PC Cases / AccessoriesPC Hardware Reviews
SilverStone Fortress FT01 Case
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Observation |
| During the design and final stages of creating the Fortress FT01 SilverStone came across something that they were not expecting. As we all have come to learn that heat rises and that a single or set of fans at the top of a case would help draw the warm out. True it does do this and it does work. but what they found out was that during some stress testing that if they turned the fan around so that it would blow into case that the temperature readings actually when down. What SilverStone did was to create a positive pressure case. Yes this is nothing new but it does go against what we have all been trained to think.
After talking with Tony from SilverStone it all started to make since. This may take some of you back a few years but remember when almost all graphic cards used to have the cooling fans placed in the middle of them and they pushed the heat around the inside of the case. Well most modern day cards now have the cooling fans located at the end of the card and it pushes the air across the card and out, if you have a dual slot card. The hot air that once needed to be drawn out of the case is now being handled by the graphics card so by pushing cooler air from the outside it is now going across the CPU and the Northbridge chips at a lower temperature.
The location of the PC’s power supplies have changed and all for the better. Inside the SilverStone Fortress we see that it lays at the bottom of the case with a clean supply of air taken from the bottom panel through a cleanable filter. The power supplies own cooling fan is used to draw in the cool air from outside the case, through the PSU and out the back of the case with out ever mixing with any of the air from the inside of the case. Just another way to keep it cool. 
OK, so letting the graphic card and the power supply unit remove a good amount of the heat you really do not need that much air being pushed in the case to create the needed air flow for a positive pressure case. This takes another myth and busts it. Three low RPM, CFM and dBA casefans are used instead of the wind creating fans most people use. Looking at the 180mm fan from SilverStone and comparing it to a 230mm fan from a competitor we can see some obvious differences in how they are made. You can see that the fan on the right is larger whichis the SilverStone blade and is 45% wider.
 << 230mm – 180mm >> Placing the fans ontop of each other we see another difference bewteen the two. The wider SilverStone has a smoother air cutting action that will help achieve higher air pressure while the smaller more curved blades are trying designed to achieve more air flow than air pressure.
Another item that SilverStone included was to sound proof the side panels on the FT01. This does help control the noise that may be created inside the case from the power supply, hard drives, graphic cards or other devices.
I must tell you that this a great feature as I place my PC on my desk lest than two feet away from me and it is the quietest machine I have had without it being water cooled.
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