SilverStone FT03: Nothing Else Like It
by Dustin Sklavos on April 28, 2011 12:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
Testing Methodology
Part of the reason we took so long in getting new case reviews up on the site is because we decided to go back and revise our case testing procedures. Moving forward we're standardizing our testing methodology in a way that will hopefully feel more concrete and useful than our previous reviews did. I'm going to take the opportunity to break down how things are going to work for this and future reviews, but note that these procedures aren't set in stone. Anand stressed to me in conversation that one of our greatest assets is essentially the mountain of free feedback we get from people who comment on our reviews, and I agree with him. We pride ourselves on being fairly agile and adaptable to the needs of our readership, so if you feel there's something we can change and it's feasible, rest assured that we do listen and will at the very least take it into consideration.
First, we've standardized on two testbeds: a Mini-ITX testbed that's low-powered and doesn't generate too much heat, but isn't too miserly either, and a full ATX testbed that's indicative of the high-end of what most of you are running. Since this review uses our Mini-ITX bed, I'll save discussing the full ATX one for that review. The essential thinking here is that a Mini-ITX board can be used for Micro-ATX builds like this one without sacrificing much (we're not testing multi-GPU scenarios for cases this small since they're seldom designed for it), but we still use a processor that produces enough heat to merit thermal testing. Before I go any further, it may be prudent to just lay out the hardware we're testing with:
| Mini-ITX/Micro-ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU | Intel Core i3-530 (73W TDP) |
| Motherboard | Zotac H55ITX-WiFi |
| Graphics Card |
Intel HD Graphics (IGP) Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (244W TDP) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Slimline DVD+/-RW Drive Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps |
| CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS8000A with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Gold 750W 80 Plus Gold |
The Zotac motherboard is included as one of the most fully-featured Mini-ITX boards available, and it works with the Core i3-530 we had on hand. That i3-530 is also fairly typical of what to expect in smaller builds. From there, the Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer memory has a unique feature particularly suited to our needs: it includes thermal diodes that can tell you how hot the memory is running. The SSD is used to gauge how easily a 2.5" drive is installed and to provide a stable baseline, while the Caviar Black gauges how easily a 3.5" drive can be installed and gives us a secondary reference point for drive temperatures. The Zalman cooler is quiet, low-profile, and effective, giving us an alternative to the Intel stock cooler. And finally, SilverStone's power supply is modular, small, and efficient, making it ideal for case testing.
Of course, the GeForce GTX 580 is going to raise some eyebrows. In this instance, we wanted a video card for case testing that would push thermals without overpowering acoustics. Not all cases we test with are going to support it, but enough are to warrant its inclusion. As a result, Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX systems are tested in two configurations: with and without dedicated graphics.
Moving on, acoustic testing is standardized on a foot from the front of the case, using the Extech SL10 with an ambient noise floor of ~32dB. For reference, that's a silent apartment with nothing running, testing acoustics in the dead of night (usually between 1am and 3am). A lot of us sit about a foot away from our computers, so this should be a fairly accurate representation of the kind of noise the case generates, and it's close enough to get noise levels that should register above ambient.
Finally, thermal testing is run with the computer having idled at the desktop for fifteen minutes, and again with the computer running both Furmark (where applicable) and Prime95 (less one thread when a GPU is being used) for fifteen minutes. I've found that leaving one thread open in Prime95 allows the processor to heat up enough while making sure Furmark isn't CPU-limited. We're using the thermal diodes included with the hardware to keep everything standardized, and ambient testing temperature is always between 71F and 74F. Processor temperatures reported are the average of the CPU cores.
Thank You!
We do have some thanks in order before we press on, though:
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory we used to add memory thermals to our testing.
- Thank you to Zalman for providing us with the CNPS8000A heatsink and fan unit we used.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the optical drive and power supply.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
81 Comments
View All Comments
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