Does anyone know if this chassis will take EATX boards (12x13inch)?

Thanks!

It may fit it but the design that was shown off a month ago was not designed to. Silverstone says they call something midtower if it fits atx and down and full tower if it fits eatx, only the rv01 is considered a full tower out of rv01, rv02, ft01, and early production model of ft02. Keep in mind that the ft02 is likely recieving some love and if they change it to fix the 5870x2 (may be called 5970), then it will also work with eatx. Also it may fstill fit eatx even if not designed for it, but we won't know until release.

Thanks Trigeminal.

If Silverstone is still listening: you'd have a new customer if you release an EATX version of this (or a non plasticky, 'straight' version of the RV-01)

Loking at newegg, I would say this case will work for you. They have 1 eatx that is 12" x 10.38". That should definately fit considering the short part will be the vertical dimension in the ft02 and rv02. Theoretically 12 inches will work as well, but may be tight depending on connector orientation at the end of the board. Got a link for your board?

It's an Intel S5520SC, dual socket board. Physically it really is 12x13" and would need the full 13 inch vertically in the FT02.
Unless Silverstone is currently busy redesigning the chassis to be a couple of inches taller, it won't go.
Shame really as the concept is perfect from a cooling perspective. I was designing my own case with the motherboard in this orientation even before the RV01 came out - but the RV01 is simply to plasticky and garish for me. I love the styling of the FT02, and would buy it immediately if it fits my motherboard. Looks like I may have to build my own after all though...

Silverstone has on its website a small image of the new Fortress02 and the writing CES above it.

The case is apparently going Vegas.

As customers we can only hope, that they solved the internal space issue and the lack of sucking elements on top of the case, which make the Raven02 a poor performer in cooling components that do not have their own ventilators (GPU and CPU).

Never heard anything bad about their cooling performance. Everything I have seen shows the rv02 as quite good in cooling compared to other cases.

Over on the hard forum, tony has been chatting with us some more. Looks like the case will be out this week for online retailers. There have been some minor changes to internals compare to the rv02, but for the most part the internals are very similar.

The cooling performance of the motherboard is worrisome.

Custom PC magazine has completely shredded the case what cooling goes.
I think that the cause of such poor performance was in their setup; they use a completely passive system as a reference. Considering that the case is seriously lacking in suction, such setup did highlight this element in all proportion.

In my opinion, one of the best cases on the market for performing PCs is Silverstone JT07 together with Cooler Master ATCS 840.
The only thing necessary with TJ07 is to mod it a little, to add airflow.

What 120mm CPU fan would people recommend for use in this case? S-Flex? Bear in mind that it will be blowing upwards which sleeve fan's don't like doing quietly.

Discussion on CPU fans for horizontal placement on-going at hard right now. Apparently noctua confrirms their new 140mm fan will work in this configuration but there may be a slight increase in nose vibration. Join in, it is much livelier over there currently.

I thought I would be done with case reviewing for a little while, but dang I want one of those! I already loved the design of the original Fortress (one in use right now ) and that's even better.

I hope SPCR reviews the RV02 or FT02 soon and directly compare it to the RV01.

I'm praying that my RV01 don't fall behind too much.

I'm a bit worried to see how bittech rated the rv02's cooling. Maybe their cables were cluttered right on top of the fans. Hell maybe they sat the sucker on a furry rug.

@RBBOT: FYI, I'm using a Noctua 800rpm fan for the exhaust for my RV01. Pretty happy with that.

It may be smaller that the RV01 but it's still massive. I wonder if there's any chance of a uATX design with 2x180mm fans on the bottom, a few less drive bays and a 200W+ passive power supply...

That's a pretty attractive case, and I don't typically like MacPro-esque cases.

That Noctua heatsink looks like a winner; I hadn't noticed that before. Especially as some reviews have tested it with just the 140mm centre fan and it still beats the competition, which means the other 120mm fan can be used as an exhaust.

That's assuming it fits in the case height-wise of course.

So when is this coming out? The last message from SST guy implied that it would be in November, but time is winding down, is this officially pushed off into December? I still want it, but delays aren't helping here.

It has already shipped, several stores are quoting an arrival/shiping date of 11/26. My guess is that week or the first week of december should be when the first lot arrives.

Just got an email from Noel at SST saying FT02 will be available (I guess that means available at stores and online retailers) the end of November.

Looks like it can be bought:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10004/cst-980/Silverstone_FT02B_Fortress_Series_Mid-Tower_Chassis_w_Window_-_Black_SST-FT02-BW_Coming_Soon_.html#blank

Anyone got one yet?

In China, I know it's sold at the early of last month, and many guys have got it.

I didn't see a formal review of it yet, but heard some complains about its noise. I mean, by default (three 18cm fans@700/1000 rpm) it can't be a quiet case. Wait for SPCR's review (or Raven 2) with proper reduction of fan speed.

Now that I've got the Raven 2 I really can't wait for the Fortress 2! Same awesome design with better outlooks, I think we'll really have a winner...

For any interested UK buyers Scan now have the FT02 in stock.
They're listing Silver and black versions without window for £195 and black with window for £220
And no I don't want a silver one because £195 is not much for a good case and I can resist. Must resist. Put down the credit card. And back away from the site. There, much better now

And I mustn't even think about looking at SSDs

I found a recently published FT02 review in Chinese. Though it doesn't have english version, the pictures are clear & show more details. Enjoy it!

http://www.chiphell.com/2009/1209/128.html

Just received the case... It's.... It's beautiful Review coming up, feel free to throw me a PM if there's something special you want to know/get measured..

Just unpacked mine and while I wait for the rest of my components to arrive, some first impressions that I hadn't gleamed from the reviews:

Good: The top 5.25" drive bay is entirely above the top edge of motherboard so if you only use this bay then you have room for a custom cooler on a 2nd GPU card without the drives getting in the way no matter how far accross your 2nd PCIe slot is on the motherboard.

Bad: The intake vent on the back is in the wrong place - it is too low down so it partially obstructs the fan intake on the power supply. I don't think it will be a big deal as the power supply I've chosen (Seasonic X-650) runs very cool anyway but it would be nicer if the vent was higher up.

Potentially bad: From the sound it makes when you tap it, the top honeycomb grille may potentially rattle a bit from the vibration - we shall see when I build it. However, it looks like its possible to unscrew it and put some padding underneath if there is a problem.

Don't know if this is good or bad: The NH-14 looks like it will be a very tight fit from standing it on the motherboard in the case. Haven't got the CPU yet so can't be sure but it left dents in the padded foam on the side panel. On the bad side it may transmit fan vibration into the panel creating more noise, on the good side it may reduce the stresses on the motherboard by getting some support from the side panel.

It's great to hear that you got the Silverstone Fortress FT02B! I had been looking at the FT01 and found the FT02 in the process, which looks like it is sealed up (better noise control) more than the FT01. Did you get the black with or without the window?

I am really looking forward to your impressions of the new case, how easy it is to work with (I'm working on my first build, less complications the better), cooling ability and especially how quiet it is. The design seems to make good sense, but I haven't seen reviews yet by anyone who is particularly noise-conscious like this Forum is.



I have been considering the Seasonic X-650 also, so I'm very interested to find out how it performs in this case.



It sounds like you have the non-window version, how thick is the padded foam? I'm thinking that the window version of the case may provide an extra 1/8th inch of clearance before the Noctua touches the plexi-glass, particularly if the plexi-glass if left attached on the outside (I read that some people re-locate it to the inside of the box for appearance reasons).

I was wondering about the weight of the Noctua cooler too, whether approx. 3lbs. hanging at 90° to the motherboard might cause bending or other stress to the board. Is there anything in the ceiling of the FT02B that would allow you to connect a suspension wire of some kind to help support the weight of the Noctua by attaching a wire to the end closest to the window/access panel door?

Thanks, and Happy New Year everyone,

Scott

Hey, here's a question to those who have picked up one of these cases. I'm looking at this case for use in an Ikea desktop pillar/computer holder, and the strictest dimension is the width. The 212mm of this case should fit, but just barely, so I'm curious, is the quoted width a maximum or a minimum? The ones I see listed are usually minimum widths, and it doesn't look like there are any parts that stick out from the sides to increase the actual width, but if there are, please let me know, thanks!

Mine is non-windowed. Unfortunately some of the parts I ordered are still on backorder so I can't tell about performance yet, apart from the Intel X-25M which I slung in my old machine to see what difference it makes, and that I can confirm absolutely rocks. I installed Windows 2008 on a virtual machine while watching the resource monitor on the host and while extracting the files it wrote steadily at 91Mb/s

I plan to reduce the Noctua's weight (and noise) a bit by removing the 2nd fan as some benchmarks have shown it to make very little difference. I may use it to replace the 12mm exit fan in the case if that turns out to be loud.

cordis: it is exactly 212mm and its flat-sided. There are no protrusions.

I also read some reviews showing almost no differnce between single fan and dual fan set-ups, so I was thinking of using the extra/second fan to replace the stock FT02 case top fan too. Then I stumbled across a brand new 17 page review of the Noctua NH-D14 at hardwarecanucks this evening. It's dated for January 4th. I haven't read the whole thing, but skimming the highlights, on this page (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... ew-13.html) they seem to be saying that the mismatched fan sizes (i.e., 120mm & 140mm in a push-pull configuration) will not be as good as two 120mm fans. Further, their graph shows that the single fan configuration, while it did pass their torture test (i7-920 overclocked to 3.8GHz), it did much better with two fans (77° or 84°c in "U.L.N.A." speed) than the single fan configuration (89-89°c).

On the next page (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... ew-14.html) they test dual fans of the same size (i.e., 2 x 120mm, and 2 x 140mm).

2 x 120mm fans = 72.4°c at 3.8GHz under average load, 76°c peak load
2 x 140mm fans = 71.7°c at 3.8GHz under average load, 75°c peak load
(this configuration, 2 x 140mm fans, had the best/lowest measurement at highest overclock for a two-fan configuration)

compared to:

1 x 120mm fan = 85.8°c at 3.8GHz under average load, 89°c peak load
1 x 140mm fan = 85°c at 3.8GHz under average load, 88°c peak load

[they tested various 3-fan combos too, best/lowest temp was 69.3° average, 74° peak at 3.8GHz max overclock with 3 x 140mm]

Food for thought... regardless, it's the best ranking CPU cooler in every review I've seen so far. I'm just hoping it will fit in the FT02B once it's mounted on the motherboard...

Great, thanks for the info. I am really going to have to order one of these now.