SilverStone FT03: Nothing Else Like It
by Dustin Sklavos on April 28, 2011 12:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
Conclusion: In a Class of Its Own
SilverStone's engineers have produced a stunningly unique and very attractive piece of kit in the FT03. It's one of their crown jewels and justifiably so: the FT03 has excellent thermal design, decent noise with the stock fans at stock speed, and if you're into the minimalistic look it's frankly just plain nice to look at. In fact, that's really the main draw of the FT03: the case is uniquely designed in a way that's both aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching while being remarkably functional. Assembly is remarkably simple, and the case is capable of housing a tremendous amount of performance. I'd be considering using it for my own tower if I didn't need more than the four internal drive bays as well as a dedicated 5.25" bay.
Compared to the positives, the weak points of the FT03 are comparatively minor. Noise remains an issue but not an unsolvable one (though I'm concerned about more powerful cards like the GTX 580). The side panels and bottom grate also come off far too easily.
My biggest complaint about the FT03 may actually be its hidden costs. You can get the case for $169 up front, but that's really not the end of the additional expenses using it can incur. First, you have to use a slimline slot-loading optical drive (and there's no access to the button either, you have to use the operating system to eject the drive). These things don't grow on trees and they easily cost twice as much as a conventional optical drive. That gets compounded if you're like me and need a blu-ray reader/writer, where suddenly you're looking at paying at a bare minimum $200 for the privilege. At least there's a cheap solution to this: buy an external.
Second, and thankfully at least a little less egregious, you need a small, modular power supply. Let's be realistic here: if you're willing to spend $169 just on the case and then cheap out on the power supply, you're going to get exactly what you pay for and probably what you deserve. Most serious builders are going to go for something modular anyhow, but in this case it's essential. While SilverStone's short modular cable kit isn't absolutely essential, it's preferable, and that adds yet another expense.
Finally, if you're like me you'll want to invest in a fan controller, and given the form factor and design of the FT03 that really doesn't leave many options. Once again the best one available is going to be the one I used for the GD04, Xigmatek's expansion slot fan controller.
When all is said and done, though, if you're not the kind of person the SilverStone FT03 appeals to, none of these things matter. You probably weren't planning on spending this much on a case anyhow and you're not interested in the conversation piece, and that's fine. But if you took a look at the FT03 and thought it was a slick piece of engineering like I did, this review should read like almost nothing but good news. You'll need to invest a bit more to really make the most of it, but you were already considering investing in it anyhow, and in exchange you get a case that's both attractive and remarkably functional. All things considered, that's worth at least a Bronze Editor's Choice award. I'd be anxious to see what would happen if SilverStone worked those minor kinks out.
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Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Good micro-ATX boards will have the same kinds of overclocking goodies as their full ATX kin.Slimline optical drives are fairly standardized, so in this instance you just have to find one that slot-loads. SilverStone sells one on their site.
dalenchm0b - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
***WARNING, THIS IS A LONG POST***I can answer some of your questions, since I am actually burning in one of these cases right now. The optical drive this case uses is the same type of drive found in those more expensive laptops where the drive sucks in the disc as opposed to a tray popping out. It's the same mechanism for the Wii and PS3 optical drives. There aren't too many models available, but you can readily find them on eBay. Just search for "slot load dvd" and "slot load blu-ray". Personally, I don't think I will buy one anyway because USB flash drives are cheap and I can just use that since we are moving towards digital distribution anyway.
As for the motherboard, I am currently running stability tests on an overclocked i7-920 @ 3.8 GHz using the Asus Rampage III Gene. The RIIIG is a 1366 mATX mobo that supports SLI and CF, so I am definitely going to take advantage of that one day when I upgrade my old GTX 260 to some HD 6000 or GTX 500 series goodness. I am using a Corsair H60 with medium speed Yate Loons in push-pull. In fact, I replaced all the fans with Yate Loons since I have had good results with them and they are nice and cheap. I replaced the GPU fan at the bottom of the case with 2 80mm Yates, because the 120mm fan uses a bracket that directs air at an angle instead of directly upwards. I didn't bother going with an SSD, instead I am using two WD 640 GB black drives in RAID 0 for the OS and apps, while a 2 TB Samsung F4 provides storage. The reviewer isn't kidding about the side panels passively cooling the drives, because I can touch the side of the case and feel exactly where the drives are from the heat these bad boys are giving off. Powering this little bastard is a fully modular Seasonic X750. It should provide enough power for dual gpu goodness as long as I stick with mainstream level cards.
Anyway, I'm currently benching at 3.8 GHz and its been stable for a few hours now but the 4 cores with hyperthreading enabled and all 8 threads active is making the CPU just a tad too warm for my taste at 72 C. I'll probably give the silverstone fans a test run and see if they can cool it down some more, but otherwise its doing pretty damn good I think.
I am satisfied with the case and would recommend it to someone looking to maximize desk space while looking simple yet elegant. Thanks for reading!
coldcase - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
Sorry but I'm not finding that design appealing at all. Looks like a mini fridge.7Enigma - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
Hi guys,Read your article yesterday and then this morning saw this deal on a slimline DVD/CD burner ($23). Hope this helps some of you reading this and wanting to get the FT03 (not me):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
7Enigma - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
Scratch my last comment, too early in the morning. This was for a slimline but not slot-loading it appears.james007 - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
I appreciate the in-depth article. However - what about that optical-drive, which has to be "slot-loading"??? Exactly which models are going to fit this thing? The "setup" table doesn't say what he put into this. I would think, since our whole purpose in reading this article is to gleen the benefit of the author's experience in order to ascertain whether to use this in our own build - and to help as a guide in building it -- that this is one of the primary items he'd cover.I see precious few slot-loading optical drives available from online retailers, and zero information on which to get. Any helpful thoughts on this?
araczynski - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
i guess to each their own, but to me, it looks like a silver paper shredder trashcan.EnzoFX - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
I just don't think these reviews do any cases justice. SPCR does it best, a case is about cooling, how well it can run at given tdp/overall power usage/and how quiet. Saying it has decent noise levels isn't very helpful. I remember an old review saying that noise was below the ambient 30+ dB's which then prompted me to ignore the entire thing.cordis - Saturday, April 30, 2011 - link
"To be fair, though, I don't think I could armchair engineer a better solution than what SilverStone has done."Really? I came up with a couple variations:
smaller wooden box - http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php...
larger brass box - http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php...
The easiest way they could have done this would be to just put one big fan at the bottom of the box, put the optical slot in vertically, maybe put the psu near the top of the case, and just keep the air paths open all the way up. If the fan at the bottom overlaps both chambers, you can easily get enough cooling that way. In my homemade cases, I put separate fans on each side, but I'm thinking about another one with a single fan at the bottom. I'm not thrilled with this case, it's not nearly as elegant as the other rotated motherboard cases they have. I appreciate that they're still being creative, though.
shyrix - Saturday, April 30, 2011 - link
I love this case. i put in dual 6870's, asus p8p67-m pro, i2500k,h70, corsair vengeance sticks, ocz vertex ssd raid0fit it all, documented my build via facebook. lots of photos...just click through to facebook album.
http://shylock.net/sandybridge
has strider psu, with short cable kit.
i can answer any questions about this case/build