SilverStone FT03: Nothing Else Like It

Noise and Thermal Testing, GeForce GTX 580

To put some real stress on the SilverStone FT03, we've added the GeForce GTX 580. We don't expect most of you to be running a card like this, but it does help to put things in perspective and the cooler isn't overpoweringly loud like its predecessor was. If a case can handle the thermal load of a GTX 580, it should be able to handle more mainstream configurations without incident.

The GTX 580 radiates a lot of heat on its own, but due largely to the "wind tunnel" design of the FT03 it doesn't produce much in the way of collateral heat. Our i3-530 doesn't warm up that much as a result of the increased ambient temperature, and the chipset doesn't have to contend with helping drive the IGP so it breaks even. Only the memory shows signs of substantially increased ambient heat. The idle temperature of the GTX 580 is actually pretty impressive, but under load it rockets up to 89C. Keep in mind that's a worst case scenario we're testing with, though.

At this point the extra noise is attributable almost entirely to the GeForce GTX 580. It's definitely audible, and subjectively it does appear to drown out the existing fan noise. The FT03 is a great design but it seems to have some difficulty muffling video card noise.