A Closer Look - Outside

The Fortress has a very similar construction to the TJ07, which is still Silverstone's most robust offering. This is also one of the main selling points of the Fortress and the reason why the company has put a price tag of just under 200 € on it.


The front of the Fortress is very clean and features straight lines. Silverstone has taken a solid piece of aluminum bent it across the top, front and underside, while carving a few grooves in the sides to add a few details to the overall design. The rear is black as well, with the power supply placed on the bottom of the chassis. Not much else out of the ordinary here.


Both sides of the Fortress are completely solid. There are no air vents or any form of active ventilation.These panels are held in place by thumb screws and a plastic, spring loaded lock. They are constructed of aluminum, just like the rest of the enclosure.


Taking a closer look at the front of the chassis, the bottom area is taken by the large front intake fan. The fan grill is made of a metal mesh with a large Silverstone logo on the center of it. This emblem is quite nice, but may be a bit too large for some. Moving up, the top part is intended for the five 3.5 inch bays. There are no 3.5 inch bays in the Fortress and there seems to be no adapter for such devices either. This is a feature which most, much cheaper enclosures manage to include and a fairly annoying oversight from Silverstone.


The rear of the chassis may be divided into three areas. The bottom holds the power supply, while the middle is taken by the seven mainboard expansion slots. The top area is taken by the usual rear fan, which is covered by a traditional fan guard. All the way up top are two large openings to route water cooling tubes through the rear of the chassis.


The top is taken by another large fan, covered in a hiqh quality metal mesh once again. The I/O is also located here, embedded at an angle into the top of the chassis. This design is great and should make it easy to plug cables in, even when the case is placed under a desk.