Hi guys, I like to join in on the conversations here as it looks like there are a few misconceptions:
The FT04 isn't much better either, same case bar aesthetics/materials I think. Wish they'd come up with a real successor to the FT02...
I think our model number schemes may have been misunderstood. The FT04 was never meant to be a successor to FT02, just like FT02 was not meant to succeed FT01. They are all different cases made for different purpose/tastes. We are still producing all these cases to be sold at the same time!
It's a pity SilverStone have given up on the rotated motherboard design. For a single gpu setup the noise vs performance of the RV02/FT02 can't be beat. Once the fans are hooked up to a controller you can have them barely spinning, or even disable the bottom fans altogether during idle/desktop use. Try that with a standard case and everything will overheat.
We never gave up on the rotated motherboard design because we are not phasing out any of the case model that has it. In fact, we have several design in development right now with rotated motherboard layout. As to noise vs. performance of RV02/FT02, you are right that they can't be beat after we updated them with AP181 fans in 2010, but that is until RV04/FT04 came along.
Just got an rv03 for a build today...have an ft02 myself...I can't understand why they didn't take the rv03 interior and the ft02 styling....I can't imagine the ft02 was a bad seller...surely that should tell them something!
We contemplated making a FT version of RV03, but the two protruding vents on the side panels would have looked out of place on a very clean design and they had to be there for functional purposes. A major selling point for those buying a FT was aesthetics, so we couldn't make that sacrifice. It was a tough decision! FT02 was a reasonably good seller for its price, but sales of "gaming" cases with plastic exterior such as HAF cases from Cooler Master or Phantom from NZXT were easily more than ten times better.
Lastly I hope you guys read the entire article linked by the OP instead of forming quick opinions based on a few photographs. The engineering that we put into the RV04 aren't easily seen but are nevertheless quite tremendous and this shows in RV04's staggering cooling efficiency. With only two fans, the RV04 managed to beat the previous best case on Anandtech, the Rosewill Blackhaw Ultra, for cooling performance, which had eight fans installed and had beaten plenty of other high performance cases before it!
