A Detailed look – at the Inside
Removing the left side panel provides a good view inside the Fortress FT01 mid-tower enclosure. The interior surfaces are black anodized; just like the exterior and there were no sharp edges to be found anywhere inside the case.  |
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Looking up into the motherboard area you can see the large 180mm intake fan on the top and the smaller 120mm exhaust fan on the back panel. The volume of air being blown into the case by the two 180mm intake fans is greater than the volume of air being blown out by the single 120mm exhaust fan, resulting in positive air pressure inside the case. This arrangement also produces very good localized airflow around the CPU socket area.
There are a total of 7 expansion slots and each vented cover is held in place with a thumb screw. I personally prefer dedicated screws to secure the various expansion cards instead of tool-less retention mechanisms that are sometimes weak. The motherboard tray uses standoffs and includes mounting holes for standard ATX and micro-ATX form factors but does not support extended-ATX.
The power supply is designed to mount in the bottom of the chassis, which helps keep the case’s center of gravity low for better stability. Note the bottom intake air opening directly under the PSU location. This allows a power supply with a bottom intake fan to pull cool outside room air directly into the PSU and then exhaust it out the back of the case.
There are five exposed 5.25” drive bays located down the front of the FT01 enclosure, each fitted with an aluminum bay cover and tool-less retention mechanisms. In the lower section are two HDD cages, which hold seven HDD bays that swing open for easy access to the slide out trays that mount each HDD. The internal 3.5” bays are configured into two removable groups. The upper group of four can be removed if you plan to use one or more 12” long video cards.
Removing the right side panel provides access to the right side of the drive bays and for routing cables and wiring behind the drive bays and motherboard tray. This area will fill up quickly if you have a lot of hardware installed and are not using a power supply with modular cables.
