A Closer Look - Outside

Taking a first look at the chassis, the top panel is covered by a protective sheet. All four sides of the FT03 Mini are made of fairly thick aluminum plates. While the FT03 can already be considered a compact chassis, the new Mini variant is an almost identical, but much smaller variant. It is probably one of the smallest mini-ITX cases that can hold a full size GPU, considering that the top 5 cm of the case hold no additional functionality, besides allowing for proper, external cable routing.


The chassis is slightly slimmer than it is deep, with the front giving access to a vertical slimline drive. On the rear there is a small cutout in the top, allowing you to route cables out this way.


Both side panels are completely solid, with similar cutouts in the top, so that you may route cables out, using three different sides in total.


A fairly large Silverstone logo has been placed in the upper half of the front panel. While it looks quite nice, I would have liked to see a slightly smaller one. Below that is the afore mentioned slimline drive bay. There is no eject button anywhere, which may be a bit annoying for some, as you will have use the OS to eject discs, due to the physical lack of such a functionality.


The chassis is constructed in such a way, that all the connectors are in the top of the chassis. This is also where you will find two USB 3.0 ports and the usual audio in- and outputs right next to the power and reset buttons. You may remove the top cover with a gentle tug, revealing two full height expansion slots, the cutout for the motherboard backplate and the SFX PSU bay.


The single 140 mm cooling fan has been placed below the chassis frame and is used to push air into the case. It is of the Penetrator variety, which creates a clean air tunnel, thus increasing air pressure. A dust filter cap has been added, so that the fan does not end up pulling dirt into the compact FT03 Mini.