We've had our easily on various Silverstone cases in recent times, with the Raven RV03 beingness one of our favorites. As the latest member of the elite Raven family, the RV03 continued the tradition of using the "stack effect" which mounts the internal components at a 90 caste bending, pointing the "rear" I/O console up.

Although much of the enthusiast community's attending has been focused on the Raven cases, Silverstone offers a vast assortment of enclosures that rank favorably among organisation builders. The company'south Fortress series is one such example, comprised of a very diverse range of mid-sized high-end cases that are constructed from a thick aluminum body to create a light yet durable chassis.

Silverstone launched its first Fortress series example in tardily 2008 as the FT01. This mid-belfry ATX example was meant to be a gaming solution that primarily focused on efficient cooling. Silverstone achieved great operation by using positive air pressure, i.e. forcing copious volumes of air into the case with dual 180mm fans while having minimal exhaust.

Roughly one year later, Silverstone followed up with the FT02 using an entirely new pattern. The reworked mid-tower integrated some of what helped to make the Raven RV02 so successful -- namely the stack effect blueprint.

The new Fortress FT03 that we're reviewing today is unlike annihilation we've seen from the series before. Different its predecessors, this latest iteration is not a mid-tower ATX case, but rather utilizes its own unique design to take the grade of a compact microATX case.

Considering the FT03 stands 19.17" (487mm) alpine (a tad shorter than the RV03), we were not expecting motherboard support to be express to the mATX form factor. Despite being fairly tall, the FT03 has a pint-sized 9.25" (235mm) by 11.18" (284mm) footprint, significantly less than the Lian Li Mini Q PC-V354, one of our favorite microATX computer cases.

At $170, this latest-generation Fortress series chassis is also much pricier than the Mini Q PC-V354 and is the most expensive microATX instance Silverstone has e'er produced. And then what makes the FT03 and so special? Let'due south find out...