SilverStone Fortress FT01 Case Review

It is time to look at the magic of the FT01.

The SilverStone engineers have taken great time and pride into making the FT01 an incredible air pushing machine. Early Ninjalane casemod projects used the idea of positive air pressure to move cool air thru the case and avoid dead spots and hot pockets.  However doing positive air pressure incorrectly could actually hurt cooling performance.  One such design mistake is blowing air directly over expansion card slots, we discovered that tightly packed expansion cards acted as heat islands and blowing air directly over them was not very efficient.  However by moving fans away from these hot spots and applying positive pressure you can push the heat away very quickly and with great efficiency

SilverStone is using the idea of positive air pressure to move cool air through the FT01 at very rapid speed. The rapid cool air removes excess heat, and also isolates any kind of heat pockets away from the components inside the FT01.

For a detailed explanation of positive air pressure as it relates to the FT01 check out this page on the SilverStone website.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/tech/wh_positive.php?area=usa

At the front of the FT01 is a mighty 180mm fan with a mesh filter to keep the dust down inside the FT01. Trust us when we say keep the filter clean and in place. For the mighty 180mm fan paired up with the positive air pressure system is going to pull some serious cool air in front of the FT01. You might even consider keeping the family pet away from the front of this beast.

The way the cooling system is setup in the FT01. When the cool air rushes in from the front 180mm fan intake, and hits the hard drives with a fresh cool air. This air does not go up to the exhaust fan, but instead rushes out the back of the FT01 to run air across your video cards, and lower motherboard components. The air from the front intake fan more or less just makes a straight line in and out of the case. It is truly an amazing sight to see.

After looking at the first part of the positive air pressure cooling system it is time to look at the second. In the upper back part of the FT01 you'll notice a large 180mm fan mounted on top and a 120mm fan mounted on the backside. This is a cooling system that moves and isolates air to CPU section of the motherboard only. The 180mm fan blows cool air towards the CPU area, and the 120mm fan removes the hot air very quickly.

With a motherboard and CPU with heatsink installed you can get a better idea of how the 180mm fan sits right on top the heatsink to force air through it quickly. You also get a better idea of how the air is removed from the 120mm exhaust fan.

SilverStone has created a couple great videos to help get a visual understanding of positive air pressure at work 

- Demonstration of Positive Air Pressure Design in PC chassis
- Fortress FT01 Pc case with positive air pressure part 2

After seeing these two videos with positive air pressure in action it all makes more sense, and is an amazing engineering marvel. To see how the isolation of certain areas of the FT01 happens without any kind of partitions is just wicked neat.

 Let's move on to the last portion of the review the conclusion.