SilverStone Fortress FT02 Mid Tower Case Review

Exterior Impressions - Page 2


Moving on to the back of the case, we’re greeted by what looks nothing like the back of a typical case!

At the back - or at least what should be the back - of the case, a large grille with a removable dust filter can be found. If you haven’t already guessed, this grille is in position to allow PSUs with bottom mounted fans to receive fresh air. If this is at all difficult for you to picture at this point in the review, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. We promise, it’ll all be clear once we crack open the case.

At the top of the back panel, we find an opening that doubles as a carrying handle and an exit for peripheral cables. The opening should be big enough to accommodate a huge number of cables.

Without further ado, let’s pop the top off of this thing!


Removing the top cover is fairly easy, although it does require a bit of wiggling around. Pulling on the opening near the front will result in the top “popping” from it’s locked position, however it also needs to be lifted from the cable opening as well, or it’ll get wedged and stuck when trying to lift it off. The removable top panel is a little on the flimsy side compared to the rest of the case, so care must be taken when removing it.


With the top panel off, we are greeted by what looks to be the rear of a conventional case. About the only difference is that the PSU opening and expansion slot openings are recessed a few inches into the case. Since this portion of the case has to be hidden, a significant portion of the case is unfortunately wasted space. Although this orientation appears ideal due to the convection effect and bottom to top airflow, it does give the case a larger than usual footprint.

As you can see, a good portion of the top is vented to ensure maximum effectiveness of both convection and forced bottom to top airflow.


The side panels are removed via thumb screws at the top of the case.


The 120mm fan at the top of the case is what SilverStone calls their “Golf Bladed Fan” and is also used in their new SG04 case. Rated at only 1200 RPM and 19dBA, it is tuned for silence and not high levels of airflow. In our testing, we found this 120mm fan to be very quiet. SilverStone doesn’t provide a CFM rating for this fan, or a bearing type, but if we had to guess, we’d peg it as a sleeve bearing model somewhere in the ~40CFM range. Although this fan is a quiet model, the massive amount of intake from the 180mm fans below makes a powerful exhaust unnecessary – especially considering the positive pressure within.

Next to the 120mm exhaust fan, we find three toggle switches marked “Front”, “Middle” and “Rear”. Each of these are for speed control of the 180mm fans below and are a very welcome feature. We’ll be taking a closer look at the various speed settings, performance and noise of these fans shortly.