SilverStone FT03: Nothing Else Like It
by Dustin Sklavos on April 28, 2011 12:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
Assembling the FT03
While most enclosures based on traditional design principles are pretty easy to figure out just by eyeballing them, SilverStone includes an instruction manual with the FT03 for a reason. Much like the GD04 we reviewed before it, there's a specific order you'll want to put the FT03 together in, but thankfully the order at least makes sense and the assembly is as painless as possible.
With this review we're experimenting a little and I've added something different. Below is a time-lapsed video of my scrawny, hairy Greek arms assembling our testbed inside the FT03 set to Chu Ishikawa's music for Tetsuo: The Bullet Man. We know video isn't for everybody (I personally like listening to music while I read reviews so something like this isn't necessarily my cup of tea), but it should be illuminating for those of you who want to get a good feel for how the FT03 gets put together.
The basic assembly of the FT03 involves removing the two intake fans and the extra fan mount at the top first, and the computer gets built essentially from the ground up. Mounting the motherboard is easy enough given the surprisingly copious space inside the case, with standoffs for at least a Mini-ITX board already built into the backplane. What's interesting is that while SilverStone recommends removing the case fans first and indeed that's what I did, it doesn't seem to be strictly necessary (at least removing the bottom one isn't). This isn't a toolless design by any stretch of the imagination, and the tiny screws used for securing the optical drive are pretty easy to lose, but it's as simple as it could be.
Installing the power supply is incredibly simple, too, although the plug used to route to the power supply (thus depriving you of access of the master switch) can have a tendency to bunch and get in the way of sliding the side panel back on.
Where I was really impressed was with the way hard drives are installed; the drive mounting standoffs actually glide into place on the case instead of making you hunt and carefully line up screws. I was admittedly a little puzzled initially with how to install the 2.5" drive tray (though that may have been 1am talking to me), but eventually it locked in exactly where it ought to go. You'll want to install the 2.5" drive with the connectors facing down towards the bottom of the case; the 3.5" drives can't be installed in any orientation other than with their connectors facing inward and down, thus helping with cable routing.
Routing cables is also handled about as well as it can be, but woe betide anyone who tries to install a non-modular power supply in this case. While it can probably be done, routing space for cables is at a premium in the FT03. There are pretty specific places the cables are supposed to route through and I found they worked as well as they could. While you can use a PSU from any vendor, if you're planning on building in this case it might be wise to cough up for a SilverStone Strider power supply specifically so you can buy short modular cables specifically designed to fit inside this case.
Honestly I'm left with few complaints in terms of the assembly of the FT03. SilverStone includes all the necessary screws along with cable ties, and their shorter modular cables fit perfectly. My only major issue is an old hand: there are three 120mm case fans included, but Micro-ATX boards with three fan headers are rarefied at best.
From there I have a series of minor gripes. First, as I mentioned before you pretty much have no choice but to use a modular power supply with the FT03, and SilverStone's shorter cables make a big, big difference. Second, you're stuck using a slot-loading slim-line optical drive. I can't complain too much; putting any other type in here would definitely ruin the aesthetic, but it does incur additional expense and I have to wonder if there wasn't another way. Maybe finding a way to mount a standard slim-line drive at the top of the case? Finally, the side panels are keyed and slot in easily enough (with some pressure, but nothing you haven't experienced assembling a hundred other cases), but they don't snap in and tend to feel a bit loose. When you move the FT03, you'll want to lift it from the front and back; the sides will slide right off.
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GeorgeH - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
When I want compact I almost always also want quiet, and 45dB is far from extraordinary.If they had used the unique design to facilitate more noise reduction this would have gone on my list. As it is I'm not impressed at all, especially when you consider that the extra costs this case will entail put it within spitting distance of the FT02.
slacr - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
First off, the slimline DVD, I didn't get myself one as they are expensive. For the most part you can make do without it though, OS installs are readily available through USB and most drivers can be found online. It can be a bit of a chore when you REALLY need something of a disc but I figure that happens to me at max once a year.The stock fans are not very good though, there seems to be some unnecessary turbulence around the angled intake fan near the graphics-card too when using a mid-high flow fan. The noise is really bothering me too, still working on that (with i5 2500k, p8p67m-pro and asus GTX560).
As for cable routing, it mostly works fine although some of the holes are a bit too small, when using an mATX board accessing the headers for sound/usb is not very neat. Fixing it would require added case depth though.
Over all im quite pleased with the diminutive stature, fitting snugly on a tiny desk with 2 monitors, the plasticky side vent facing away from me, it sticks out a tad less in black too.
archer75 - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Saw this same case in my PC Gamer magazine for a computer digital storm is selling. It's certainly not new.Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Not that long, this case has only been available for a couple months, and I actually have that DigitalStorm unit in house right now. That review'll be going up soon.Rick83 - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
You didn't adress it :(Was hoping to see some GPU cooler recommendations, as down-pointing heat-pipes don't work well and down-blowing fans blow right into the lower fan. On the other hand, the radial, exhausting designs are often noisy under load (see the GTX580 in this case).
I'm thinking about getting a HD 6950 with this case, but can't really decide on a cooling solution (and there hasn't been a VGA-round-up recently either...)
Any pointers? I was eventually thinking about getting a dual fan solution, like a twin frozr III or a directCU, but then stock isn't too bad at load....but not optimal either.
slacr - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Ah, the heatpipe issue passed me by until you pointed it out.I first used this with a OEM cooler XFX 6950, it was LOUD at load, with the fan reving up to over 35% it was too much for me. I think the DirectCU2 should be the least noisy one, however you will orient the pipes down, I now use a DirectCU2 GTX560, which is only 2 slots with much slimmer fans, pipes pointing down. With a custom fan curve and less vcore (0.95) its quite silent (don't hear it over the case fans in the games i play). If the 6950 DirectCU were available when i bought it i'd have gotten that instead, it will end up veery close to the fan on the bottom though.
Rick83 - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Thanks for the info. Guess stock cooler is out of the question then.Next challenge is finding the right cooler, there's a lot of designs out there that have not been properly reviewed, from one to three fans...Still hoping for a sapphire Vapor-X to join the fray as well.
Oh well, probably going to wait for Z68 to happen anyway, so I can get a third DVI output, without having to pay for the sapphire flex or an miniDP to dvi active adapter.. Just got DCS:A10, and I see a triple screen setup becoming a possibility. Thanks to spanning window mode now working, I won't even have to limit myself to eyefinity and whatnot..
7Enigma - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
I'm interested in some more specifics of how bad this issue really is. I've honestly never heard of it before. Are we talking for extreme overclocking or in general they are not very efficient?I've always hated the idea of having heavy cards "hanging" with tower systems and thought this method of vertical hanging would be great for alleviating that stress, but this heatpipe issue is new to me.
Thanks for bringing it up and hopefully the author of the article can chime in.
Rick83 - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Well, the heatpipe works by evaporating a liquid which gathers at the bottom of the heatpipe and then rises to the top where it condenses. This doesn't work as well if the heat source is above the lower end of the heatpipe. The exact impact though, I've not seen it examined. It can't be that bad, as many heatpipe designs for VGA coolers double back on themselves, which has a similar aspect.Still, would be awesome if such obvious compatibility challenges would be addressed by even a single reviewer...
Spoelie - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Still working through the review, but thought I'd already chime in. The design is interesting for certain, I don't buy anything other than mATX boards lately, but would never consider this case because of the storage system.* 4 is really the bare minimum for me (currently have 3 3.5" and 1 SSD)
* mounting system, took most of the timelapse video...
* no airflow
* direct contact with sidepanels/metal???
Especially that last point surprises me, that truly is a worst case scenario for transferring vibration noise. Personally think suspension + airflow is a far superior alternative to "heatsink" type cooling for drives. Seems like I'll be sticking to my P182 for a while yet.