overview

Silverstone's new Fortress FT 05 is a mid-tower case with a rather unique design, but in line with other products from the same series. A closer look at the materials used reveals that Silverstone decided to use high quality plastic as well as solid steel, providing the enclosure with good stiffness and a solid frame. Apart from that the paint used, is of excellent quality and the attention to detail is always staggering with cases coming from SilverStone.

The front of the case does not feature any 5.25" slots but does house a vertical opening for a slot-in optical drive. The top of the case has been well thought, which is something we expected from Silverstone's Fortress lineup. Apart from that there is an eye-catching removable cover allowing direct access to the ports located on the back shield I/O of your motherboard. The motherboard has been rotated by 90 degree inside the Fortress FT05 compared to standard ATX cases, but we will talk about that a little bit later. The top front part of the case also features a small I/O panel, hidden behind a small sliding door and includes two USB 3.0 ports as well as a standard audio jacks and two rheobus.

Both side panels come with a tool-less mechanism and Silverstone uses a pressure system to remove them from the supporting structure. As you may have noticed earlier, the Fortress FT 05 uses a "chimney" design with fans placed at the bottom (behind dust filters) and one at the top part of the case.