SilverStone Fortress FT05 Mid-Tower

The SilverStone Fortress FT05 is on the test bench at Techgage today. Need a new mid-tower case? Give this review a quick look.

After having gone 3 years without looking at a SilverStone chassis, we're back with a look at the company's latest, the mid-tower Fortress FT05. Can it deliver on the promises of big cooling and big flexibility while retaining as small a footprint as possible? It's time to man the fort and find out.

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I hope [H] will be reviewing this case soon. My FT02 really is too big for my needs, but I love the rotated design.

I hope you go beyond that article and test with 3 and 4 GPUs. I would also like you to test with cards like the R9 295X2 and the GTX 690 / Titan Z. The former because it would involve removing one of the existing fans; the latter because the airflow is very different.

Some minor things you might like to check:

It looks as if the motherboard is mounted on the opposite side from the FT02.
Are those bridges at the top load-bearing? That is, can you use them to pick up and carry the case?
The FT02 has trays for the 3.5" HDDs - it doesn't look like the FT05 does.
Can you fit and remove rear-mounted 2.5" HDDs without taking off the motherboard?

Quartz-1 said:

I hope you go beyond that article and test with 3 and 4 GPUs

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The problem with this is that any power supply large enough to run 3 GPU's is going to force you to remove the 3.5" hard drive bays,

IMO this case suffers from the same problem the FT02 suffered, except worse. It's too small. The FT02 needed to be 1" taller to fit dual GPU cards and needed to be .5" wider to make running wires along the back easier (especially given that you usually need extensions to get power cables to reach the drive bays). This case has the exact same problem except you might need 2-3" of height to get large PSU's to clear the 3.5" drive bays. I have no idea why Silverstone obsesses about shrinking what are clearly enthusiast level cases but they do.

I like the idea of a slightly smaller case, really more so because of weight than size. Freeing up space behind my FT02 means nothing but a fully loaded FT02 is a heavy beast. I also like the idea of more space for cables at the top of the case, and the way the doors lock is fantastic. But I think the PSU size limitations are going to kill this generation raven/fortress.

rangda said:

The problem with this is that any power supply large enough to run 3 GPU's is going to force you to remove the 3.5" hard drive bays,

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That's not a problem. 2.5" HDDs (note: not SSDs) aren't expensive. And if you can afford three GPUs then I expect you can afford SSDs or a NAS.

I must declare an interest: a while back, I actually suggested moving the drive bay to beneath the PSU to Silverstone. I didn't suggest the 2.5" mounting points. I don't use any of the 5.25" bays in my FT02 so I suggested chopping the column.

FT02 is by far my favorite case I have owned. Now that I am in a smaller apartment, the mid size case really interests me.
My favorite part about this case is that I can bundle all the cables into one piece of conduit to make for a very nice clean setup.

I'm very interested in it because it looks like a good upgrade from an FT03.

My desk space is very limited and the FT03 fits perfectly with it's small footprint, but I think I can fit this case on my desk and have the flexibility of an ATX board.

Two SSDs is plenty for me.

rangda said:

I have no idea why Silverstone obsesses about shrinking what are clearly enthusiast level cases but they do.

.......But I think the PSU size limitations are going to kill this generation raven/fortress.

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Conversely, i take the view that the FT05 is marvelous because it gives me an extremely compact case made with the the features that make Fortress cases great.

I am never going to run three GPU's.
I have one £400 GPU in there now, and will likely replace that with a 390X next year.

I may, if i am feeling particularly flush/foolish choose to put two 390X cards in it.
This will be eminently possible with a 160mm 850W Silverstone Gold PSU.

Likewise, with 6TB drives out now I have zero storage complaints with the 2x 3.5" bays and 2x 2.5" mount points (not mentioning the 1tb m.2 drive i plan to use asap).

That I can get vertical heat management and two 180mm filtered fans in a solid metal case which looks nice to boot is brilliant.

If I want aa bigger chassis to accomodate niche edge-case requirements then I am sure I can find loads of them. The FT05 isn't it.

Any word of when this will hit newegg ?

Dustins said:

Any word of when this will hit newegg ?

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Finally up on both Newegg and Amazon. Only Newegg has the Silvers in stock though. Just picked one up last weekend.