SILVERSTONE Fortress Series FT03B Black Computer Case

Comment:
Recently built this system, consisting of an Asus P8P67-M Pro, Core i7 2600k, GTX580, 240Gb SSD. Using stock CPU and GPU cooler, and only the top case fan. System is very quiet and keeps things reasonably cool. Planning on getting a better aftermarket cooler, but right now happy with stock cooler. I have a Seasonic PSU, and unfortunately the way the internal power cord is routed, the power plug on the back of the PSU is upside down compared to what the case wanted, which required re-routing the internal power cord a bit.Overall I'm happy with the case and like the way it looks except for the appearance of the side intake. That plastic grill is horrid. Also, the location of the "front" panel is very odd. The idea of the case was to take up less of the desktop, which assumes that this case will actually be on the desk. The location of the slot-loaded optical drive also goes with this idea. So why did they put the USB, audio and power/reset buttons on the top of the case? Also, the USB ports don't connect to the motherboard headers but to the back panel, which is literally inches away. Very stupid.If I had to redesign the case, I would have turned the PSU so it opened on the back of the case. Yeah, you sacrifice some space for the video card, but you could still fit a GTX580 or probably a Radeon 6870 so you aren't really that limited. Then I would put the front panel on the actual front of the case, below the slot for the optical drive. And use USB2 ports with an option to buy USB3 ports separately that connects to motherboard header.

Comment:
This is a pretty sweet-looking case. I got the black edition. When the unit arrived the paint felt slightly "sticky", though that's not the case a week later.In case it's not obvious, this case orients the motherboard so that the IO shield faces up, out the top of the case - so all your USB/video/audio plugs are on top! You route your cables out of one of three 'divots' in the side panels, and there's a plastic top-cover to hold them down.Airflow is bottom-to-top, though the power supply has its own exhaust on the left side of the case at the bottom. All intakes have filters. Includes 3 120mm fans, plus a bracket for another.I'm using the Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 cooler on an MSI H67MA-E45 mainboard, and there are no issues with clearance.If you get this case, BE CAREFUL when removing the side panels. The black finish scratches easily and the design doesn't really allow you to avoid it. Scratches are not visible when the case is closed, fortunately.Very happy with the case.

Comment:
I got this case after wanting a bit more room on my desk. I saw some server cases with hard drives behind the motherboard. The down side to this is about a 10c increase in temps(in the hot swap bay at least). This was all with the stock fans at low speed. Once the speed was increased the temps get a bit better. I guess enough heat passes from board to hard drives on the back.In the end, I wish they included some kind of heatsink to hold the drives in the back(as a replacement for the plastic drive holders), just to give it that little extra cooling as the side of the drive(top label) that "Touches" the side panel is not the best way to get rid of heat.The top cables are also hard to get out of the case on the sides due to the design(back is fine as long as you do not have thick cables) and my HDMI plug does not work since the case has metal 90 degree support right(the metal is bent for extra support) above the video card. This support makes by top plugs on the video card difficult to use.With that in mind, this case still packs a lot of power in a smaller foot print. This system will become my primary system soon enough.

Comment:
Great case! Silverstone did a great job.I was able to install:MSI 890GXM-G65 moboXFX Radeon HD 6870Corsair A70 coolerCorsair Dominator DHX+ 2x4GBPatriot Inferno SSDWestern Digital 2TB GreenCorsair HX650 with no problem ;-)