SilverStone Fortress FT02 - not silent?!

a111087 · Oct 3, 2012

I read a bunch of reviews and watched a lot of video review. All of them claimed the case is silent or barely noticeable.

I got this case today and spent a number of hours moving hardware from my Sunbeam bench to the new case, but Fortress is by no means a silent case...

I have no CPU fan, no gpu fan... Just two Hdd's (regular, not raptors) and bottom three fans working. (two fans at 250rpm and one at 800rpm) (top fan is disconnected) I can still hear it just fine and it kinda bothers me. I'm thinking about turning of one more fan.

Hard drive temps are at 50*C... jesus!!!

Irony · Oct 3, 2012

Are you using it in a silent room? Cause any case is going to be somewhat audible unless its entirely sealed or something. I'm sure with your cooling setup and fan speeds it can't be very loud at all. Lol, you would hate to hear the wind turbine that is my case

a111087 · Oct 3, 2012

I can hear another one of my computers working in a different room, so trust me, I know what a loud case sounds like. I also worked with some servers...

Anyway, I think the grill on the bottom of the case is very restrictive. I will cut that out.
The back on the bottom tree fans is also very restrictive (and almost unnecessary for the can under hdd cage). Going to cut it down as well.

Yes, my room is silent, but I've seen silent cases before and I know they are real. lol I'm not crazy. I do have this case turned sideways to me and i noticed that if I will cover the bottom of the side (where the air is being pulled in) it cuts down quite a bit on the noise. (obviously it will just take more air from the other side)

Rowsol · Oct 3, 2012

Isn't one of the fans right below the hd cage? Also, nice case. One of my favorites.

There's a fly in my room...

a111087 · Oct 3, 2012

Rowsol said:
Isn't one of the fans right below the hd cage? Also, nice case. One of my favorites.

There's a fly in my room...

Yes, there is one and I had to run it at 800rpm to stabilize hdd temps.

Irony · Oct 5, 2012

I noticed with my fans that they're significantly louder if the mesh is on the intake side of the fan. Cutting that out would probably help quite a bit I would think

a111087 · Oct 5, 2012

Irony said:
I noticed with my fans that they're significantly louder if the mesh is on the intake side of the fan. Cutting that out would probably help quite a bit I would think

Yeah, will try to do that during the weekend. Will post pics too.

The guy who sold this case to me also said that he was disappointed with the amount of noise coming from this case.

a111087 · Oct 28, 2012

well, I finally got some free time to work on my case. here is what i've done:

suspended hhd's on rubber straps to eliminate quite a bit of small but strong vibrations
installed 12mm AccustiPack foam on the right door (that foam has some weight to it, so the door doesn't feel so flimsy anymore)
cut out two grills (couldn't cut the grill under the hdd cage, that was a tight space...). used nose pliers and sheet metal cutters because anything else was just too loud.
installed pieces of foam on the top cover. the top is where a lot of noise is coming out.
made a custom filler for the bottom intake that is facing me. blocking that intake definitely cuts down on turbulence noise. and doesn't really affect temperatures (this is really the best and the easiest thing you can do to lower the noise)

I'm not sure how much noise is any all of that removed (may be a little bit), but it sure lowered my cpu temps by a few degrees C (i'm using thermalright 120 ultra w/o fan) and i'm happy about that.

still even after all of these things, with just 3 fans running on low (plus 4th fan in psu which i replaced with a quieter one) the case isn't anywhere near being "almost silent case" that a lot of reviews claimed it to be! so, be aware of that.

Jetster · Oct 28, 2012

The best you can do is turn down the fans

a111087 · Oct 28, 2012

Jetster said:
The best you can do is turn down the fans

all of them are already at 800rpm, any lower and system temps will jump.

GSG-9 · Oct 29, 2012

I'm also on an FT02. The big advantage I found on the FT02 is I could put the case at ground level without worry of the case filling with dust.

I am not going for silent like you though, 360mm rad with all fans at fill speed. I can hear mine from the next room easy.

Jetster · Oct 29, 2012

a111087 said:
all of them are already at 800rpm, any lower and system temps will jump.

Then get a better cooling system. Take the 120 fan out of the top. That case is awesome. I cant think of a better case. But you cant have both. I run my 120s at 600 and my case is near silent. But I turn them up when im gaming or it hot in the house. People say all kinds of stuff in reviews but you have to be realistic. Fans make noise

a111087 · Oct 29, 2012

Jetster said:
Then get a better cooling system. Take the 120 fan out of the top. That case is awesome. I cant think of a better case. But you cant have both. I run my 120s at 600 and my case is near silent. But I turn them up when im gaming or it hot in the house. People say all kinds of stuff in reviews but you have to be realistic. Fans make noise

i have top 120mm disconnected.

bottom fans are not 120mm... they are 180mm and are very good, especially because they are worth $30 each.

GSG-9 · Oct 29, 2012

a111087 said:
iespecially because they are worth $30 each.

I would say amazing because of the noise to airflow

a111087 · Oct 29, 2012

GSG-9 said:
I would say amazing because of the noise to airflow

don't forget the unique air tunnel feature. that makes a huge difference with passive heatsinks on GPU and CPU.

GSG-9 · Oct 29, 2012

Also note Silverstone is AMAZING with RMA, I dropped a screw in one of those $30 fans without noticing it, snapped a fan. Silverstone sent me another.

a111087 · Oct 29, 2012

GSG-9 said:
I'm also on an FT02. The big advantage I found on the FT02 is I could put the case at ground level without worry of the case filling with dust.

I am not going for silent like you though, 360mm rad with all fans at fill speed. I can hear mine from the next room easy.

I'm just not gaming anymore and listen to a lot of music with open air headphones. Layout of my room forced me to put this case really close to where I sit and the top of the case is only 2' away from my ears. So, I hear the case pretty well despite my best efforts to silence it.

GSG-9 · Oct 29, 2012

Not to go OT but what are you using for headphones?

a111087 · Oct 29, 2012

GSG-9 said:
Not to go OT but what are you using for headphones?

I'm using the lovely Grado Labs SR-60. They sound pretty nice and don't require amp.
Pads on them are also very soft and I can sit for hours each day with no pain or sweat. It is also very easy to find replacement pads for these headphones, but mine are still fine after about 2 years.

GSG-9 · Oct 29, 2012

Sweet, I am using some old AKG K141s, I plan to make these last as long as I can.

EiSFX · Oct 29, 2012

Well since you just said your sitting so close to your case i think your expecting way too much out of your case and fans i think sitting that close no matter what case or fans you are useing you will hear your computer running hell i think sitting that close you could have a completel fnaless system and still hear the HDDs spinning. Like i Said your expecting too much since your sitting so close and also in general really Fans make noise ther is no way around it and as far as i know there is no 100% silent case that uses fans

a111087 · Oct 29, 2012

EiSFX said:
Well since you just said your sitting so close to your case i think your expecting way too much out of your case and fans i think sitting that close no matter what case or fans you are useing you will hear your computer running hell i think sitting that close you could have a completel fnaless system and still hear the HDDs spinning. Like i Said your expecting too much since your sitting so close and also in general really Fans make noise ther is no way around it and as far as i know there is no 100% silent case that uses fans

I know all of this sounds like I sat down in the public restroom, then started complaining that people poop and fart in there. But there are very quite (not silent) cases that use fans and I saw them with my own eyes. It was a joy of not having any idea if there were on or off without looking at their power LED's.

GSG-9 · Oct 29, 2012

I think the FT02 has great airflow, there are many cases aimed to be more silent, but they do not have* the same airflow.

arterius2 · Oct 29, 2012

just in case you didnt, u know there are fan speed controls for the case fans right?

a111087 · Oct 29, 2012

arterius2 said:
just in case you didnt, u know there are fan speed controls for the case fans right?

lol, yes, i knew about them and they are all set to low. I've used bios settings to run fans at even lower speeds, but temp get too high.

Processor	Intel Q9400
Motherboard	asus p5q-pro
Cooling	Ultra120
Memory	6GB ddr2
Video Card(s)	NVS 290
Storage	3TB + 1.5TB
Display(s)	Samsung F2380
Case	Silverstone Fortress FT02B
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi
Power Supply	750W PC P&C
Software	win 7 ultimate 64bit

System Name	Torquey Vulture
Processor	Ryzen 5 2600
Motherboard	Gigabyte B450 MiniITX
Cooling	DDC water loop, EK block
Memory	16GB Patriot Viper RGB
Video Card(s)	EVGA 1070
Storage	500gb NVME; some Phat HDDs
Display(s)	Achieva Shimian 27" 2560x1440
Case	Thermaltake V1 MiniITX
Power Supply	EVGA supernova 850 G2
Mouse	Corsair Harpoon
Keyboard	Possibly the cheapest you can buy. Shift key broke recently. Space sounds like I'm kicking a ham
Software	Windows 10

Processor	Intel Q9400
Motherboard	asus p5q-pro
Cooling	Ultra120
Memory	6GB ddr2
Video Card(s)	NVS 290
Storage	3TB + 1.5TB
Display(s)	Samsung F2380
Case	Silverstone Fortress FT02B
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi
Power Supply	750W PC P&C
Software	win 7 ultimate 64bit

System Name	Better than before
Processor	10400
Motherboard	B460 Pro4
Cooling	Id-Cooling 224
Memory	16 GB
Video Card(s)	1650 Super
Storage	Swordfish 500 GB
Display(s)	AOC G2
Case	Coolermaster Ammo 533
Audio Device(s)	Micca MB42X
Power Supply	Pure Power 11
Mouse	G403
Keyboard	Sidewinder x4
Software	Windows 10 (ugh)

Processor	Intel Q9400
Motherboard	asus p5q-pro
Cooling	Ultra120
Memory	6GB ddr2
Video Card(s)	NVS 290
Storage	3TB + 1.5TB
Display(s)	Samsung F2380
Case	Silverstone Fortress FT02B
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi
Power Supply	750W PC P&C
Software	win 7 ultimate 64bit

System Name	Juliette // HTPC
Processor	Intel i7 9700K // AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	ASUS Prime Z390X-A // ASRock B550 ITX-AC
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12 Black // Stock
Memory	Corsair DDR4 3600 32gb //G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3600
Video Card(s)	ASUS RTX4070 OC// GTX 1650
Storage	Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 1Tb, Intel 665p Series M.2 2280 1TB // Samsung 1Tb SSD
Display(s)	ASUS VP348QGL 34" Quad HD 3440 x 1440 // 55" LG 4K SK8000 Series
Case	Seasonic SYNCRO Q7// Silverstone Granada GD05
Audio Device(s)	Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 // HDMI to Samsung HW-R650 sound bar
Power Supply	Seasonic SYNCRO 750 W // CORSAIR Vengeance 650M
Mouse	Cooler Master MM710 53G
Keyboard	Logitech 920-009300 G512 SE
Software	Windows 10 Pro // Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Livingston
Processor	i7-4960HQ
Motherboard	macbook prp retina
Cooling	Alphacool NexXxoS Monsta (240mm x 120mm x 80mm)
Memory	16Gb
Video Card(s)	Zotac Arctic Storm Nvidia 980ti
Display(s)	1x Acer XB270HU, 1x Catleap, 1x Oculus
Benchmark Scores	http://www.3dmark.com/fs/770087

System Name	Custom FX
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 1600X @ 4Ghz
Motherboard	MSI B350 Tomahawk
Cooling	EK A240 Kit
Memory	G.SKILL G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series DDR4 3200 8GB
Video Card(s)	EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 FTW3 Ultra
Storage	SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 250GB NVMe OS Drive/Seagate Hybrid SSHD ST1000LM014 1TB MLC/8GB 64MB Cache
Display(s)	ASUS VE228H 21.5 inch
Case	Raijintek Thetis
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC892
Power Supply	Silverstone Strider 750 Plus 750W Modular
Mouse	Red Dragon M715 Dagger
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Tiger1-Workstation
Processor	Intel XEON E3-1275V2 / E3-1230V3
Motherboard	ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 / AsRock H87 Performance
Cooling	Corsair H80i Watercooling
Memory	32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400
Video Card(s)	Inno3D GTX 780 Ti
Storage	2TB SSD（4X OCZ vertex 4 256GB LSI RAID0 + Crucial M550 1TB)
Display(s)	2x Dell U3011 30" IPS
Case	Silverstone Raven 03
Audio Device(s)	Xonar Essence STX--> Xonar Essence One --> SPL Auditor -->Hivi X6
Power Supply	Corsair AX860i Platinum
Software	Windows 8.1 Enterprise

SilverStone Fortress FT02 - not silent?!

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