Fortress FT03 External Blueprint

Apart from its unusual course factor and high price, we think the Fortress FT03 is one of the coolest looking cases we've ever seen. Information technology'south hard to pinpoint the example's defining characteristic and that's likely considering it's a combination of things -- not least of which is its make clean and classy appearance, reminiscent of Lian-Li's designs.

Although there's no shortage of sleek chassis these days, nosotros feel the FT03'due south unusual shape sets information technology autonomously from the crowd. From the front the FT03 looks as though it could be a massive full-belfry computer case, measuring xix.17" tall and 9.25" wide. All the same, its side profile reveals a depth of just 11.18" and weight of only 14.7lbs.

The FT03 is available in either silvery or black and you lot really can't go wrong with either colour, in our opinion. The façade is as clean cut equally they come with no external five.25" or 3.v" bulldoze bays or case doors. Instead, it features a pocket-size slit for a slot-loading optical bulldoze alongside a tastefully embedded Silverstone logo.

From the top, we find a removable plastic grill which looks dainty enough, though we really would have liked to see this made out of aluminum rather than plastic. At the front of the lid there'southward a pocket-size I/O panel that features a pair of USB three.0 ports, two audio jacks and the power/reset buttons along with the LED activity lights.

Viewing the FT03 from the right paw side gives a very like await to that of the façade. The correct panel is almost entirely bare with the exception of the arching anxiety at the bottom and the modest indentation at the top.

The opposite door is very much the same though it has a big removable plastic grill that we find somewhat tacky. This grill is also very hard to remove and reattach, so bluntly nosotros wish it wasn't at that place.

Underneath the FT03 are four curtained rubber legs that raise the example 1.18" (30mm) off the ground and this is important considering the 90-degree blueprint sees much of the air drawn in from the bottom of the example.

There are two 80mm fan mounts at the bottom of the example that can exist populated if yous desire. That said, this is probably unnecessary because directly backside them you'll detect a 120mm intake fan. There's also a much larger opening that will be utilized past any ability supply with a 120/140mm top mounted fan.

Midway through our review, we discovered that the FT03 comes with a large removable dust filter in the lesser of the case. Unfortunately, our sample unit of measurement is missing the filter and it wasn't until viewing images at Silverstone's website that this became apparent, so we apologize for defective pictures of this component.

Overall nosotros plant the FT03'southward external design to be excellent and as well very intriguing in the sense that from the outside, little is revealed about the case's inner workings -- a mystery we intend to solve on the next page.