SilverStone Fortress FT04 Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on August 29, 2013 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
- ATX
As with their Raven RV04, I'm left with mixed feelings about the SilverStone Fortress FT04. In terms of build quality and adjustability, I think it's worth the premium over the Raven RV04, and frankly as far as air-cooling cases go I have a hard time really suggesting anything better. I think I still slightly favor the old school Fortress FT02, but it's bigger, bulkier, more expensive, and comes with its own idiosyncrasies when it comes to assembly.
If performance is your only concern and you plan to stick with air cooling instead of more exotic options, the Fortress FT04 is basically your weapon of choice. Closed loop cooler support is limited to 120mm options, but exists. This case pretty much demands a multi-GPU configuration with blower-style coolers on the cards, and you're going to get almost exactly the performance you want out of it thanks to the broad range the two included speed-controlled fans are able to run at.
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Yet the Fortress FT04 and its sibling, the Raven RV04, is frustrating. Incredibly so. It's obvious where SilverStone was going, but the process of adapting the brilliant Temjin TJ08-E to a full ATX form factor wound up becoming incredibly fraught. This feels like a case that was stubbornly pushed further and further into production even when it proved to be potentially more trouble than it was worth, and really, the chimera that this case became should've been killed and rebooted early on. At some point, someone should've said "no, this is getting too complicated, we need to start over." I can't imagine it's particularly easy or cheap to manufacture the chassis itself, let alone the fascias, but it could've been simplified without losing the essence of what makes it work.
I've spoken to a lot of case designers since I started covering enclosures here at AnandTech, and my number one piece of advice has almost always been "pay attention to what SilverStone is doing." If I were designing a case right now I'd take a very hard look at the FT04's chassis and start thinking about how I could refine it into something cleaner, simpler, cheaper to produce, and easier to work in. If you're willing to put up with its myriad quirks, the FT04 is a dynamite performer. I just find myself too caught up in "what could've been" to be happy with what "is."
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genghisquan - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - link
In terms of air cooling, their RV02 & FT02 are the best. These new RV/FT04 don't beat their predecessors. Even if the 4th series cases had as good of a cooling ability as their 2nd series, the layout of the 4th series aren't as neat and organized. Although the FT02 can fit more HDD/SSD, the placement of the drive cages is messy and inelegant.dealova - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - link
All above benchmarks, is lower BETTER ?cjs150 - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
SS have made cases that are brilliant for water cooling: TJ07 was king for big cases and TJ08 is very good for M-ATX cases.This also looks to hae real WC potential. Could the Front take a 2x180 radiator (yes they do exist), you might lose the bottom 5.25" bay but so what, that would cool a lot of hardware (2x180 is about 10-12% larger cooling surface than a 4x120 radiator)
rpg1966 - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
Instead of separate temp and noise charts, can you please show a simple scatter chart with (say) temps on X and noise levels on Y, so that we can easily see the trade-offs each case has made?Touche - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
This. Fan speeds would also be nice.And your noise floor of 30 dB is way too high. It makes really quiet cases look worse than they are because they score the same as noisier ones that cool a bit better.
7amood - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
Guys, remember that this case is much smaller than FT01, 02 and I also think it is smaller than FT03.I think I will remove the hinges and make the front panel an easily removable panel. What's the name of this small plastic tool that makes easily removable panels attachable and detachable??
meacupla - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
I think you might be confusing another case.FT03 is an mATX case with extremely small footprint. It's about 1/3 the volumetric size of FT04
7amood - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
OMG >.< you are rightI ment to compare it with the RV not FT.
btw you happen to know the name of this small plasticy tool used on easily removable panels??
meacupla - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
I am guessing you are talking about a spudger. :)maximumGPU - Friday, August 30, 2013 - link
Second this!