SilverStone Fortress FT02 Mid Tower Case Review

Interior Impressions

With the outside of the FT02 out of the way, let’s take a closer look within.


After tilting our heads and getting our thermodynamics hats on, we let out a resounding “yeah, that makes a lot of sense”. In a lot of ways, the overall thermal layout reminds us a lot of a rackmount server – blow air across everything in the case. But in many ways, the FT02 does that and much more thanks to it’s upright design. As anyone who has seen a hot air balloon knows, hot air rises. And in a traditional computer case, rises and accumulates at the top of the case. That is why exhaust fans are almost always located higher up the case than intake fans. Forced air from the coolest part of the case – the bottom – creates a positive pressure within the case, and aided by the natural convection effect carries hot air upward where it easily leaves through the highly “breathable” top. As an added bonus, the fans are so large, that absolutely everything in the case receives active cooling. This is especially great for passively cooled motherboards and system memory.

This design works well with just about all PSUs as well, as they will all exhaust air directly out of the top of the case and will receive cool air from either the intake fans below, or from outside of the case. Most video cards that exhaust air outside of the case would also be ideal as a constant stream of cool intake air from below will feed them and posisitve air pressure around them will help to get warm air out of the case. In actuality, even single slot cards – like the 8800GT – will also benefit as the bottom to top airflow will simply carry hot air from around the card out of the case.

On paper, it seems like a perfect thermal layout. We’ll see how it works in practice in our “Performance Testing” section.


Taking a closer look at the 180mm fans reveals that they are almost identical to those in the FT01, but operate at a switchable 700/1000RPM, compared to being a static 700RPM in the FT01. The fans are 180mm x 32mm and unfortunately a very uncommon size. From a noise perspective, SilverStone rates them at 18/27dBA. We couldn’t find any information on the bearing type used in these fans, unfortunately.

You’ll notice that two of the three fans have plastic grilles on them. SilverStone likely did this as a safety precaution to prevent gravity and loose screws or ramsinks from causing undesirable things at the bottom of the case. A few extra millimetres of clearance can be had by removing these grilles, as is required to fit the extra long Radeon 5970.

On a positive note, we should mention that SilverStone now has three 180mm fans available, including a higher RPM model for those interested in maximum performance as well as LED models for those interested in flare.


Like the FT01, dust filters can be found at all intake locations on the case. If these filters are maintained and cleaned regularly, there should be almost no dust entering the case at all. Thanks once again to positive air pressure, air flows out of all of the little openings and crevices instead of being sucked into them, like in a conventional case. The filters are composed of a fine mesh screen that is easy to clean, but as expected, does hamper airflow slightly. Those interested in maximum cooling performance should simply remove them from the case.



As you can see, there is plenty of breathing space on the top of the case thanks to ventilated expansion slot covers, an exhaust fan and the PSU opening. A good sized CPU socket cut-out on the motherboard tray is also present so that buyers can swap out CPU coolers without having to remove their motherboards. A nice embossed SilverStone logo can be found just above the expansion slots.