or is it just the three 180mm fans in the bottom of the case which are Penetrators.

If its not would changing it for a Penetrator fan make any difference with an air cooled CPU (Thermaltake FRIO).

Steves1982 · 12 Jan 2011 at 14:51

I think it's just the bottom 3 that are penetrator fans. There's no need to change the top fan as that is an exhaust fan. The penetrator fans focus the airflow so it's pointless having one just focussing the air into your room!

gillie · 12 Jan 2011 at 16:12

Thanks maximusmi2. And understand. No point in trying to optimise airflow OUTSIDE of the case.

gillie · 12 Jan 2011 at 16:19

If there are three 180mm Penetrator fans in the bottom of the case and only a single 120mm fan at the top of the case, doesn't that create a very unbalanced airflow in the case, i.e. the 120mm fan cannot expel the air quick enough to keep up with the three 180mm fans bringing air into the case.

tbh · 12 Jan 2011 at 16:46

maximusmi2 said:
I think it's just the bottom 3 that are penetrator fans. There's no need to change the top fan as that is an exhaust fan. The penetrator fans focus the airflow so it's pointless having one just focussing the air into your room!

Might have been nice for those of us who want to put a Corsair H50 rad there though.

gillie said:
If there are three 180mm Penetrator fans in the bottom of the case and only a single 120mm fan at the top of the case, doesn't that create a very unbalanced airflow in the case, i.e. the 120mm fan cannot expel the air quick enough to keep up with the three 180mm fans bringing air into the case.

This is precisely the point, positive air pressure rather than the negative air pressure as is seen in most designs.

gillie · 12 Jan 2011 at 17:02

Thanks sonicology. Great video.
I'm looking at a new Sandybridge solution, MSI motherboard with i7 2600K CPU overclocked at 4.8GHz or 5GHz.
You mention the Corsair H50 rad. Do you have experience of using the H50 with the Fortress FT02 case, and if so would you recommend it (or even the H70) in favour of a decent air cooler like the Thermaltake FRIO.

tbh · 12 Jan 2011 at 18:39

gillie said:
Thanks sonicology. Great video.
Do you have experience of using the H50 with the Fortress FT02 case, and if so would you recommend it (or even the H70) in favour of a decent air cooler like the Thermaltake FRIO.

I'm afraid not, I'm still waiting for my FT02B-WRI to arrive but once it does the H50 is one of the coolers I am considering using; I'm sure some other FT02 owners have used this cooler however, perhaps they will chime in with their experiences?

pooley · 12 Jan 2011 at 20:28

gillie said:
If there are three 180mm Penetrator fans in the bottom of the case and only a single 120mm fan at the top of the case, doesn't that create a very unbalanced airflow in the case, i.e. the 120mm fan cannot expel the air quick enough to keep up with the three 180mm fans bringing air into the case.

There is also a grill at the side of the 120mm fan that allows air to escape.

Somnambulist · 12 Jan 2011 at 20:42

Yeah there's grills and it doesn't need any fans since the 'APs/heat rises' means it just flows up and out the case. People have tried adding fans just to check and it makes no difference. Likewise whether you set the fans to high or low it still cools excellently, so much so that many people just leave them on low for the lower decibel count.

abercromb · 13 Jan 2011 at 11:39

Anyone know if there is a version of this case with the window on the left rather than the right?

I have an older Silver Fortress case with the windows on the left. But the almost not existant access to the top filter has driven me mad for a year so its on its way out (not looking to mod the old case and its had a few knocks anyway). This with the positive airflow I like, looks like the replacement but only if the window is on the left. Or is there another similar case with positive airflow worth checking out?

Steves1982 · 13 Jan 2011 at 12:23

abercromb said:
Anyone know if there is a version of this case with the window on the left rather than the right?

No, they all have the window on the right. I would prefer one with it on the left too.

Lustral · 13 Jan 2011 at 13:13

Im still using a H50 in my FT02-WRI case

Prolly not the best cooler temp wise , but it is quiet that most other coolers.

I have changed the top 120mm fan to a 120 AP121 Silverstone AP Fan

.temp · 20 Jan 2011 at 05:14

i must say this case is bloody beautiful...and i never thought i'd say that about a case.

Silly question, a GTX 295 will fit in there with no issue right? Hows the sizing on the newer nVidia cards in there, do they fit fine?

Might upgrade my case when I'm back (rockin' an Antec 900-2 at the moment) and this is my number 1 choice right now, it OOOOOOZES quality

Semtax · 20 Jan 2011 at 21:21

.temp said:
i must say this case is bloody beautiful...and i never thought i'd say that about a case.

Silly question, a GTX 295 will fit in there with no issue right? Hows the sizing on the newer nVidia cards in there, do they fit fine?

Might upgrade my case when I'm back (rockin' an Antec 900-2 at the moment) and this is my number 1 choice right now, it OOOOOOZES quality

I believe all the Nvidia cards will fit no problem. I had two 480's in an ft02 and they fit no problem at all (Same length as the new gtx 580's).

The only one that might be slightly too long is the 5970 which is like 12 and a bit inches. But even then all you had to do was move around a fan guard on the case and you could squeeze it in.

Steves1982 · 20 Jan 2011 at 21:33

Does anyone know if the model number has changed for the FT02s that include the AP181 fans?

Also is there much difference in sound levels between the windowed and standard models? I assume the non-windowed is quieter as that entire side is foam padded but unsure as to how much difference that would make.

Semtax · 20 Jan 2011 at 22:25

maximusmi2 said:
Does anyone know if the model number has changed for the FT02s that include the AP181 fans?

Also is there much difference in sound levels between the windowed and standard models? I assume the non-windowed is quieter as that entire side is foam padded but unsure as to how much difference that would make.

The model numbers that come with the AP181 fans are:
FT02B v1.4 and after
FT02S v1.4 and after
FT02B-W v1.7 and after (Although i received one that had 1.4 on the box and it had the AP181 fans)

And the new Raven. RV02B-W v1.7 and after

I was wondering about the noise levels between the two different models myself. I tried switching around the panels on my FT02B-W when i was building it to see if there was much difference and honestly it seemed to make very little difference if any at all.
I don't have any equipment to measure this but i don't think its a difference that should affect your decision. For me the difference was so small that it just came down to personal taste if i liked the window or not... and i really like the window

Steves1982 · 20 Jan 2011 at 23:07

Thanks for the info.

I will more than likely go for the windowed version then as it would look better. Will have to make a big effort with cable management as it's not been my strong point before!

Will probably put a white LED strip in as well at the top too as it may be a bit dark inside otherwise and it's always nice to show off new components