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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Rick83 - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Well, that's why I recently removed all mechanical disks from my tower and into the network. One SSD is all a system really needs, and I don't want spinning disks in my proximity. Of course, I was running ancient 80G and 200G disks which were proper noisy, so that may have been traumatizing. But in general, I don't want storage on my local machine, there's just no point, and to get where I'd want, I'd need a huuuuuge tower. This way, my disks reside in a nice Stacker, well cooled and as much out of earshot as possible, and my desktop system is reduced to a single 2.5" SSD that makes zero noise and has no trouble with getting a bit warmed up, as there are no mechanical tolerances that are impacted. I strongly recommend that approach for anyone who has more than one hard disk that they use...Also, with 3HDDs, why bother paying extra for less and getting a micro-ATX board? Most cases that fit 3 HDDs are so big, that they don't really take advantage of the micro-ATX form factor. (There are some, like the bigger of the Lian-Li cubes, and your P182, but these are already quite "big" cases...Going to a midi-tower is only about 3 cms of height away...
Spoelie - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Most NAS solutions have less than ideal performance (when moving >10GB files around) and less than ideal noise characteristics (high pitched 40mm fans, really??). My current flat is not that big so there is no out-of-earshot location ;). But to be honest, haven't explored that option very well.Instead I have one main, relatively silent desktop as the gaming/htpc/file/printer server, and smartphone/tablet/notebook "clients" for leisure computing. All 3 drives are 1TB WD Caviar Greens (EADS) though, and are a hell of a lot quieter than my older 250-500GB drives. In the current mounting mechanism, inaudible.
mATX boards provide everything+kitchen sink nowadays, ATX form factor is really relegated to multigpu and some htpc configurations with specialized addin boards. The premium is not that much IMO, just a tad over a $100 is what I paid.
I don't really have a genuine need for another case, but am always looking for improvement - and I have to say, something less heavy and less bulky with top mounted connections sounds mighty appealing. The P182 is a real back breaker to tug along. I just don't want to give up too much silence/cooling/mounting capacity.
Rasterman - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
I did that too with my latest build, SSD only, NAS for storage. It works fine, but anytime I need to move large files its slow 15-25MB/s. I have been reading the green drives are very quiet and am considering one, but desktop is about as silent as it can get though (3 nexus fans at 500rpm), and ANY noise would be audible. The other thought I had was using a usb3 netbook for a NAS, that should provide much better performance than my synology and be: expandable, easily configurable, can host anything, while not using hardly any power, plus it has built in battery backup.rabidsquirrel - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
I think I just threw up a little in my mouth...Seriously, that thing is hidious. Hopefully its thermal properties make up for that for some users.
kevith - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Ehm, do You seriously mean, that 45 dB of noise in an enclosure without a discrete GFX is "not obnoxious" or "dealbreaking.I´m a musician, 45 dB is LOUD, man!
Spivonious - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Thanks for including more useful noise info. 45dBA is loud.Was there any explanation for the odd tilted fan mounts? You allude to Silverstone's exhaustive airflow engineering but never go into details.
Rick83 - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
45 db at one foot. Sound diminishes by the second power with distance.Commonly such things are measured at one meter distance. One foot is pretty close, much too close in most desktop scenarios, unless you have the box sitting right on the edge of the desk, and are bent forwards. Tripling distance leads to about a factor 1/9 for the sound attenuation, which results in a decrease of almost 10 decibel. (unless my physics are rustier than I thought they were)
Additionally, no mention was made whether certain directions are noisier than others. I'd expect most of the noise to come out of the top, due to this case's design.
Spivonious - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
I'm not sure of the rules for distance and attenuation, but it would mean that at 3 feet the noise level would be 40dBA (8/9 of 45dBA). Still pretty loud.I would love to see what Antec would do with this design. They could probably get it down to 35dBA with no impact on cooling.
Spivonious - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Looked it up http://www.csgnetwork.com/decibeldropdistancecalc....You were right that the attenuation would be around 10dBA (taking it to 35dBA). Much quieter and easily acceptable with a noise floor of 32dBA.
Voldenuit - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Sound intensity decreases proportional to 1/r^2, but sound *pressure* (which our ears are directly sensitive to) decrease proportionally to 1/r. Most sound level meters measure sound pressure level (SPL) and it is the most common way of reporting sound loudness on tech sites.I've owned several Silverstone cases - a TJ08 and a KL01, and neither have been particularly silent or even quiet. Even swapping out the crappy stock Silverstone fans for 800 rpm Scythe Slipstreams didn't help much with the TJ08 - the KL01 unfortunately used a proprietary connector for its front panel fan, so I was stuck with its obnoxious sound volume and characteristics.
If you want *quiet*, Antec P183s and Fractal Design R3s can be made to hover around 14-20dB at 1m, and Puget Systems' custom builds live around 11-14 dB.
I love Silverstone's design and build (for the most part - the FT03 looks like a trashcan to me), but outside of a few exceptions like the FT02 and RV02, they are not exactly silent cases out of the box.