Gadgetory

hey guys this is Dimitri with hurricane axe and welcome to another video review the fortress lineup from silverstone has carried significant weight for impressive cooling performance elegant aluminum designs and a certain level of functionality that could only be found from silverstone now this latest addition to the fortress line is the FTO 4 that tries to fill those same promises but priced at $230 it might be a tough sell considering how competitive the enclosure market has become we recently reviewed the latest Raven and the FT of 4 takes an identical internal frame with a few things changed but as you can see it takes a very similar form and shape with a side window and a one-piece frontal design a silverstone has done an excellent job in minimizing the footprint of the full tower without compromising on features what's changed is the door now aluminum instead of flexible plastic and it is sandblasted aluminum that looks exceptional without all the fingerprint mess the FTO 4 is also foam padded inside the front panel and side vents angled to divert any sound both panels are also padded so there's plenty of emphasis on keeping the FDF for as silent as possible although I couldn't help to think of a less ideal material for the side panel window as just by handling it produces unpleasant noises so vibrations from inside the machine could potentially resonate into audible vibrations of the panel USB 3 ports and audio jacks are located on the right side along with the rather weak magnets that hold the panel in place I would have preferred some clips instead power and reset buttons are on the opposite side with additional venting there are two five and a quarter inch drive base with two fan controller knobs for the fans below so controlling both cooling performance and noise levels so that's always awesome and this is the impressive part of this design the fact that incredible cooling can happen with just these two 180 millimeter air penetrators these fans aren't white though which is a little strange it doesn't really go with the black design but they are extremely directional and will provide the really effective airflow tunnels these can also be swapped for a triple 120 millimeter setup for central 360 radiator there's also a fan shroud for the top fan that we are told helps to focus airflow towards your blower style graphics cards the silverstone is also smart about dust filter design with a really fine mesh that has minimal effect on resistance but really effective against dust particles at the top where the front panel closes there's a small gap but it does continue in the uniform fashion and that's where the hard drive activity lights are located because of the chamber isolation power supply is installed at the top sitting on some more foam or the removable dust filter so thanks for that followed by an upside down motherboard layout with eight PCI slots large venting for airflow to exit and a 120mm fan mount so all in one water coolers are not totally out of question well that pretty much covers the exterior changes the FDF form unfortunately still has the same panel design that shows a little bit too much of the inside especially that the sticking out drive gauge it was somewhat acceptable for the Raven but it doesn't suit to fortress line at least that's what I think internals are identical to the latest Raven the only difference will be the added foam on the floor some up top the fan is now white with corresponding cables and one three and a half inch drive slot is now hot swappable so that's really good to see so let's quickly cover the rest of the features drive cage is padded internally it's all tooless and it will support five three and a half inch drives there are two more slots at the bottom for mechanical drives using this quick-release system that's actually very clever just pull on the strap to release the drive there's appropriate cutouts available at the rear for all your cable routing there's also a CPU cooler support bracket that can be high adjusted for your needs and remove completely if not needed the FTO 4 does support SSDs but it's not a comfortable process to get them installed you have to first remove the bottom drive cage and then you get access to two SSD slots that you have to screw in place from the bottom of the case and even without anything in the system it was quiet chromosome plus at all the routing work that will follow so yeah it does support everything that you need but it's not a user-friendly process so the rotated motherboard tray is very effective within this case as it allows the chassis to be smaller since GPUs are installed at the top without compromising on drive storage the motherboard tray is also removable that makes a huge difference for assembly outside of the case but the FT r4 still maintains incredible stability with the tray removed that just demonstrates the excellent build quality of the internal frame and with everything assembled silverstone has done an excellent job for cable management all the cables are pretty much tucked away and additional cutouts right underneath power supply are useful connecting all the drives of course if things are kept to a minimum would be hassle-free but I could see it being more challenging as you start to populate those SSD spots and three and a half inch drive slots the case is ready for long graphics cards with 13 inches of clearance and that's with the shroud in place and includes a GPU support bracket for those saggy graphics cards so that's an excellent consideration and what silverstone has created here is an airflow masterpiece and while you can still mount a 360 right at the front you'll effectively remove the best thing from the FT or for those two air penetrators now the FTO 4 is certainly an upgrade in the way the chassis feels thanks to the aluminum exterior additions the case is truly impressive for its cooling potential just from the two front fans and everything else that complements this airflow with great chamber separation and clean cable management a few functional additions like the removable motherboard tray and the support system for you CPU and GPU are welcome there is an impressive amount of drive storage potential here in such compact footprint with one hot-swappable slot and the added foam is helpful to reduce the noise levels plus the integrated fan controllers just keep in mind they're pretty loud at full power now I still feel they moved away from giving us an easy case to work in especially when it comes to SSD mounts I'm glad we have so much potential for drive storage I just don't think that's how it should be done also a smaller window would be more ideal to hide the drive gauge and all the cables flowing out of it I still think the best thing about the FT f4 is the amazing cooling potential for your system right out of the box and it's really up to you whether you value that and a somewhat clunky SSD mound for the $230 price tag a silverstone has managed to cram a lot of features into the f2f for and we're giving in the damn innovative award as there's really nothing like it but what do you guys think of this latest fortress does it send a chance within our current enclosure market that's becoming extremely saturated I certainly think so but I do prefer more flexibility when it comes to user friendly designs well that is it for the FTO 4 make sure to subscribe for a similar content and we'll see you in the next moment