THE BEIGE BOX is anything but beige these days and recently there has been a huge trend to make all black cases, including the internals. However, it seems like a new trend is kicking off where case manufacturers are going for white rather than black. SilverStone’s new FT03 Fortress doesn’t go all white, but it’s definitely a case that’s flirting with the new trend.
The Fortress is a silver case with white trim and it reminded us somewhat of an overgrown version of the Apple iMac Cube. The top cover and the dust filter in front of the rear intake fan are both white and so are the internals of this new case. It was the most unusual case that we spotted at Computex, not only in terms of its design, but also in terms of its construction.
The Fortress is the mATX sibling to SilverStone’s Raven series of cases, and as such all the ports are pointing upwards. The sides of the case slide off to reveal the internal and we were surprised at how much SilverStone had managed to fit in what is a fairly compact case. The Fortress measures 235x463x284mm (WxHxD), yet is has space for three 3.5-inch drives, as well as a 2.5-inch drive and a slim-line optical drive.
It also has room for three 120mm fans, as well as a 92mm fan. That doesn’t take into account the fact that you can fit a huge CPU cooler in it, in this case, a model from Thermalright with dual 120mm fans. There’s also room for a Radeon HD 5970 graphics card, something you won’t be able to fit into most mATX cases.
The PSU is fitted at the bottom of the case, although you’re “limited” to standard size ATX power supplies, but this is unlikely to cause any problems in terms of powering the system. SilverStone has gone out if its way to prove how much gear you could fit in the tiny case and as such the memory modules were also fitted with heatpipes. Admittedly, it was a tight squeeze, but everything fit without touching something else.
Two of the hard drives are in hot swappable drive bays, again facing upwards, while the third hard drive and the 2.5-inch drive bay are internal. As mentioned earlier, all the ports are located at the top of the system, although the power connector is located at the bottom of the case. The power and reset buttons are also located on the top, alongside a pair of front USB 2.0 ports and a pair of audio jacks, all of which are slightly easier to access than the ports on the motherboard itself as there’s a small cut-out in the top cover for them.
The case on show was an early, hand built sample, but this is a model that SilverStone will start to sell later this year. It’s not going to be the easiest case in the world to build your system in, but it looks like SilverStone has at least made it as easy as possible considering the unusual design. We don’t know the pricing as yet, but we would expect the Fortress to sell in the region of $200.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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