Silverstone FT03 - "The Dark Airflow Edition'

shatpank81 · 2 May 2015 at 15:39

hi
bit of background about my build...
always liked the Silverstone FT03 and i saw one on that popular auction site.
it had been absolutely battered, misused and mistreated!
whoever had the case should not be allowed to own this type of equipment
to spend over £100 on such a case and treat it like they had was outrageous...
anyway i saved it and wanted to give it some tender love and care

got the case (paid £27 for it - bit of a result), it absolutely stunk! smelt like they must have smoked 100 cigarettes a day and sat right next to the PC whilst doing it
the filters was full of ****, so were the fans and and due to the smell, i refused to use them!
they also damaged the power lead (HOW?) but i am waiting back from Silverstone on getting a replacement.
cleaned the panels, and ended up with an empty shell.

ok so thats the story told and now what to do with?
will be using the majority of the parts of my new build which i only put together a couple of weeks ago into a different case:
MSI B85m Gaming Motherboard
8GB TeamGroup Memory
i5 4460
GTX 770 Ref 4GB
EVGA 650W GS

the one thing about the FT03 is airflow is, well terrible in it and wanted a bit of a window
so i got the panels and marked them up ready for cutting:

the fans i will be using are:
3 x Noiseblocker PL1 120mm 900rpm fans.
also some nice silverstone Grills

i have cut the front and back panels to add a 120mm fan and the grill:

i will post more over the next couple of days as i continue the build, Wife and Little'un are away till Tuesday so i am hoping to get it all finished in the next day or so.

Sorry about photo quality, i only have an iPhone 5s

Telecaster · 2 May 2015 at 16:58

I think airflow is great, it acts as a natural chimney funneling the hot air out of the top. At least mine seems to work well without extra fans.

It's easy to damage the power cable depending on the orientation of your PSUs IEC socket, if it's upside down then trying to twist the cable over so the plug is in the correct orientation can be tricky.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, good work man!

shatpank81 · 3 May 2015 at 18:31

Update - 03/05/15

so got most of the build done, its amazing how much you can get done when the missus isnt nagging/moaning for me to do jobs or go shopping and also not having the daughter constantly running off with stuff

anyway
both the front and back panel have been cut as per my first post, fans have been mounted

you may note that the rear fan as been mounted on the outside, i did this because inside the case the fan was like 1cm away from the GTX 770, and to be honest i quite like the look of it on the outside

installed all the equipment, but i had i a conundrum, i had fitted 3 x 120mm fans
but i did not fancy running them all off molex and running at full pelt.
a fan controller would be ideal, but no 5.25 bays etc
but i had a cunning plan

i would not be using the 3.5” HDD bay and i had got in the loft an old akasa 3.5” bay fan controller
so i managed to fit it in the 3.5 bay and have it hidden, and when i want to adjust fan speed, i just pop open the 3.5” hot swap/hidden tray

i was going to add a window, but the Clear perspex i ordered was dreadful…
it had loads of teeth/cutting marks on it, but cut the side panel ready

but for now i have built the PC

, hope you like it

once i have added the window, i think i will add some LEDs

dacads · 3 May 2015 at 22:32

Looks really cool mate, good work with the Dremel too (Y) also I like what you did with the fan controller, clever

so overall a great find and nice little project.

P.s I have the same fans they are great

Wilko_Dog · 4 May 2015 at 00:31

That is a sweet build, love that case !

mushtafa · 4 May 2015 at 09:28

This case looks amazing! Very good work!

shatpank81 · 6 May 2015 at 20:38

thanks guys
i have used corsair af120's before and liked them, but liked the all black on the noiseblockers..
the noise, or should i say the lack of noise is remarkable. the quietest fans i have ever purchased!
still waiting on the perspex, but unsure whether or not to add LEDs to the window

daresso · 6 May 2015 at 21:13

I like your style, OP. Are 3 pin fans speed adjustable with a fan controller?

shatpank81 · 6 May 2015 at 21:39

daresso said:
I like your style, OP. Are 3 pin fans speed adjustable with a fan controller?

thanks

not fully, but stops them slightly running at full pelt which is what i wanted to do.
i didnt have any 5v/7v etc adapters so rather than spending money i used that old fan controller i had

Luggs · 7 May 2015 at 08:21

Great build and mods, really nicely done

R63 · 7 May 2015 at 16:28

Beautiful case. Awesome mod. Congrats on the build.

shatpank81 · 11 May 2015 at 21:26

well today my clear acrylic and LEDS turned up
i mounted the acrylic using m5 bolts and flat hexagon nuts..
but thought the acrylic looked too plain, it needed something....
i know my build is predominately black, and i had a spare Batman decal from my macbook (i received 2 of them) so thought i would add it to the acrylic

with the 2 x 30cm LEDs, i soldered longer wires on to them. braided the cables with grey/black sleeve and added 3pin adapters.
plugged them into my fan controller, so i can adjust the brightess and really happy with the results..

Note: i know the acrylic is dusty, for the life of me i cannot remove the dust no matter what i use

colinmcr · 19 May 2015 at 07:15

Your dust problem can be solved by using selotape, then spray a 50/50 solution of water and washing up liquid or antistatic cleaner, dry with a damp microfibre cloth. Never use paper towel

I'm sure I read somewhere if you rubbed a different type of plastic you can swap the charge, but I dunno which kind. There are modern hair dryers which contain ion emitters to reduce static, if you had one of them that might help to.

shatpank81 · 20 May 2015 at 10:54

an update:
A HUUUUGGGE thanks to Silverstone, contacted their EU office and told them about the power cable being absolutely cut to pieces etc.
they said as long as i had an invoice and a serial number for a case they would send me one, i had in fact purchased the same case last year but sold it due to me leaving PC Gaming to go Next Gen Console (big mistake), so i told them that serial number (i keep all serial numbers logged - Force of habit from work) and invoice and they sent me a replacement power cable!

Acrylic:
i got one of those cheap TV screen cleaning kits from a local B&M, was only £1 and came with a brush, cloth and cleaning solution.
that seems to have done the trick, will have to keep it clean but i tend to give my pc a clean out every fortnight.

Sayso · 20 May 2015 at 14:01

I one of those but cut a double fan grill into the back, I just found air to noisy.
Is a great looking case.

shatpank81 · 21 May 2015 at 21:18

Sayso said:
I one of those but cut a double fan grill into the back, I just found air to noisy.
Is a great looking case.

i have always been annoyed by fan noise, but i can honestly say those 3 x noiseblockers to me are silent!
i have tried loads of different brands of fans, and the noiseblockers are amazing
the only noise i hear in my case is from my new Raijintek aeros fan.
but as an whole, i am well happy with the noise coming from of the case....