As we all know, life is full of compromises - however they took the compromises too far with this case to achieve a tiny footprint at the expense of several issues.

Power buttons that stick out, and poor cleavage suggests a poor design implementation as well.


Andy

I commend Silverstone for thinking outside the box. There's only so much you can do with a traditional ATX layout. With most cases, for me it comes down to how pretty (=plain) is the front and are there grilles/vents on the sides or the top. So it's nice to see some innovation, and the FT03 is definitely an innovative case.

Having said that, I wouldn't buy it.

I like the concept a lot. The case needs reworking with some fundamental changes to be considered. It could be made shorter, loose the hole in the front for CDs, better construction, steel case, drop price a bit, fix the buttons, loose the hotswap... did I miss anything?

Silverstone have demoed the FT03 housing a fanless sytem. Looks quite effective: Fortress FT03 fanless system demonstration. Of course the Orochi is massively oversized for µATX and only one expansion slot looks to be free in this particular setup.

I still really like this case (has to be in black though, silver looks very tatty) and might consider for my next build. However I agree that while the concept is great, the execution is disappointing. I wish Silverstone had sacrificed a fraction of the compactness in favour of 140mm fans. For the review, the choice of a 'top down' CPU cooler is interesting, many user builds I see posted on forums have a tower cooler without fans - just the two case fans. It still looks to me as though there is a lot of potential to build a quiet system (relative to the compactness) by changing the fans and using a cooler optimised for low airflow (Ninja, Thermalright HR-01/HR-02) and 2.5" HDDs inside damping boxes.


RV03 is available soon as well, it's smaller than the RV02/FT02, so maybe it will prove to be a better compromise for noise v. compactness? If RV03 is good, Silverstone will have to create an FT version as the RV styling is quite ugly.

It seems to me though that they were a little too concerned about fitting 120mm fans in there. I know 80mm fans aren't "sexy" these days. But a pair of those in place of the bottom 120mm fan would mean airflow directed at the GPU instead of more towards the CPU. Less airflow at a given noise level but it might still mean more airflow where needed. And the middle fan seems completely unnecessary as it's blowing right onto the CPU fan. Given the bad mounting of it, it seems like it might be better without it.

But points at least for an interesting design. I'm sure with some hacking, it could be made into a nice system. Except that you would hope you wouldn't have to hack something that costs that much.

read the full product description - you can remove the angled 120mm fan mount and use two 80mm fans instead It's designed to accommodate expansion cards up to 13.77" in SLi/Crossfire. There is also an optional 80mm fan mount to use in the upper area above the expansion slots.

Pretty cool, I like the concept here. Too bad you had some quality / vibrational issues with this. I'm a big fan of Silverstone.

We're fans too -- and perhaps had high expectations that were dashed. Silverstone deserves credit for being willing to explore new forms in search of a better case.

Current cases for DIYers have morphed (and generally improved) so far beyond the original ATX case format that manufacturers really should do as Silverstone is doing -- find creative solutions to current demands of both end users and new component hardware. Cooling has always been a clear, explicit requirement, but now, most PC users know they don't have to be loud, so low noise has to be on the list for every case maker. Too bad it still isn't for some.

Looks like a dirty clothes hamper. Not a fan of the design at all.

I still think I'd go with this case only for the looks and form factor. This unit would be beautiful beside a tv set. I'm pretty sure that by carefully choosing the components, you can still achieve something quiet. AKA: change the fans, unmount the main one and go for a double fan cpu cooler, proper cable management, no HDDs (only a SSD), small PSU in the 400-550w range, etc...

Yes, it's a a little odd how they decided to go with it. I've made a couple of more cubic cases with 90 degree rotated motherboards (see my big brass box and smaller wood box thread in the gallery), and it can make things easier to work with and give you great performance, but I'm not sure why they made some of the choices they made here. Having the hard drives under the motherboard should make cable routing easier, but if you're going to do that, it makes sense to have whatever fans you're using at the bottom of the case extend beyond the motherboard to cover them. Going with a horizontal optical slot is just odd, vertical is really the way you want to go in this sort of form factor. It's funny, for my cases I usually try to make them shorter, but here they chose to stack things up to make them taller. Having a case that's just as tall as a tower but with a more squarish W & L, I'm not sure it makes sense. The fans at the odd angles, I don't understand them. If you want to keep the airflow rising, why put these little jogs in the way? Just going with a more traditional micro-atx cube system rotated, with the power supply above the motherboard slots, hard drives underneath the power supply, and a vertical optical drive slot parallel to the motherboard on the opposite side. Put one big fan in the bottom, all the components get that flow, and it's a lot quieter than having small fans moving air around things and it would probably have better cooling, and it could be shorter.

But all in all, I hope this review doesn't discourage them. It's a pretty solid idea, I think the motherboard twist is a great idea, and I hope it does wind up in more cases. They just need to keep it simple next time.

Silverstone is one of the very few companies today actually doing any innovation in chassis design. They've been quite creative making improvements in their cases over the past few years. I like the FT03 concept, even the colour, though i would never have use for this particular case (I need three 5.25" bays). It looks like an elongated Sugo set vertically on edge.

I can hardly wait for the Raven RV03 to hit the review circuit.

Flipping the mobo is a good idea. I likes the way they did it in FT2.
But this case looks like it's still in beta testing. So many problems I lost count.

Like cordis said a big bottom fan and vertical cd to start. And those white plastic mesh just kill the looks. With performance so poor there seems to be no reason for the motherboard flip at all, obviously a design flaw, as we've seen it work before.

Still I am happy to see Silverstone is still trying to innovate. I hope they continue to do so and will have better implementation next time.

Despite your review covering most of the issues with this case, I would like to point out a few things you missed since I have owned this case since launch day.

There's two gaps in the bottom fan filter when you're not using 80mm fans, there is clear evidence from your photos. It also happens to be a huge dust liability, rendering the fan filter useless while increasing noise.

The interior paint job is very poorly done, also shown in your photos. Silverstone delayed the launch of this case to cheap out on the materials and make the case more affordable, it's sitting at a $169 MSRP and the paint job is still vastly inferior to my $30 Silverstone Precision PS40B. The plastic on the $30 case from Silverstone has a better finish too.

There is no way to eliminate the hum from the front panel, due to it's "soft" mounting. The side/rear panel humming can be alleviated via methods similar to yours. However the front panel is soft mounted on two parts of the frame that support the 2 biggest causes of vibration on this case, the centre fan and the hard drives.

The reason for your improved temperatures when laying the case on its side is likely due to heatpipe orientation. Silverstone's manual covers this, but with most non vapor chamber graphics cards there is no way around the problem. The reason the FT02/RV02/RV01 perform so well is because there are 2-3 180mm fans creating a large amount of positive case pressure.

There is also a "dead zone" between the CPU socket and I/O shield, which causes very high VRM temperatures, something not covered in the review. Again the FT02/RV02/RV01 are not affected by this.

Back home we call this a humidifier

Dote! Missed that.

That's my thought too. Any comments on this?

Cheers
Olle

it's directing some airflow down onto the motherboard that may benefit the RAM and the VRMs? and it's better positioned than the fan on the HSF would be to draw in cool air from outside. I said it earlier - many of the builds I see using this case have a bare tower cooler i.e. no fan clipped to the tower, and case fans replaced with something better.

No excuse for the white plastic on a case costing this much. And I'm willing to bet that in five years many of these cases will have broken areas on the plastic.

It's alot of fans in your test configuration. I get a feeling that some of them are just passing air to the next one .

I recently used this case for a system that mainly will be used playing World of Warcraft and i only needed two fans, both running at 5V (Fan Mate on lowest) and both acting as exhaust. Air intakes are sidevent, PCI-slots and to some extent the passive PSU.

HDD: softmounted laptop drive (i have seen two Intel 160GB SSD:s die after a few weeks so i don't trust them)
CPU: Intel Core I3 2100 (more than enough)
VGA: ATI Radeon HD 5570 (1920x1200, decent settings, 40-60 fps)

With one meter open path between right ear and top of the case, it's perhaps not totally silent but you have to listen very carefully in late nights to hear something.

Max temps after playing 3 hours intensive World of Warcraft (HW-Monitor):
Motherboard: 33 C
CPU: 48/42 C
HDD: 36 C
VGA: 68 C

So I am pretty pleased with this case. And btw after three years with my Antec Mini P180, fumbling around behind a door in the dark trying to find that black power switch -I really love this easy switch



The Seasonic X-460 is mounted against instructions, upside down, but drawing only 100-150W I am pretty sure it would be fine anyways. But still, that fan sucking some hot(?) air through the sidevent of the psu doesn't hurt.

Actually i wanted a Sapphire 5670 Ultimate Edition because i know that cooler is great, but PCI-E slot is placed too near cpu socket on all Sandy Bridge m-atx motherboards i've seen, so it doesn't fit . Ofc, I could turn the Noctua cooler 90 degrees...

If you need a more powerfull GPU and are using a PSU with fan, I think it's better to replace the bottom fan with one or two 80 mm, blowing straight up towards VGA card.

Plenty of pictures on this site

Black one looks a lot better than the silver/white combo.

just finished my build. i put a lot into this lil case. check it out below, click thru to my facebook album.

i can answer any questions about the build and case

http://shylock.net/sandybridge

i just read this review fully. some points of clarification. mine does not rattle from neither the middle fan or the hard drive cage.

cooling is excellent in this case with my sandybridge. although im sure a lot has to do with the parts i am using.

oc'd to 4.2ghz, my cpu idles 32 degrees, and 51 degrees at full load. gpus idle at 46, hit 80 on full load with default ccc fan settings (approx 35%). this is depsite crossfire 6870's. clean cabling and open spaces and twin ssd's help i am sure.

pics can be found in my facebook album of the build. feel free to ask me any questions, as i love the case, and had a lot of fun building it.

i love the ease that the panels come on and off and it is very easy to get around this system from all sides.

http://shylock.net/sandybridge

Is it just me or does this case look like a trash bin...

As said before, the fans seem pretty useless. This case could have a nice chimney effect going for it.


I disagree. Mounting a fanless graphics card vertically should be safer for VRMs and other parts. Especially in case of DIY jobs, where not all parts have the headroom for 100% fanless operation.


Also, the pure white will have turned into some ugly shade of yellow over time.

Echoing this. Also, it would be interesting to see a configuration with a hotter GPU with a large third party cooler and the 2x 8cm fans replacing the 12cm one. The case seems to have room for very large coolers and it would be a shame not to use that.

i have it with 2x6870s in crossfire in there, with 2x80mm fans, as well as a h70 watercooler.

pics below, click through to my facebook album.

i havent noticed vibrations or huge gaps in the seams like shown. but you can see i have built it pretty clean throughout as much as i could.

http://shylock.net/sandybridge

Given the presence of 2 stock 6870s & the dual-fan H70, I wonder whether your definitions of quiet and noisy jibes with those of SPCR. Sure, you think it's quiet enough, but I probably would not. With the base level of noise you have from the system components, you might not hear some of the effects we did. (We found just the pump of the H50 too noisy -- with 2 stock fans, the H70 would be completely unacceptable to us.)

thats true. it is definitely not "silent". you can hear both the 6870s and the h70. from that perspective i wouldnt blame the case, just have to switch out 2 fans on the h70. but the 6870's would be a challenge to silence...