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Silverstone addresses FT01 issues
Author: Harry ButlerPublished: 28th October 2008
Silverstone has gone some way to address the build quality issues we found in the FT01.
However, we’re happy to report that our review sample was one of the first off of the production line and Silverstone has since caught the problem, which was caused by incorrectly selected cooling fans.
Silverstone has worked to correct the issue in all retail versions of the FT01, replacing the case’s 180mm fans with revised models in which the fan blades are recessed deeper into the fan casing, eliminating the interference with the dust filters.
Our problems with power supply dust filter, which we also found to rub worryingly against our test setup's PSU fan, has also been remedied, with Silverstone now including rubber pads to distance the PSU from the filter and stop the interference caused by the mounting between them.
Such minor build quality flaws can sometimes sneak through into review or early retail copies and it’s encouraging to see Silverstone so quick to admit and quickly rectify the problem. While the FT01 still isn’t perfect, these improvements should go some way to assuage some of our build quality concerns about the case.
We've included some photos of the difference between the original and revised fan designs below - you can discuss these changes in the forums.
Click to Enlarge - The original FT01 fan's blades stick out further, and so interfered with the removable dust filters
Click to Enlarge - The replacement fan blades are fitted deeper into the fan casing, solving the problem
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Comments (35)
maybe it looks better in black but the silver looks tacky to me
lol
For a Silverstone it is!
You can go to some eastern europe city for a weekend for that much dosh! Its crazy I tell Ye!
I've spoken to several case manufacturers this morning about your claims--that use all of the various hard drive orientations--and none have said that this orientation is inferior in terms of cooling performance.
Also aslong as they cut big enough holes in the hdd "box" cooling shoudnt be a issue.
150£ for a midi tower that doesnt even have a removable mobo tray? no thanks, as much as I love the external design, I'd rather pay 20£ more and get the best case ever (lian li a77) or save a big sum and just get a cm 690 instead.
Shame really since Silverstone do make great cases. Cooling is much worse than I expected however I really think as part of your testing that you should have reversed the top intake. Many other sites reversed the fan's whilst reviewing the TJ07/TJ09 and experienced vastly different results.
When are peoplegoing to stop harping on about the orientation of hard disks....STOP! Should a case manufacturer decide to invest $$$,$$$ on R&D and deem their design sufficient to pass Q&C then you should rest assured that all will be well. Lian-Li did it back with the V1000 series. How many Lian-Li cases do you see stuffed with HDD's??? I have a TJ09 with 5 HDD's and no failures. It really is not an issue so shut up about it!
Apart from my rant's, another nice review BT. This was going to be my new case but I guess I should wait a while, this is screaming at me for a Crysis/Far Cry 2 inspired mod......hmmmmm!
Do Coolermaster realize how much they would make with an updated Black Widow? Update should be front, rear and top 120mm mounts, 6 drive bay's instead of 4 to mount radiators if your so inclined and a top and bottom PSU mount....They would clean up with that design!
i love the looks of this case and a little downfall here n there that i can fix is not a deal-breaker.
and yes, looks like a great canvas. i prolly pick this one up for my girl....
The orientation doesn't make a blind bit of difference, but I agree that the distance between drives certainly does.
now it isnt... Gonna have to wait to see how much the coolermaster atcs 840 is when it hits the shops
I own a Lian Li PC-101B case which is filled with 7 harddrives. I had to buy an extra Lian Li drive cage because the six drive slots was not enough.
Most reviews even these on Bit-tech only test the cases with a minimum of required stuff for a computer. That is MAX 1 HDD, 1 graphics card, no extra PCI cards (RAID controllers etc), only 1 DVD burner (many have two or a Reader+Burner setup).
Time to do some stress testing of the case as well and try to see how much stuff you can really fit while still keep it tidy. I'm sure most of the midi cases will fail miserably. It does not look pretty inside my Lian Li case.
A picture for those who may be in doubt:
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c276/saivert/18-08-07_0522.jpg
Sam
its tacky , its styling is the Mullet hair style of computer cases
i can see the performance with a dual slot cooler being so much better being a "positive" pressure case.
You hate this case only because the drive bays are wrong? Personally I never use hd cages, I use the Nexus DiskTwin to put the hds into the 5.25 bays. And ditch the hd cages for more room for wc pumps and stuff
Now I cant wait for the review of the act840 coolermaster case!
To be honest, there is such a big selection of cases on the market that I think it's ok to be very picky about even small details, It's not like your comparing lets say a k8 and nehalem, but something where thousands of variations are avalaible.
We review on what we were given, but will make note that certain things change and improve post review, however once a review is published the score is final because it's already available to buy.
Otherwise we wouldn't review "like a consumer" - we approach a product like we would use it ourselves should we own one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLOg9yI3rjs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe-2ZqmSGug