Silverstone Fortress FT03 Mini Case Review

1. Introduction2. Silverstone FT03 Mini: Packaging and Bundle3. Silverstone FT03 Mini: Exterior4. Silverstone FT03 Mini: Interior and Installation5. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

It's fair to say that the Silverstone Fortress FT03 Mini is like no other case on the market, with the obvious exception of the full size version.  Its form factor is totally unique as it's about as wide as a normal mid-tower PC case but shorter and much less deep.  Silverstone claim that it's 50% smaller than the original FT03.

The outer shell of the FT03 mini is constructed exclusively from thick anodised aluminium which gives the case an exclusive look and feel.  Three of the four sides of the case are removable and simply clip into the steel frame underneath.

This makes it very easy to access the internals of the case but can be quite annoying as they cannot be secured into place with screws and they can come off very easily by accident when moving the case.

Like the FT02, the FT03 Mini features a vertical airflow design where cool air is sucked into the bottom of the case and then flows out of the top.  There is only one fan included in the case which is a Silverstone Air Penetrator 140mm fan in the bottom of the case which spins at 1,500 rpm.

The top panel of the case is a giant plastic vent which also covers all of the rear I/O connections and PSU due to the unusual internal layout of the case.  The power and reset buttons are located in the centre of the top panel alongside the front panel connections. These consist of two USB3.0 ports and headphone and microphone jacks.

In the front of the case there is a slot for a slimline slot-load optical drive which can be installed in the chassis.  There isn't an eject button built into the chassis, though, so you'll have to eject discs through Windows or a multimedia remote.  Silverstone has attached two flexible strips on either side of the rear of the slot which are probably to prevent dust getting in.

Unfortunately they restrict the movement of the CD in and out of the slot so much that our slimline optical drive couldn't muster enough power to eject the CD through them.  So we were forced to remove this altogether to get our CDs to eject properly.

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