SilverStone Fortress Series FT03B Black Aluminum / Steel Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case

Pros: Beautiful Design Good Storage Options Mostly well built...

Cons: Some odd design choices Only 1 SSD tray. Flimsy panel latches. Not really all that small....

Overall Review: This case looks amazing. Truly it's the best looking computer I've ever built, and everyone who sees mine loves it. A lot of people think it comes from some big fruit company that shall not be named. The only thing that can ruin the view is the pony tail of cables that come off the rear of the top of the case. That can be managed, but forget about having the case pressed flat up against a wall. Silverstone knows however that you're going to proudly display the FT03 for all to see. Otherwise, they wouldn't have put the optical drive slot on the bottom of the case. One thing to keep in mind, is that this system is much bigger than it looks... The interior design is well thought out. There is room for 3 hard drives and one SSD, two massive video cards, an ATX PSU, and even a 120mm water cooling set up or a giant tower style heatsink. The one catch about the system is that it requires a slim, slot load, optical drive. These run twice the price of a traditional drive and half the speed. I don't mind it so much as optical drives are rarely used in this day and age of APP stores, but it can be a pain. Perhaps the two best design ideas Silverstone had was the fact that you can replaced the 120mm intake bottom fan with two 80mm fans instead, and the inclusion of one (or two depending on model) "hot swap" drive bays. I place them in quotation because they're not truly hot swap as you have to remove the side panel to get the drives out. Nevertheless they are nice to have. Inside I have a i5-2500K at 4.5GHZ, Asus V Gene mATX mainboard, two 5870's in Crossfire, SSD, and 2TB WD Black. I used a Silverstone Strider 850 Gold PSU, and I cooled the CPU with a Thermalright Venomous X tower cooler with two 1300 RPM quite fans in a push pull. Because the 5870s are such long cards, I removed the stock 120mm intake fan, and replaced it two 80mm Nexus fans which provide plenty of air, and are close to silent. So why only 3 eggs? First off, the panels on the side of the case are difficult to secure, and easily pop off. They aren't held in place anything other than gravity and willpower. I have yet to move this case without them coming off. Moreover, there are panel gaps between the front and side panels that are obvious. Second, the fan grill at the bottom of the case is absolutely useless. I actually don't even bother with it. I can't get it to reliable stay on, and cuts the intake airflow in half. Third, there is no cooling for the hard drives. One of the drives has an aluminum block on it, but it fails to touch. Fourth, you must use a short cable kit for your PSU which costs $50! Fifth, you can't place this system on the floor and expect to easily get to the optical drive. It's meant to be up on display. Finally the USB 3 top ports are merely connected to your mainboards rear panel. Cheap... If you can live with the short comings, this is a great, beautiful case. I only wish a little more attention to detail had been place

Pros: The design of this case is great, makes you route cables and this makes for a clean install. Build quailty on this case is great, one of very few Micro ATX cases that can fit a full length video card (im running a 4870 with an aftermarket cooler) with room to spare. Lots of cooling if you want it, up to three 120mm fans and 1 80mm fan can be plcaed into this case plus whatever fan you have on the CPU. Case is big enough to fit a good sized CPU cooler, which is nice if you plan on overclocking. Over all great case, different look which is nice.

Cons: 1)lots of screws. I know this doesn't seem like a con but there are just alot of them and the smaller ones you cant lose since they are not a normal universal screw that can be easily replaced. Although these are few and far between (i can only think of 2) they have to be removed to put in the motherboard. 2) no sound deading material at all and no room to put some in. I had 3 120mm sythe fans in my old case (1200 rpm 20db) i put them in here and the thing sounded louder than the old case by far. These move a decent amount of air and i think the smaller case made more of the wooshing sound moving all that air. I replaced 1 with a 800rpm sythe fan (~9db) and removed the other 2. Case is very quite now. 3) Plastic side panel. I know this doesn't sound bad but the entire case is metal but two parts the top plastic grate and this side panel that you can take out to clean the air intake. Just would have been nice if it too had been metal. 4th, Slot load optical drive bay. I put this as a

Overall Review: Great case over all, I am very happy but understood what this case could do and could not do. The people complaining about hard drive cooling, need to realize this is not a case for raptors, or a raid setup. It's for a larger storage drive (or two) and a solid state. I have a 120gig solid state and a 2tb green and have no heat issues at all.

Pros: 1. Great design that cools VERY well. I am running all hardware at the same speeds as my other case (an Antec) and they read similar temps but this thing is much more quiet, esp. on load. 2. Fans push air like mad. 3. Plenty of room, albeit kind of hard to assemble as things need to be removed and re-installed in specific order. Assembly took a little longer than usual, but I enjoyed it; it's a clever case. 4. Metal panels are VERY thick and quite heavy. The back panel has a solid 2" thick Aluminum block glued onto it that makes contact with the HDD in the hot swap bay to cool it like a HS. 5. Lots of room for cables behind tray. I see almost all builds were with a Modular PSU, but I used a non-modular unit and had absolutely no problems hiding all the extra wires behind the MB tray. Save your money, especially if you already have an old build with an adequate PSU.

Cons: Small quirks add up to a less than ideal experience. Firstly, it came with a missing rubber foot, so I have to call SS and get a new one. 2. I got a SONY Optiarc drive and it doesnt fit well at all. There's no actual securing the slot loader, it just slides in and the SONY is obviously too thin so it rattles and moves around. Had to stick a foam sheet on one side to hold it in place, otherwise when it slides, the drive wont eat your discs the right way. 3. Panel fit is, err, not good. Nothing really lines up and although it's not bad, there are noticeable gaps from top to bottom of the side panels when assembled and the top plastic grate will warp over time if you handle it often, causing slight panel gaps. 4. Bottom fan filter is flimsy as hell. It also barely stays on. Just don't touch it if you don't have to, it will last longer; otherwise get some superglue and a few extra magnets and get to work. 5. Panels smudge easily, but that's a product of the finish, not the

Overall Review: Built as an anatomical CAD rendering and analysis PC with: i7 3820 AsRock Extreme 4-M 16GB GSkill Dual channel GTX 670 (reference design) Cooler Master Hyper212 EVO (NOTE: this fits easily with the single included fan and all fans in the case provided you run the heatsink's fan as a pulling fan on top of the cooler to clear the angled CPU fan SS provides with the case. This ate up about an hour to move the cooler master fan to the opp end of the HS because the provided screws are self tapping and require you to tap the mounting holes on the other side of the fan with pure brute force.) 2TB WD Caviar Sony Optiarc DVD SLot loading DVD Burner MAKE SURE YOU GET THIS THING for the slot loading drive as the connector is different to a normal SATA and Molex combo. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270183

Pros: - Very elegant looking. This case is centerpiece-worthy, and takes up a very small desk footprint. - Having all I/O ports on top works wonders for convenience. No more pulling the tower away from the wall, tipping it forward, or grabbing a flashlight to plug things in. Also allows case to be positioned all the way against the wall. - Cable management is pretty decent. There is room between the harddrives and motherboard panel to stuff cables at the rear of the case. - My Hyper 212+ fit with no problem, but I had to mount the fan on the top side of the cooler as a "pull" fan. - Highly recommend purchasing the Silverstone Short Cable Kit for Silverstone PSU's, makes for a much easier install. - Rotated mobo orientation relieves any PCI-Express slot stress from heavy graphics cards. Weight is entirely held from the mounting brackets.

Cons: - Bottom fan filter is useless. Within 20 minutes of it being off the case, it warped beyond all belief, and the magnets are no longer strong enough to keep it attached. This REALLY needs to be addressed. Perhaps a thin aluminum filter with an aluminum mesh needs to be designed. - Right-Angled SATA cables may have issues in this case. If your SATA ports come out vertically from your mobo, use the right angle to straight cables. If your SATA ports come out parallel with the mobo (Maximus Gene-Z), use a straight to straight cable, especially if using the SSD bracket. - Slim Line optical drives are harder to find, and expensive. Required adapter cable is NOT included. - No eject button. If you are outside the Windows environment, and need to eject, you must remove the front panel to press the button. - Stiffer, thicker-gauged DVI/HDMI/VGA cables may not bend tightly enough to use the top cover. - Friction-mounted side panels come off too easily. If lifting case, grab from b

Overall Review: One more con: - Internal A/C cord is extremely thick, and doesn't bend too well. May need some creative routing if using two long GPU's. - If you are using two graphics cards that fit without removing the bottom fan and bracket, I still recommend doing so and mounting two 80mm fans. This way that air is travelling vertically over the GPUs rather than diagonally towards the CPU.

Pros: Something different and functional. I've been wanting a case without any exposed drive bays for a while and this one came close enough. The 90 degree orientation (backplane to top) does work. Depending on your setup, you may not see a huge difference, but going from an Antec 300 to this... I was able to go from 7 fans to 4 and still lower my case temps by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Most people aren't going to buy a case like this without doing a bit of research, so you'll already know most of the good things about this case. The use of a slim optical drive bay isn't a problem for me as I used that area for loose power supply cable storage. Nice finish, hotswap bay, bottom-up cooling, ports are easy to get to without moving case, surprisingly roomy for ram and CPU coolers, fits full length video cards, fits beefy power supplies. Included fans are quiet and run at about 1200rpm. Case comes with a 3x3Pin to Molex Connector. Good cable management: LOTS of places to attach cab

Cons: This case has had some changes. The side panel filter is no longer removable. This becomes extra annoying since you have to remove the entire panel just to switch on or off your power supply. Blue LEDs. Major con for me. Hard drive brackets are not metal, but plastic. The bottom intake filter is worthless. Even when my filter didn't appear to be warped, not all the magnets would stick. What's worse is that the filter couldn't even keep itself attached under its own weight. If you're a modder, you'll want to make your own custom filter. Front audio jacks are grounded to USB. Yep. Noisy. Included fans are made out of extremely brittle plastic. I broke one just pushing the wire back into a retaining clip. Needs tabs on side panel so you can screw them into the top of the case. Inside case powder coat is a joke. Scratches off. My case even came WITH scratches on the inside!

Overall Review: This case needs to go back to the drawing board to fix a couple of issues, but despite these warts... I'm glad I got it. I guess sometimes just being different can be enough. Silverstone's QC is iffy. On one edge the gap between the panels is wider than all the others... but it's not because the case warped or was bent. You pay a bit much for this kind of a case. Knock the price down a bit or fix the issues and you have a total winner. 4 eggs because I knew just about every issue before buying the case. I just really am sick of dealing with tower style cases with the ports in the back. Sick of needing more fans because of too much empty space, sick of noise. This case mostly solves all those issues for me.

Pros: Size, I was worried but this case fits my MSI 7970 and Corsair H80i quite nicely. Sides are easily removable so all areas are accessible; case is a pleasure to work on. The aluminum body panels are a decent gauge and do not flex. The unusual motherboard mounting is brilliant and other manufacturers should take note. The cooling properties of this box are rivaled only by its siblings in Silverstone's Fortress line.

Cons: The only two issues I have are minor and not worth deducting an egg. The first is the placement of the power button; it's on the top of the case and is quite easy to push inadvertently while reaching over the top to fiddle with cables. The other issue is QC in the packing department. Case was meant to come with a specific set of screws, standoffs, and fasteners; it came instead, with a random bag of mismatched screws and no MB standoffs at all. Luckily, I've accumulated a rather large collection of these items over the years so it was not a problem for me but if one does not have standoffs handy, it may be a troublesome build.

Overall Review: So far, I am VERY happy with this case and would choose it again without question.

Pros: The case has a lot of room inside and can still fit a full size heatsink, 2 video cards, full size cooler, RAM with large heatsinks, and 3 3.5" drives. The case is solidly made from thick steel. The panels are extremely easy to remove, giving a full access to the insides making the computer a dream to work with.

Cons: The included bottom filter attaches by magnets. That filter warped and the magnets were to weak to hold it in place. Maybe I'm just unlucky but the filter is useless to me. Wish the filter was attached by thumb screws and/or clips. The top buttons placement; it is very easy to power/reset the whole thing.

Overall Review: FOR THOSE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE LACK OF EJECT BUTTON for the CD/DVD Rom; if you mount the CD Rom just right, you can press the button by pushing on the front case cover gently. It works each and every time, in fact, I love the way it works. I wish the power supply could be mounted upside down. Besides the Case, my current build is (the important bits) ASUS MAXIMUS IV GENE-Z/GEN3 17-256-065 SILVERSTONE 500W PSU 12-162-010 Short Cable Set for the above PSU 27-106-358 LITE-ON DVD Rom 12-200-471 Sata Adapter for the above DVD Rom I've used 2 500GB 2.5" WD Raptors in Raid 0 (need 3.5->2.5" brackets for those) and a 60G SSD for Intel's Z68 chipset HD acceleration. A 2TB HD for backups. I also purchased 3 120mm PWM case fans (the mobo supports up to 4). With I7 2600K the computer runs whisper quiet on idle and is stable up to 4.5GHz.

Pros: This is a very nice looking case with a super clean look. No cables on all four sides. The power cable plugs into the bottom and all of the other cables go into the top (the I/O end of your motherboard faces the top of the case). I got this case because my desk has a rather small shelf to put a PC on. My old case was quite a big longer and there was a lot of overhang. This case fits onto it easily with no overhang. Cooling is well thought out. I replaced the three stock 120mm fans with Cougars (1 PWM and 2 non-PWM), and it runs very quiet. I use a Coolermaster CPU cooler and it fit just fine in the case. My MSI GTX 570 also fit with no problems.

Cons: I wish it came with more than one 2.5" HDD adapter. I have two 2.5" drives and one 3.5" drive, so I had to use a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter for one. It's a compact case, so don't expect it to be roomy to work with. Being able to remove both sides and the front definitely helps, but it's still pretty tight. Cable management is a bit of challenge. The holes in the backplane (the piece the motherboard mounts onto) aren't particularly well thought out - running the SATA cables from the motherboard to the opposite side where the drives are mounted wasn't particularly easy. The lack of access to the optical drives eject button isn't a big deal. I added a shortcut to the desktop using a freeware app that will eject the optical drive - problem solved. It's nice to have a slot loading drive and it creates a very clean look for the case.

Overall Review: Here's a link to the slim SATA cable I used: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270183 And, here's a link to the slim optical drive I used: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106358 Overall, I'm very happy with the look of this case. It keeps my high-end components cool (Core i7-2700K, GTX 570, 16 GB DDR3-1333, Plextor PX-M2 SSD, Hitachi 3 TB HDD, and Seagate 500 GB Hybrid HDD) and runs very quiet - all with a minimal footprint.