Introduction and First Impressions
The 5th generation Fortress is a Raven in disguise
The Fortress FT05 is the fifth iteration of SilverStone's Fortress series of enclosures, and, like the latest Raven case, this leverages the complete removal of 5.25" bays to reduce its overall size. We've seen this before as the FT03 completely removed optical support, but this enclosure is related far more closely to the current Raven enclosure than any of its predecessors.
Introduction: The Heart of a Raven
If you're familiar with SilverStone's product lineup you'll know about the Fortress and Raven enclosures which both currently feature an unusual 90° motherboard orientation. This layout places I/O on the top of the case, and helps expel warm air straight up. The Fortress was originally a more conventional design with a standard motherboard layout, but SilverStone switched this to mirror the Raven series with the second version, the FT02. However, just as the Raven series diverged from the original design language and layout of the RV01 with later versions, the Fortress series has undergone some radical changes since its introduction. With this fifth version of the Fortress SilverStone has converged the two enclosure lines, and the FT05 is essentially a more businesslike version of the Raven RV05 – though the design's more conventional exterior also contains noise-dampening material which helps to further differentiate the two enclosures.
Much as the current Raven owes much of its design to an earlier version, in that case the RV01, this new Fortress is a return to the design of the FT02. That earlier Fortress was a large (and quite expensive) case that combined great expandability with excellent cooling, taking the RV01's 90° layout and opening up the interior for an expansive, easy-to-manage interior. A considerable amount of the second gen's interior was devoted to storage, and the front of the case was dominated by 5.25" drive bays.
The second-generation Fortress FT02 interior
The second-gen FT02 design also included no less than three of the large 180mm "Air Penetrator" fans at the bottom of the case, which created significant cooling power in conjunction with the 90° component orientation. The new fifth-gen FT05 follows the same general design but loses about a third of the depth by removing the 5.25" optical drive bays and relocating HDD storage. The interior layout of this new version is more than just similar to the current Raven enclosure, it's actually identical. However the two cases are distinct beyond the external appearance given the differences in the construction of the Fortress FT05. In this review we'll look at what makes this new product stand out, and explore whether it's worth the $185 price tag.
Before taking out of the box, we'll take a look at the features and specs from SilverStone:
Features:
- Aluminum wrap-around exterior with classic SilverStone Fortress styling
- Revolutionary 90 degree motherboard mounting from RAVEN RV01
- Breakthrough 5.25 inch bay-free design for unprecedented power to size ratio
- Two Air Penetrator fans included for great performance and quietness
- Positive air pressure design for excellent cooling/quietness and dust-prevention
- Foam padded interior for advanced noise absorption
- Quick-release latch for fast side panel removal
- Exterior access to main filter for easy maintenance
- Support for various liquid cooling radiator sizes
Specifications:
- Material: Aluminum front, bottom, and rear panels, steel body
- Motherboard: SSI-CEB, ATX, Micro-ATX
- Drive Bays: 3.5" x2, 2.5” x2, Slim slot-loading optical x1,
- Cooling System: Top 120mm fan slot x1, Bottom 180mm AP fan x2 (600/900/1200rpm)
- Downward compatible with 120mm fan x3, or 140mm fan x2
- Expansion Slots: 7
- Front I/O Ports: USB 3.0 x2, Audio x1, Mic x1
- Power Supply Support: ATX
- Expansion Card Support: Compatible with 12.3” long, width restriction 6.57”
- Limitation of CPU cooler: 162mm
- Net Weight: 9.5kg (21 Lbs)
- Dimensions: (WxHxD): 221mm x 483mm x 427mm (8.7” x 19” x 16.8”)
Our thanks to SilverStone for providing the Fortress FT05 for this review!
Packaging and First Impressions
The Fortress arrives in a sturdy box with colorful graphics, and inside we see the same generous padding and protective cloth bag as the Raven RV05.
The included accessories also mirror the RV05, with the usual hardware and instructions accompanied by a magnetic screen filter for the PSU fan vent.
Out of the box we see a very different look compared to the Raven, as the Fortress is all silver with mirrored accents around the front and sides. The overall look is understated and quite boxy, with straight lines and square corners. The enclosure is mostly metal and has a very solid feel and a significant heft.
The side panel of this unit has a window, but it is available without
Next we'll look at the interior and a quick build with the Fortress FT05, and then see how it performed!
Why has Silverstone gone away
Why has Silverstone gone away from all aluminum cases? Pretty much only left with lian li if prefer all aluminum it seems. And now they are charging a premium for a steel bodied case. Once again, as with graphics cards and ssd’s (tlc), we are being lulled into paying out the nose for what are really mid to low level products.
Nicely done review, btw.
Cost, cost and… cost. I’ve
Cost, cost and… cost. I’ve just brought a Phantek Enthoo Primo;
and although I like it; I’m upset by the lack of Al and steel throughout. These days it seems you have to buy CaseLabs to get
that true high quality construction. Then of course your stuck
with the awful prices.
Thanks, glad to know I am not
Thanks, glad to know I am not alone. I have to check out CaseLabs as I am not familiar with them.
Great review, thank you for
Great review, thank you for doing it! I recently did a build for a client in the Silverstone Temjin TJ80B-E Micro ATX tower, and was impressed with the overall quality of the case. It was clearly well made, with the folks at Silverstone paying attention to detail. The documentation was the best I have probably ever seen for a computer case. They seemed to cover all installation scenarios. I did find the build process a bit of a pain, and future servicing in the case could be an issue. I didn’t care for the strange non standard screws they used either…..
nice case, good review,
nice case, good review, really like the top venting approach and sound dampening. Thanks for talking about the build quality, the metal and solid construction puts this high on my list.
Sebastian, you look so tense
Sebastian, you look so tense in the video man lol. As the one who wrote the review you should be able to talk to viewers about the product and not just answering Ryan’s questions. Jk, nice job bro. 😛
So true. It’ll be better next
So true. It’ll be better next time – and everyone will wish I’d stop talking 🙂
looks like my system: ft05
looks like my system: ft05 with corsair H75 and MSI Lightnight GPU.
Great case, and i have the ft02 too.
This is a fine case but I’d
This is a fine case but I’d never use it in place of my ft02. All they did was gimp the ft02 and cut a third off the case. I’m not hurting for space for my desktop. I prefer the ft02 unibody aluminum construction and larger space for E-ATX and more storage. 5.25″ bays come in handy to hold water reservoirs.
Love my FT02’s. My knees,
Love my FT02’s. My knees, back and neck love it every time I switch out a USB device or monitor even more!
An interesting design,
An interesting design, however it doesn’t seem to have much of a cooling advantage compared to standard designs.
An aspect which wasn’t noticed is dust control. From long term usage, I expect more dust will be collected as apposed to standard designs.
I have a couple FT02’s and I
I have a couple FT02’s and I overclock my 3.4GHZ Sandy Bridge i7 and my 4.0 GHz i7 Maxwell CPUs to 4.4GHZ and 4.5GHz respectively and air Cool them. They both run fine when I stress test it with Prime95, never getting over 70°C. I use Very large CPU coolers (Enermax ETS-T40-TB CPU Cooler with T.B.Silence PWM Twister Bearing Cooling Fan, Chrome on my last build) with fins oriented up down. I Also run a pair of overclocked Nvidia 970 Sli GPU’s with both overclocked with stock air coolers in the Sandy Bridge without heat problems.
Nice review. I have an FT02
Nice review. I have an FT02 and love it. To really benefit from this design though you are better off with a big air cooler and, most definitely, a different graphics card.
You ideally want a cooler that has fins which run vertically, allowing them to benefit properly from the stacked air flow and not cause as much turbulence (which I guess would cause noise). Heatpipe orientation can make a different too. The lightning’s fins are perpendicular to the airflow, so none of that huge gust is going through the card, just along the top of it and hitting the end.
I went from two 670s with aftermarket coolers with the fins in the “wrong” (horizontal) orientation, and vertical heatpipes, to standard blower coolers and noise + temps went down noticeably. I gather the non-lightning MSI coolers have vertically orientated fins, and the MSI heatpipes are good, so they should work even better.
Thanks – and you’re right on.
Thanks – and you’re right on. The orientation of heatsink fins makes a difference. This Lightning 290X was a worst-case scenario for heat as it didn’t benefit from the airflow as much and dumps a lot of heat into the case.
Humm…. do you think I could
Humm…. do you think I could fit my 2×180 Radiator on the bottom? Looks like there is a little gap on the bottom. also I could put rubber feet on it to allow airflow under the case.
I don’t think so only because
I don’t think so only because there’s so little extra horizontal room beyond the fans at the bottom. Unless your radiators are barely wider than a 180mm fan I don’t know if two of them would fit side by side. I’ll have to measure the actual space when I get a chance and I can get back to you
Having both my wife’s and my
Having both my wife’s and my desktops in FT02 Fortress cases, I will NEVER EVER go back to a non-rotated motherboard case. I don’t miss crawling around on the floor with a flashlight to add or replace a new USB device, monitor or network cable.
Also if you have to pull the case out to do a video card or MB transplant you simply take a velcro cable tie and rap it around all the cables where they all exit at the top back of the case while standing up, pup the top vent screen off disconnect the cables from the top and pull out the unit and work on it. When you go to re connect the computer slide it back into place and connect all the peripherals including the power cord from the bundle you velcrowed together. What a joy
What I don’t understand is why anyone who builds their own tower computer would ever use the old non-rotated case.