Silverstone Fortress FT04 Case Review!!!

Silverstone cases are often praised by enthusiasts and HTPC builders alike, and with good reason. Last time we checked one out it was the Fortress FT03, the direct predecessor of the case we are reviewing today. The FT03 was unlike anything we had seen before, receiving TechSpot's Outstanding award as it was able to accommodate full length graphics cards and offered superior cooling performance on a small footprint.

It was interesting that the FT03 was different than previous Fortress models, and despite the steep asking price, the chassis did well as Silverstone followed up with the FT03-Mini, a Mini-ITX version that was even smaller.

Two years later, the much anticipated Fortress FT04 has made it to market. Upon first glance this latest version looks a lot like the FT01 that was released back in 2008. The FT04 shares similar dimensions to the FT01, with a slight increase in size that we assume simply means it can fit drives and longer graphics cards more comfortably.

The Fortress FT04 has been designed to maximize cooling while generating as little noise as possible and it sets out to do it in style. Included in the package is a pair of massive 180mm Air Penetrator AP182 adjustable fans which are kept dust free using a new HiFlow fan filter that improves flow rate by nearly 40% compared to its predecessor.

To contain unwanted noise Silverstone has lined much of the interior with foam pads, a method retained from previous designs, while new rear-angled front vents guide potential leaked noise away from the user.

Other features in the FT04 include CPU and graphics card supporters, a removable motherboard tray, and an externally accessible fan filter assembly. Capping off the design is a one piece-like extruded aluminum front door and top panel, giving the FT04 a similar feel to that of the premium Temjin series.

Still, not everyone feels the FT04 is a premium product, with many complaining about the excessive use of plastic, steel body, limited top ventilation and no 90-degree motherboard tray. That said, most of those complaining haven’t actually seen the FT04 in the flesh, though we see where they are coming from.

The FT01 was an all aluminum job and as a result tipped the scales at just 8.66kg, while the FT02 featured aluminum front and panels with a steel body allowing for a weight of 15.3kg, though this was a massive 64.9 litre case. Fast forward and we have the FT04 which only features an aluminum door with a steel body for a weight of 11.5kg.

Yet the real issue is the use of plastic. Finding plastic on the FT01 and FT02 bodies was near impossible while the FT04 is covered in the stuff. Heaps of cases use plastic these days, it can be durable, easily moulded, and above all, cheap.

So is this a big deal and does it spoil the FT04? Read on to find out...

FT04 External Design

From the front, the Silverstone Fortress FT04 certainly looks like a full-tower measuring just 546mm tall.

Although the design is rather bland compared to many of the high-end cases that we've reviewed recently, bland is not necessarily bad, and in this case makes for a clean and tasteful looking computer case in our opinion.

The FT04 features similar curves to that of the original FT01 and we really like the look of the front aluminum panel.

Actually it is more of a door, as it opens to the left exposing a pair of 5.25” drive bays along with a pair of fan speed controllers which are used to adjust the speed of those massive Air Penetrator AP182 fans. The small knobs allow the user to adjust the speed of each fan individually, allowing for anything from 500 RPM to 2000 RPM.

The fans are coloured white and sit behind a large HiFlow fan filter which is easily removed using a pair of press clips.

Both sides of the front door feature the rear-angled front vents which are designed to allow the Air Penetrator AP182 fans to draw air in while deflecting noise away from the user. The vents on the left side of the door are attached and house the hinge system while at the top the power and reset buttons can be found.

The opposite side vents are fixed to the case body and therefore remain attached to the body when the door is opened. This allows for easier access to the 5.25” drive bays as well as the removable dust filter. Additionally it has allowed Silverstone to install a small I/O panel at the top of the vents. This panel includes a pair of USB 3.0 ports along with two audio jacks.

On the inside of the aluminum door is a foam pad which lines most of the door to absorb noise and vibration, the pad itself is 4mm thick and black in colour.

The right hand side of the case is covered by a steel removable door which features a rather large acrylic plastic window. As we just mentioned the front panel connectivity is also found on the right side of the case, though it is part of the front panel.

Spinning the FT04 around reveals the left side door which is just a flat steel panel which has been painted black. The panel measures 400mm long and 500mm tall and is lined on the inside with more 4mm thick sound absorbing foam. Both the right and left doors share the same dimensions and are secured using a pair of thumb screws.

At the top of the FT04 we find another aluminum panel which features a similar design to that of the front door. Towards the back of the top panel is a 160mm x 165mm removable plastic fan grill complete with dust filter. This fan grill is designed to allow cool air into the case which will be sucked in by the power supply.

Around the back we have a rather unusual design. Like in the old days the power supply is mounted in the top of the case. However what’s unique is the upside down motherboard tray which sees the I/O panel at the bottom of the case with the expansion slots above. In total there are 8 expansion slots (many full towers include 11) while there are no holes for routing external water-cooler hoses.

There is room to mount an optional 120mm fan which is covered by a honeycomb grill, though there is no dust filter, this would typically be set as an exhaust fan so a filter shouldn’t be required.

Finally, underneath the FT04 are four feet which raise the case 20mm off the ground. The front feet are moulded to copy the design of the front door while the rear feet stand alone. There are also round screws under the case which fix the internal drive cages into place. However it is possible to unscrew them allowing the cages to be removed, which we'll show you on the following page.

Internal Design

Inside the Silverstone Fortress FT04 we find a full black paint job covering everything from the motherboard tray to the drive cages. The motherboard tray is completely removable once four screws are taken care of.

The tray supports Extended ATX motherboards and comes with four standoffs installed. There is an oversize cut-out in the tray which allows rear access to the motherboard for installation of large aftermarket CPU coolers. Additionally, you will find a number of holes in the tray for cable management.

Silverstone allows to remove virtually every component within the FT04. This means the primary 3.5” hard drive cage can be removed, this requires undoing three screws. The pair of hard drives cages in the bottom of the case can also be removed by undoing those screws under the case that we mentioned earlier.

While you might expect these drive cages to be the same, they are not. The cage that sits to the left under the primary drive cage features a tool-less hot-swap bay. The other doesn’t feature the hot-swap adapter, though it can be purchased separately, so it is supported.

Something that might seem odd is the strap at the bottom of these drive cages, its purpose is to act as a pull rope making it easy to pop drives out of the hot-swap bay.

There seems to be a lot of wasted space below the hard drive in each of these cages. The cages themselves stand 50mm tall while 3.5” drives are just 23mm, so what is all that extra room for? Well, underneath each of the 3.5” drives it is possible to install a pair of 2.5” drives, giving the FT04 support for four 2.5” drives total, ideal for those wanting to install an array of SSDs.

The FT04 also features an adjustable CPU cooler holder designed to support large coolers when moving the case, a novel idea that should please those scared about their 1kg heatsink ripping apart their expensive motherboard.

Moving to the top of the case we have the 5.25” drive bays and the power supply mount. Both are enclosed in a steel case which is open at the bottom allowing cables to pass through. The advantage of this design is that is allows a lot of room to hide excess cables while it allows for power supplies of any length to be installed. The downside is it makes getting to the back of the 5.25” bays a little harder than normal.

Factory fitted cooling starts and finishes with the pair of front mounted AP182 180mm intake fans. It is possible to remove these fans and install three 120mm fans allowing for the installation of a 360mm triple-fan radiator. The only optional fan mounts include support for a rear 120mm exhaust fan which seems surprisingly limited.

Silverstone has included a graphics card support arm which works really well. For those installing one or more extra-long graphics cards there's a real risk of the cards bending under their own weight. This placed a lot of strain on the cards' PCB and the PCIe slot. The adjustable graphics card support is designed to alleviate that strain by providing support to the back end of the cards.

Installation Impressions

With the right side door removed we gaze into what looks like an extremely cramped and busy computer case. Now where to begin…

The motherboard tray is easily removed allowing us to install the motherboard along with CPU and cooler. It's also possible to install the CPU cooler at any point thanks to the oversized motherboard tray cut-out which provides access to the underside of the motherboard.

Still, with the FT04 being such a cramped case we would much prefer to install the CPU cooler with the tray removed from the case. For demonstration purposes we installed the large Thermalright Macho Rev.A, one of the favourite coolers of our recent cooler roundup.

The Macho Rev.A is about as big as you will want to go in the FT04, as it makes getting hard drives in and out of the primary drive cage quite difficult, while the SATA power and data cables get in the way once installed.

With the primary components installed onto the motherboard we slotted the tray back into the case and installed the hard drives. The FT04 has been photographed with six Western Digital Red 4TB hard drives installed. Clipping the two drives into the lower cages takes just seconds and with the hot-swap bay wired up there is little more that needs to be done.

The primary drive cage which can house five drives is mounted long ways within the case which means in order to install or remove drives you must first remove the drive cage. This is a very annoying design for a couple of reasons.

With all the SATA data and power cables neatly plugged in there isn’t really any slack in the cables, which means removing the drive cage with all the drives still connected isn’t really possible. Having to remove up to five SATA data and power cables every time you want to install or remove a drive isn’t exactly practical, in fact it’s bloody annoying.

Unfortunately that's not where issues with the drive cage end. When using the Asrock Fatal1ty X79 Champion motherboard we found that the 24-pin ATX power connector was blocked, forcing us to unplug all the drives so that we could remove the cage and plug the power cable in.

Don’t expect to be able to change the memory modules either without first having to unplug all your drives and remove the cage.

We don’t understand the decision to use this design considering there is room to mount the drives sideways. This would solve all these problems by providing more usable space within the FT04 while allowing easy access to the primary drive cage, after all this is how the bottom two drive cages are mounted.

Moving past the frustratingly annoying 5-bay drive cage we decided to mount the power supply next. This required the removal of the top cover which was easily done by unscrewing a pair of thumb screws.

With that done we dropped in an OCZ ZX Series 1250w which was easy enough, though again we had the not so enjoyable task of hooking up all those 3.5” drives in the primary bay. The issue being that the SATA power cables hit the Macho Rev.A CPU cooler which not just looked messy but also obstructed air-flow.

Dropping in a pair of Radeon graphics cards went smoothly and with 360mm of room even the very longest cards will fit with room to spare. This aspect of the case is quite nice as the top 180mm fan feeds cool air directly to the graphics cards.

Overall working with the Silverstone FT04 wasn’t as enjoyable as we had hoped. In the past we have loved building with the Raven cases and even the FT03 was a lot of fun. The FT04 on the other hand just seems really impractical with no real reason behind some of the design choices.

Operating Temperature

To ensure accurate thermal results, we installed the same hardware in each case in virtually the same way. Components included the Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional, Phenom II X6 1100T, Prolimatech Megahalems in passive mode (i.e. no fan actively dispelling heat), Inno3D GeForce GTX 580 OC, half a dozen Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB hard drives, and OCZ's ZX 1000w power supply.

With the system at idle the Silverstone Fortress FT04 had no trouble keeping the hard drives and graphics card extremely cool. The passively cooled Prolimatech Megahalems heatsink on the other hand just wasn’t getting enough direct air-flow with the 3.5” drives in the way and the GTX 580 was blocking most of the air from the top of the case.

As a result the Phenom II X6 1100T ran with an idle temperature of 47 degrees which is very high. Although this isn’t the highest result we have seen, with some cases pushing into the 50 degree range, it is much higher than those that keep the CPU below 30 degrees.

The stress temperatures of the FT04 shows a similar pattern to what was seen at idle. Here the hard drive and graphics card temperatures are as low as we have seen, which is great news for the FT04. However the CPU temperature was again higher than most, hitting 83 degrees, while most cases operate between 70 – 74 degrees.

FT04: Improving the Formula?

Having tested the Silverstone Fortress FT04 in full, what I was expecting to find wasn’t quite the case, no pun intended. The results from our hands-on testing were unexpected based on previous great experiences with Silverstone cases.

For those concerned with the use of plastic, I don’t see this as a serious issue. For the most part the use of plastic is limited to the side rear-angled front vents and it's hard to distinguish between them and the aluminum front doors. Then there is the issue of the steel body opposed to a lighter aluminum body. At 11.5kg the FT04 is still relatively light for a big case though it's still 33% heavier than the original Fortress FT01.

The most obvious advantage in the Fortress FT04's design is improved GPU cooling. Once everything was installed the case performed well. We set the fans to medium and they were almost silent. The GPU result is one of the best we've seen to date which is a positive mark for Silverstone's latest chassis.

On the not so positive side, the FT04's design is very crammed which leads to a number of inconveniences you simply don’t expect to deal with when building in an eATX case. Silverstone’s biggest error was how they positioned the 5-bay 3.5” drive cage. Why it is oriented long ways rather than sideways is beyond us. Rather than stick all the SATA and power cables out the left side of the case they are aimed directly at the CPU cooler and in the process block a good portion of the motherboard.

This was a poor design choice that made working with the FT04 frustrating, so much so that we wouldn’t want to own this case. Perhaps if you are the kind of user that builds a system and then doesn’t venture back inside for 6-12 months then the inefficient means of removing hardware might not cause as much anguish.

The CPU cooling test result was not good either, as the full 5-bay 3.5” drive cage blocked much of the air-flow to the CPU cooler. Given we test in a passive state, meaning there is no fan attached to the heatsink, it is important that the case directs a large amount of cool air over the CPU cooler. If you were to install the optional rear 120mm exhaust fan we expect that the CPU results could be much better, but compared to the rest of cases we test in similar conditions the FT04 underperformed.

At $230, the Fortress FT04 is not prohibitively expensive but it faces tough competition. Other quality full tower cases typically sell for around $200, the FT04 is a ‘smallish’ full tower case. The Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced costs $100 less. Meanwhile the Lian Li PC-A76WX occupies the same price range, while consumers will only pay slightly more for the award winning Corsair Obsidian 800D.

It's also evident Silverstone is placing the FT04 at a premium compared to its siblings. Their own Raven 3 costs just $150, while their latest fourth generation Raven costs $160. Granted these cases target a slightly different audience, however they are cheaper while offering many of the same features in a bigger package.

Overall we feel Silverstone has missed the mark with the Fortress FT04 as it simply doesn’t live up to their typical standard of ingenuity. The design is so complex to the point where it has started to become impractical and this makes living with the FT04 feel more like a chore than a pleasure. While we don’t doubt this design is complex to produce, at its current price tag there are simply many better options available.

Pros: Handsome looks, silent operation and great GPU cooling performance.

Cons: Complex design makes builiding and changing components a nuisance. Horribly positioned drive cage.