SilverStone Fortress FT02: True Classics Never Go Out of Style
by Dustin Sklavos on August 15, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
- Full-Tower
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
Puget Systems recently ran an article pitting the SilverStone Fortress FT02 against Antec's P183 v3 and orienting them in different ways to test the effectiveness of SilverStone's rotated motherboard approach, specifically trying to ascertain whether or not natural convection really plays much of a role in the FT02's thermal performance. I don't disagree with their results, but when evaluating the FT02 specifically I don't find them particularly relevant either.
My primary points of interest are thus: the FT02 delivers a massive amount of directed and unobstructed airflow straight through the motherboard area, right into blower-style video card coolers and right into tower-style CPU coolers, and I'm concerned about the resulting noise from having that air vent out of the top of the case. A lot of us keep our computers under our desks, and instead of routing the accompanying noise out of the back of the case it comes out of the top and has a pretty good path straight into our ears.
The FT02 includes switches near the 120mm exhaust fan (meaning you'll have to remove the panel to change them) that can change the speeds of the 180mm fans between high and low settings; I tested the enclosure with both settings. Other cases with fan controllers built in have their most balanced results listed.
Right away we can see the FT02 delivers respectable, if not awe-inspiring performance. The differences between the two fan settings are, as is often the case, slight. I'll admit to having expected better, though: the In-Win BUC continues to run wild, and the Thermaltake Level 10 GT also produces stellar results competitive with the FT02. Something about those side intake fans makes a major difference, a notion we'll be testing when we review Corsair's upcoming Carbide 400R.
On the flipside, the FT02 is among our quietest cases with the fans on low. Once again it's tough to justify running the case's fans on high if you're not overclocking: noise increases disporportionately with thermal performance. If nothing else, the FT02 is efficient.
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veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Hi everyone! This is my first post and would like to say that I really like Anandtech.com, guys you're great!So right on the subject - I think that there is some general issue with testing methodology or accuracy of temperature measurements.
OK, let see what are the temperatures reported by the SSD:
Stock speed/ IDLE
FT02 33 C (low fan)
RV03 29 C
Stock speed/Load
FT02 35 C (low fan)
RV03 31 C
veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Difference 4 C, both Idle and Load.How is this even possible?! It's a HUGE difference for the same piece of hardware and same conditions (same ambient temperature, same mount method)?!
Again, the SSD was mounted in a way, that airflow inside the case doesn't affect it's temperature. This statement is more true for RV03 then FT02, because RV03 doesn't have a 180 mm fan under hard drive bay. So for FT02 still there is a little chance to "catch" some of the airflow from third fan. But in thermal diagrams we can see that the SSD in RV03 is cooler then in FT02
So I have to conclude that the ambient temperature was NOT the same when both cases are reviewed. Which means that all other thermal results (CPU, GPU, chipset etc.) are not relevant.
Please, let me know what do you think.
Uritziel - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly; however, I think the answer you're looking for is that the SSD in the RV03 is mounted behind the mobo, where it receives a fair amount of air flow due to one of the fans being offset.veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
No, I want to say that in both cases Raven03 and Fortress02, the SSD was mounted under the motherboard tray and the airflow created by the fans affects it's temperature very little, if any.In FT02 a little amount of air is possible to reach the SSD, hence the SSD should be more cooler in FT02, then in RV03. But the thermal readings shows exactly the opposite results, which means that something is wrong.
I intentionally choose to compare the thermal results of two Silversone's cases, because they are using same mounting method for SSD's.
Uritziel - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
While both cases can mount the SSD behind the mobo, it seems to me the similarity stops there. The RV03 has an air channel back there. The fans actually extend behind the mobo, and the air can continue past the SSD to exit via venting holes in the top.I'm not as familiar with the FT02, but looking at the top-down view in the gallery here, there seems to be no air channel behind the mobo. The fans don't appear to actually extend behind the mobo, and I see no venting at the top either. Also, does the FT02 also use the newer "air penetrator" fans (or whatever they're called) that the RV03 uses?
I just recently put my RV03 build together, so I'm trying to help you make sense of the thermal discrepancy since Dustin hasn't responded to you yet.
veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
I make my conclusions only by using images from the gallery.Please take a look here:
http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1235#3
Please show me where is that air channel?
As I can see there is a metal folded plate which "hide" the SSD from airflow.
banthracis - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
It's stated that ambient varies from 71F to 74F so it's not a constant. If fact, unless the room is temperature controlled, I'd also assume the variance is greater as as these systems increase ambient over time.It would be much better IMO to measure delta's like bit-tech or normalize the data like HardOCP does, rather than simply give the temperature.
veselinbg - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Yes, I agree with you that thermal results as delta is more accurate.And I suspect that that big difference in SSD's temperature comes from different ambient temperature.
don_k - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Just to point out that a 4C difference on an SSD is simply down to ambient temperature or positioning of the SSD and even then, it does not matter.It's an SSD. It uses just a few W of power, it's not going to get hot in the first place.
Worry about gpu/cpu deltas, not SSD temps.
banthracis - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
The point he's trying to make, is that if the SSD's should have been the same temp, yet are 4C off, then does this mean there was a 4C ambient temp difference?If so, that makes all the thermal tests results invalid for comparison, not just the SSD ones.
So basically, vs the RV02 for ex, the FT02 could temps should be 4c lower than what's on those graphs, a significant difference considering how close temps are.