New Silverstone FT02

Have you guys seen photos of this thing yet? Amazing.

why dont you link us to some?

http://www.dvhardware.net/article35888.html

Not much of a fan... lookin forward to 800D from Corsair though...

I think it has great potential if the price hovers around the 200 mark, it basically took the issues with the Raven1 and the Fortress1 and improved on it (Hard drive cooling impeding GPU cooling and wasted space in the case of the raven). Three 180mm fans with all the heat pushed upward should give it great cooling potential. I also think its a very clean design.

I love the look of the 800D too, but I have a feeling the street price will be in the upper 300s which will put it out of reach of most [H] members.

Something I didn't like with the horizontal 180mm fans is that they're sleeve bearing fans, and as such are much noisier when mounted horizontally.

I don't like it.

It seems to me this case addresses all of my concerns with FT01 including accessability of the fan filters, hard drive cages impairing the airflow to the video card, while keeping the mid tower form factor and very clean, sophisticated design.

The only issue is external cable management which might be a bit awkward, but the cables still ultimately end up out the back of the case. In this size case I am willing to sacrifice some accessability to the motherboard ports for better cooling and unique aesthetics. In the reviews of FT01 that I read, the CPU cooling was tremendous and the GPU cooling lacking. Now you have a positive air pressure case that directly feeds the video cards and is orientated to exhaust heat in the direction it rises to boot.

The price should be around $200.

I just moved my system into the (original) Raven and I have to say that I'm extremely impressed. It's not nearly as gaudy, heavy or plasticky in person as the chatter online made it out to be. Cable management was better than advertised as well. The FT02, though, looks like it addresses many of the shortcomings of the Raven - and I'll probably get the FT02 when it comes out. I'll skip the Raven 2 because I think it looks worse than the original Raven. The FT02 looks very nice.

So now the question is, when are these new cases going to be available?

edit: looks like the FT02 will be available in August for around $219. I'm in for one come August.

Originally Posted by kencheeto

Something I didn't like with the horizontal 180mm fans is that they're sleeve bearing fans, and as such are much noisier when mounted horizontally.

You are right on that as normal sleeve bearing fans become noisier only when they are positioned horizontally to blow air up because they vibrate a lot in that particular orientation (this is not a problem if the fan is blowing air down). Noise caused by vibration aside, sleeve bearing fan is still quieter than ball bearing fan. So when we were developing the 180mm fans for the Fortress FT01 and RAVEN RV01 case last year, we spent quite a lot of time solving this problem, eventally we found that a custom spacer designed to fit between the C ring and the bearing cover did the trick and eliminated the vibration.

Originally Posted by Tony Ou

You are right on that as normal sleeve bearing fans become noisier only when they are positioned horizontally to blow air up because they vibrate a lot in that particular orientation (this is not a problem if the fan is blowing air down). Noise caused by vibration aside, sleeve bearing fan is still quieter than ball bearing fan. So when we were developing the 180mm fans for the Fortress FT01 and RAVEN RV01 case last year, we spent quite a lot of time solving this problem, eventally we found that a custom spacer designed to fit between the C ring and the bearing cover did the trick and eliminated the vibration.

welcome, tony! thanks for the info. hope to see more help from you around the forums. i know people really respect and appreciate the help from manufacturer representatives like yourself.

Originally Posted by Tony Ou

You are right on that as normal sleeve bearing fans become noisier only when they are positioned horizontally to blow air up because they vibrate a lot in that particular orientation (this is not a problem if the fan is blowing air down). Noise caused by vibration aside, sleeve bearing fan is still quieter than ball bearing fan. So when we were developing the 180mm fans for the Fortress FT01 and RAVEN RV01 case last year, we spent quite a lot of time solving this problem, eventally we found that a custom spacer designed to fit between the C ring and the bearing cover did the trick and eliminated the vibration.

Interesting. I own a Silverstone FT01, and while the top fan isn't necessarily loud (I'm just very picky) the top 180mm is subjectively twice as noisy as the front intake. I may try switching the two to see if the difference is purely based on orientation.

In any case, good to see that you guys have put some thought into this- this is the sort of information that enthusiasts love to know. Also, definitely stick around; we love complaining to manufacturers

edit:
I should add that with the top fan unplugged and a Gelid 120mm silent fan on the back (front 180mm stock) case noise drops below ambient for me, which is impressive.

ken- you're right that the top fan is noisier, but I only notice that with my ear literally touching the fan with the side panel off. For me as soon as my two caviar blacks spin up they become the loudest components (though overall still quiet). If I could just eliminate the HD noise...

Tony- what about an upgrade program? I'd love to try out the FT02, but I don't think I can justify another $200some case.

Why so many external bays? Useless.

Originally Posted by timme

Why so many external bays? Useless.

You forgot "IMO" at the end of your sentence.

5 external drive bays is pretty standard and hardly excessive. Two opticals, one card reader and something like a fan controller and you've filled up four of them already. So is it really too many? Or useless?

Yeah I posted about this a while back during computex along with the Raven 2. All they need to do is make a Black FT02 and I'm sold.

No stealth fighter looks, and more drive bays for RAIDing.

Originally Posted by Flexion

Yeah I posted about this a while back during computex along with the Raven 2. All they need to do is make a Black FT02 and I'm sold.

No stealth fighter looks, and more drive bays for RAIDing.

In black it would certainly be more appealing. Regardles I'd like more pictures of it from more angles.

If they make a black one I may be selling my ATCS 840.

If they continue in the tradition of the original fortress, there will be a black version and then a windowed version of both. I just went to check out the pics again and I realized there's none actually with the side panel attached. Perhaps just silver and black this time?

Here is a shot of a pre-production FT02 in black:

I think the FT01 was a lot nicer looking.. all they had to do was fix those few fan/filter issues..