A Closer Look - Inside

Simply remove the thumbscrews holding each side panel in place to access the interior. As you can see, Silverstone lined the panels with sound-dampening materials. The entire interior is black, and several openings in the motherboard tray allow for a clean look. A few years back, Silverstone asked me what my thoughts on rubber grommets were, and I told them that rubber grommets only make a small difference. Today, however, with the space behind the motherboard tray, I would like to see the inclusion of such parts to keep things as tidy as possible. The 30 mm behind the Fortress's motherboard tray give you plenty of space to keep things clean by hiding and routing all cables well.


You may also remove the aluminum top panel for easy access through this part of the chassis, which is good for those who need to reach cables that are hidden here, or go hands-on with the drives in the external bays.


The Fortress FT04 has two different types of 3.5" hard drive bays. You will find two separate bays, each capable of holding a single drive, on the bottom of the chassis. The one toward the front comes with a hot-swap bracket, while the other is equipped with a small plastic support beam on which a CPU cooler can rest, which would take some strain off the motherboard, but Silverstone did not place any foam on the part, which could result in vibrations when used. But one does not really need the beam, making it more of a nice-looking gimmick than anything else.


Above that is a simpler cage that can hold five more 3.5" storage units. It is lined with thin foam as a measure against vibrations, and installing hard drives there will require traditional screws. To fill it, one has to detach the unit from the chassis first. Above it is another plastic device with grooves for extra-long expansion cards. Such a piece is usually only utilized by workstations and servers as many cards there come with an additional extension to latch onto a support structure similar to this one. While it is, once again, a nice accessory to have, it should not be the main reason behind purchasing the FT04 in the first place. The two external 5.25" drive bays in the very top are basic but functional and require screws to hold any installed devices in place.


There are 2.5" drive bays on the floor of the chassis, below the 3.5" bays. You may fill these without detaching the 3.5" units. Taking them out allows you to easily access the 2.5" spots, though. Remove the large and both individual cages from the underside of the chassis to do so. Covering the screw holes, the feet at the front were, interestingly enough, stuck on wrong. I managed to peel them off and re-applied them correctly. Silverstone has confirmed this as an issue with the first charge. Future cases will have their feet attached the right way around. Once removed, the four mounts for SSDs can clearly be seen. It is nice to see that as much of the interior as possible is covered with sound-dampening material, not just the bigger, solid areas.


You may also remove the motherboard tray for easy assembly of the motherboard, memory, and cooler. This is the last piece of the chassis that is removable. You are now left with the bare bones of the FT04, which shows just how very modular the entire chassis is.


Let us take a quick look at all the cables within the Fortress FT04 before diving into the assembly process. All the case and I/O cables are of the default variety and feature black sleeving. These cables are, like the white fans, sleeved white cables. Silverstone put a warning label on these to make sure you are aware of their unusually high power draw—make sure to connect them accordingly. Last but not least, the hot-swap cables are of the default variety, but Silverstone chose to go with a Molex pass-through cable instead of a SATA power plug.