Silverstone FT03... matx

jeremyshaw said:
small fortune is 400usd for the cheapest slot loading bluray burner (not DVD burner) :p but yeah, that's actually a decent price for a reader. I got mine from eBay for 60usd :)
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hmm ebay , that sounds yummy for price . now what was my account name there i forget its been so long since i looked there

Jen
 
Jen said:
hmm ebay , that sounds yummy for price . now what was my account name there i forget its been so long since i looked there

Jen
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lol. For a person who only bought one.... ONE bluray movie, I do have 4x the amount of readers (some burners) necesary to enable playback, lol...
 
jeremyshaw said:
lol. For a person who only bought one.... ONE bluray movie, I do have 4x the amount of readers (some burners) necesary to enable playback, lol...
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i do alot of backups of old time radio shows those 25gb discs save me so much space
 
Thanks for the information everyone (so many related responses, couldn't settle on any particular one/few to quote :p )!

I'd been eyeing the Sony Optiarc BC-5640H on Amazon, and hadn't seen it on Newegg.

A reader is fine, since that's all I'd likely be using it for. Essentially the brief history is that my PS3 is on the fritz and since I don't game it on that much anymore and had mostly been using it as a Blu Ray player, I figured I could go with a Blu Ray reader drive in the FT03 and use it for watching my Blu Ray collection.
 
I was able to grab one of these out of the 10 or so that entered Canada in the last shipment - they sold out the same day. Anyway, it should be coming today. I'll finally be able to get this system off my desk, fire up the Freezone and OC :)
 
they look like they are, but they are not. the h70 was set as intake though. i have since flipped the h70 so air goes out.

the noctuas were pulling in air towards the crossfire, but still wasnt moving enough.

i bought those prematurely thinking the silverstone stock fan wouldnt fit once in crossfire, but turns out it does.

i should take a couple new shots with the h70 fan reversed and the noctuas taken out and replaced with the original 120mm that was meant to go there.
 
omg thanks guys, thanks for telling me about the noctua fans being backwards, i could swear when i built it, i put my hand there and felt air. but i was probably feeling something else. i put them back in, this time reversed to intake like they are supposed to, and temps have dropped across the board. mb is cool now, hdd is cool now (even though its on back?) crossfire runs about 10 degrees cooler. i no longer have to crank the fans in ccc.

now it doesnt sound like a jet is taking off when i have the gpus under load.

runs nice and reasonably quiet now. with a good amount of airflow coming out the top. thanks again guys!

http://shylock.net/sandybridge
 
Just got my FT03 and installed everything temporarily, while I wait for the X560 psu to arrive.

First impressions:

Having owned every other Fortress case, I feel I can safely say the following.

1. Quality

compared to the FT01 and FT02, the build quality is dipping here, its not bad, but its not as good either.

I found one screw to the inside right panel was chaffing and eventually (after 3 removals of the panel) has caused a nice deep gash in the side of the case panel and although not visible when installed, is not very impressive.

furthermore, to correct this, I had to remove the screw entirely as it simply would not sit in flush.

2. Panel Work

The front panel for this case is fantastic, incredibly thick and solid aluminium with a great finish and nice tight fitting action.

however, the side panels are much less sturdy and although fit well, the do not extend wide enough to create a secure enclosure on this case, and therefore, no amount of dust filters are going to work if the fans can suck in dust straight through the gaps in the side.

3. The glossy plastic.

I hate this, in all forms and fashions because it scratches easy and looks tacky.

If you can have brushed aluminium all over this case, and charge $180 for it, the make a better effort with the plastic.

4. Interior

while mostly excellent (as always Silverstone) some parts on my case, namely the side mounted intake fan shroud are completely missing paint in some areas and in others chipped.

this was supposed to be a brand new $180 SS case, not a cheapy rebate special.

5. Fans

Noisy as hell, wired them to my MSI H67MA-E45 and hit them to 50% and they are much more acceptable, although I will gladly take advise from anyone here about replacing them with a more quiet friendly fan.

Saying all of this, I absolutely love this case and find it worthy of wearing the Fortress name, I just hope SS can address the problems aforementioned and make this case truly special.

Pics to come
 
I replaced all the fans using Gentle Typhoons. Now silent :p

Also, it fits the HCP1200. The crazy ones who want GTX590 SLI can now feel safe with a "nVidia QuadSLI certified PSU," LOL!!
I'm sorry, low light, with slow shutter speeds made bad pictures :(



 
shylock said:
omg thanks guys, thanks for telling me about the noctua fans being backwards, i could swear when i built it, i put my hand there and felt air. http://shylock.net/sandybridge
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Just as a point for future reference (and I'm assuming your Noctua 80s are like this, since my Noctua 120s have it and most other fans I've seen do also):

Not always, but commonly on fans on the side, you can find small indentations where it shows the direction of the airflow. My Noctua 120's have it, where it shows two small arrows indented into the plastic: one is in the direction of the airflow through the fan parallel to its primary axis, and the other is its vortex path. The arrow tip's direction is the outward movement of air for the fan.
 
I had twin Noctua 80s there, too. There is indeed an arrow pointing the airflow direction. I ditched the twin 80s, since they couldn't match against a ~1100 RPM Gentle Typhoon 120mm at cooling my twin GTX570 cards :( And were much noisier to even match the airflow of the stock GT.
 
jeremyshaw said:
I had twin Noctua 80s there, too. There is indeed an arrow pointing the airflow direction. I ditched the twin 80s, since they couldn't match against a ~1100 RPM Gentle Typhoon 120mm at cooling my twin GTX570 cards :( And were much noisier to even match the airflow of the stock GT.
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although the twin 80's are working, i still top out at 90, which is a bit hotter than i would like on the crossfire.

so a gentle typhoon 120 at an angle still much better? as i can fit the 120 in there barely with these two cards.

i guess i can go buy the 120 fan, i assume it is much better than the stock 120? cause i find the twin 80's probably outperform the stock 120mm
 
Received my FT03 today. Just sort of semi-installed it. Still need new thermal compound before I install the new CPU cooler, and also realized that my TX750 ain't gonna cut it. You really do need a modular PSU for this case. Right now running the system with the back panel off and cables hanging out :p
 
shylock said:
although the twin 80's are working, i still top out at 90, which is a bit hotter than i would like on the crossfire.

so a gentle typhoon 120 at an angle still much better? as i can fit the 120 in there barely with these two cards.

i guess i can go buy the 120 fan, i assume it is much better than the stock 120? cause i find the twin 80's probably outperform the stock 120mm
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85C/84C for me... :( Still a bit too high, on the stock fan profile. I made the switch mostly for noise, since I already had GAP15 undervolted in the other two positions, semi-passively cooling a Hyper212+ with an i7 2600k that tops out at 64C at max load :)
SUPERGT said:
Received my FT03 today. Just sort of semi-installed it. Still need new thermal compound before I install the new CPU cooler, and also realized that my TX750 ain't gonna cut it. You really do need a modular PSU for this case. Right now running the system with the back panel off and cables hanging out :p
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boy oh boy, I remember the TX750. Nightmarishtly long cables in my SG02 :p
 
SUPERGT said:
Received my FT03 today. Just sort of semi-installed it. Still need new thermal compound before I install the new CPU cooler, and also realized that my TX750 ain't gonna cut it. You really do need a modular PSU for this case. Right now running the system with the back panel off and cables hanging out :p
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I was eyeballing AX850 for this build, but when i saw the striders had the short cable kit, i knew i had to go strider if i wanted even half a chance of clean (ish) cable management. you need it as clean as you can get it on the front side just to get as much air as possible moving past the video cards without cables in the way. theres actually a ton of cables in that corner too.

you can see pics of the strider short cables i used. even then with a full config, cables barely fit and i did it as clean as i could.

http://shylock.net/sandybridge
 
jeremyshaw said:
85C/84C for me... :( Still a bit too high, on the stock fan profile. I made the switch mostly for noise, since I already had GAP15 undervolted in the other two positions, semi-passively cooling a Hyper212+ with an i7 2600k that tops out at 64C at max load :)
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ya the cpu side im not worried at all. i get very good temps on that side.

have a i2500k @4.2, and it tops at 51, idles at 31, mb nice and cool too at 31 or so. h70 makes a big difference in this case, as it leaves you tons of room on that side for air to move. hdd on backside idles at 36-40. crossfire sits at like 36-41 idling or using windows, and bumps to 80-90 under load. but im wondering if i put in the gentle typhoon i can get it to 84 like yours. that i would like.
 


A wee bit of light, empirical, nonscientific observations....

GTAP13 vs Enermax TB.Scilence (this is the black version of the whitle LED variant seen in this thread, with "Enermax" carved through the side metal framing).

The GTAP13 has a bit more of a motor tone, like an almost nasal tone vs the Enermax. As usual, the GentleTyphoon is very heavy vs other fans, especially the light Enermax. The Enermax has almost no motor noise, beyond the expected, almost inaudible brrrrrrrrrrrr.... HOWEVER, once the airflow two/from the Enermax is, in any way, restricted (by let's say, two GTX570 cards :p), it's fan (I cannot pinpoint what's causing that) it becomes louder than an Antec TriCool set on medium. In otherwords, much noiser than the GTAP13. The GTAP13, reguardless of being restricted by twin GTX570 or not, sounds (more or less) exactly the same as open air testing. The GTAP13 also has the benefit of pushing a bit more air (especially once the airflow is slightly restricted on both fans) than the Enermax, and it also has a wee bit of "air bleed" to the side of the fan, which is kind of important for my GTX570 SLI setup, in which the "bottom" (in a normal case) GPU doesn't actually get much direct airflow from the 120mm fan.

As such, the GTAP13 stays in my FT03, while the Enermax goes to my SG05 to free up another GTAP15 currently in there :) The Enermax, with little airflow blockage, is still a very decent choice, so it's rather well suited to a SG05 (mine are run without air filters...), IMO.

Please forgive spelling, nto typing in ideal conditions here :(
 
jeremyshaw said:


A wee bit of light, empirical, nonscientific observations....

GTAP13 vs Enermax TB.Scilence (this is the black version of the whitle LED variant seen in this thread, with "Enermax" carved through the side metal framing).

The GTAP13 has a bit more of a motor tone, like an almost nasal tone vs the Enermax. As usual, the GentleTyphoon is very heavy vs other fans, especially the light Enermax. The Enermax has almost no motor noise, beyond the expected, almost inaudible brrrrrrrrrrrr.... HOWEVER, once the airflow two/from the Enermax is, in any way, restricted (by let's say, two GTX570 cards :p), it's fan (I cannot pinpoint what's causing that) it becomes louder than an Antec TriCool set on medium. In otherwords, much noiser than the GTAP13. The GTAP13, reguardless of being restricted by twin GTX570 or not, sounds (more or less) exactly the same as open air testing. The GTAP13 also has the benefit of pushing a bit more air (especially once the airflow is slightly restricted on both fans) than the Enermax, and it also has a wee bit of "air bleed" to the side of the fan, which is kind of important for my GTX570 SLI setup, in which the "bottom" (in a normal case) GPU doesn't actually get much direct airflow from the 120mm fan.

As such, the GTAP13 stays in my FT03, while the Enermax goes to my SG05 to free up another GTAP15 currently in there :) The Enermax, with little airflow blockage, is still a very decent choice, so it's rather well suited to a SG05 (mine are run without air filters...), IMO.

Please forgive spelling, nto typing in ideal conditions here :(
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awesome, thanks for the info. that gtap15 must kill the stock 120mm fans then. going to ahve to pick one up to try it out vs the two 80mm's
 
GTAP15 at max is as noisey as a single Noctua 80mm at max... of course, the GTAP13 is very silent at max (roughly 7V GTAP15) and pushes about as much air as twin Noctua 80s at max :p
 
btw, I had run quite a few fans through the paces, not just those few :p
the last two 80mm fans with grills are server fans, BTW.... insanely loud, but they push a LOT more air than most of the 120mm fans you see here... Unfortuneately, they do not undervolt well.

 
having a tough time finding the gtap15 in stock at reasonable prices. wonder if japan is an issue.
 
cj3waker said:
they have a great rep, and amazingly fast transatlantic free shipping (3 days from germany to your house)

althought there is free shipping and not tax, you have to pay a 9% import fee
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though I think they are oos, right now.
 
CheckExplicit said:
Any word on whether or not the Noctua NH-D14 will fit? Trying to decide on this or the TJ08 Evolution, and its probably going to come down to whichever case will fit it.
Im thinking it fitting would probably come down to where the CPU is on the motherboard, but with mATX, I can't imagine its placement varying too much from other motherboards.

I have an H70, but the mounting bracket is broken, stupid metal screw inserts keep bending the plastic backplate, don't know why Corsair opted for that one piece to be cheap plastic, when the rest is all metal. The cooler also has an air bubble in it. I don't really want to buy a new H70 to replace my NH-D14 unless I absolutely have to.
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I have a Silver Arrow in mine (on a Asus P8P67-M Pro), it's a tight fit, but it's in there and does not interfere with PCI-E.
It's the extra height from the TY140 fans thats the tallest point, especially the center one, which makes it a little difficult to close the side panel. This is why I have TY140->FN121->TY140->FN121. The last FN121 is the case exhaust, it also just fits in there.

The case CPU intake fan doesn't fit, but it doesn't for most coolers with 2 fans.
Tall memory doesn't fit, and due to the TY140 construction, installing memory in slot 2+4 will bulge the side panel even more (maybe making it unable to close?). I use Kingston HyperX Genesis
The NH-D14 is smaller in every dimension, so I don't think you'll run into any width, height or ram limitations as long as you stay away from tall ram heat spreaders..
 
Can I jump on this discussion regarding certain coolers (not) fitting the case?

I have an Asus P8H67-M Pro, and bought G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB. I'm wondering if I could still install a Themaltake Frio, which has a dimension of 165x139x98 (Heatsink).

FT03's cooler clearance being 167mm, techinically speaking it will fit. But I was wondering if there's anyone out there who tried similar configuration and ran into any problem, like clearance issue with the memory and etc.

This is my FIRST build and any help would be appreciated. Search on this thread did not yield any satisfactory answers.

Thanks.
 
Kirinji said:
Can I jump on this discussion regarding certain coolers (not) fitting the case?

I have an Asus P8H67-M Pro, and bought G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB. I'm wondering if I could still install a Themaltake Frio, which has a dimension of 165x139x98 (Heatsink).

FT03's cooler clearance being 167mm, techinically speaking it will fit. But I was wondering if there's anyone out there who tried similar configuration and ran into any problem, like clearance issue with the memory and etc.

This is my FIRST build and any help would be appreciated. Search on this thread did not yield any satisfactory answers.

Thanks.
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if you havent bought yet, just get the H70. will give you tons of room to work and keeps cpu really cold. i have pics of it here.

http://shylock.net/sandybridge

i am using vengeance ram and it has pretty tall heatsinks but it doesnt matter since the water cooler has such low profile on that side. im thinking the 120mm thats blowing across ram might not even be necessary with the h70.
 
shylock said:
if you havent bought yet, just get the H70. will give you tons of room to work and keeps cpu really cold. i have pics of it here.

http://shylock.net/sandybridge

i am using vengeance ram and it has pretty tall heatsinks but it doesnt matter since the water cooler has such low profile on that side. im thinking the 120mm thats blowing across ram might not even be necessary with the h70.
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Yeah I was thinking about getting one too, but then after reading so many reviews, Frio topped H70 in terms of performance, but not the noise. Since I am not overclocking this computer and primarily using it for HTPC purposes, I may not need the Frio. I just wanted to make my rig a bit future-proof should I get interested in overclocking once Z68 chipset is out.

Do you know anything about H60? In Tweak Town, it has better rating than H70 (not in terms of noise so much) and it seems to have even lower profile, which should help with the case like ours. It is more reasonably priced too.

BTW, funny I ran into your Facebook album before I got to talk to you. I really appreciate those who record their building process and post it online. This is a great help for someone like me who is building a computer for the first time.
 
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