The article mentions improved bottom fans, but doesn't say how they're different. Are the improvements noticeable/worthwhile?

Also, any word on when this updated version is supposed to be available in the US? I can only seem to find them in Europe/Asia/Australia. [edit: Based on reviews at Amazon at least, it looks like they've rolled into stock and they just haven't changed the model number. May be tough to determine definitively who has which, though.]

There are articles on the web that conducted tests directly comparing older fans and the Air Penetrator fans that are now standard in all FT02 and RV02. Below links to a couple of them:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=553&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=3

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1530259

You can buy the fans separately, seen them online

I have the original FT02 and the case fans on low have a bit of a low frequency rumble - even when standing a few metres away.
They run at around 680rpm when connected to Bitfenix 3 into on 1 fan splitter cable into the motherboard Chassis fan header

But once you plumb in a Zalman Fan mate and and dial the voltage down a touch so it runs a 580-600rpm it is damn quiet even at the dead of the night, sitting within 1 metre
While still having good airflow, enough to keep an 4 ghz i7 930 happy at full load while rendering

I found these fans do not control properly when connected to proper fan controller - the Hi/Low switch does nothing. They just sit at a very low voltage or something
But with the Zalman Fan Mate, you can just set it to HI, dial the Fanmate down to the lowest you can tolerate and leave it.
If you switch it the Low setting, with the Fan mate inline, it will get down to the 300s and be inaudible, but there is no point really.

This case is almost there, in terms of utility, quietness and cooling efficiency, but not quite perfect.
Silverstone should be doing a rev 2 right about now.... starting with the drive racks.... they are too fragile and create too much vibration droning.
And adding 2.5 inch HD and SSD mounting options on these racks would also be smart.

Have you tried connecting the fans directly to the motherboard? Apparently they run at minimum speed that way.

Yes, that's how I'm running them now, but without Fan mate they sit at 680RPM, as per default LOW speed setting, and the Hi switch works, and bumps it up way high since it gets the full 12V
Putting in the Fan Mate inline immediately drops it to 11v, then I dial it down until I see 580-600rpm in Speedfan

Although it might depend on which header and on which motherboard you use.
The CPU header on mine, Gigabyte X58a-UD3R is highly variable, the Chassis Fan headers don't vary too much with CPU temps.
I've only see +-100rpm. The FT02 chassis fans don't vary at all when plugged into the MB

I had to use the motherboard fan software to tune the rpm down to about 550 (which is the minimum I could set it).

I wouldn't say the large fans are silent 0db (you could tell the difference between on and off in a very quiet room), but it is damn close.

One disadvantage with this case that annoys me are the drive bays - you would think they can eliminate hard drive vibration but the truth is that they give off everything they can. It is awkward knowing this when the computer as a whole is quiet. Somehow, it is more annoying than it should, largely because the case is quiet in the first place. I had to suspend the sata hard drives to get rid of it, leaving the airborne noise floating about.

If I was to improve this case, I would reduce the 5.25 dvd drive bays from 5 to 3 or 4 (because I could only see 1 dvd drive being fitted with 2 being used as a possible water cooling extension). Reduce the hard drive bays from 5 to 3, where the 3 remaining slots give each hard drive some space for a silent enclosure (whether ssd or sata).

Yes you need to suspend the drives

here is how I did it
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=64620

woops totally forgot about this. Basically I looked at the way you did the hds vertically and then I thought, "why didn't I do that?" (i did mine horzontally). So in a sense I borrowed your design and did it that way (though not with flat wide elastic, just with the usual bungee rope) .

How do you think a mATX version of the FT02 would fare against the TJ08-E? I just bought the TJ08-E but i would definitly be iching to buy a miniversion of the FT02.



How would it work?

1. First you shave of as much space as possible between the bottom fans and the MB.

2. There is som space between the right 180mm and the right chassi wall. If they make the chassi stand modular it would be possible to have the mounting of the 180mm so that you screw on the 180mm from below (but the 180mm fans are of course inside the case).

3. There is no need for the HDD sleds if they just expand the number of 5,25" bays and include 5,25" --> 3,5" adaptorsleds. That way its also a "gift" to people who want to do DYI suspension since its easier to do in a empty 5,25" then a empty 3,5".

4. With mATX mobo the width would be shorter and therefore if they use 2 x 180mm fans in the bottom, the left one would provide a breeze to the HDDs in 5,25" bay and direct cooling to a discrete GPU. The right one would provide direct cooling to CPU.

5. Too increase value Silverstone could also use mesh 5,25" covers as standard. That would increase airflow to HDD. Also it would make DYI slim 120mm fan placement possible somehow if someone wants that.

Maybe im just stating the obvious?