In addition to the SilverStone RVZ04 Micro-STX chassis we spotted at Computex, we also noticed that the company had what it billed as an “SFF for power users” on display in Taipei.
The FTZ02 is a PIO form factor compliant SFF chassis that supports both PIO and Micro-ATX motherboards. For the uninitiated, PIO stands for "parts-in-one," and those boards feature a 90° PCI-Express Gen 3.0 x16 slot that allows you to install a graphics card parallel to the plane of the motherboard. Although they aren’t as well known in the U.S. as they are in Asia, you may be surprised to know that companies such as ASRock, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, and ECS all manufacture PIO form factor motherboards.
Although this prototype chassis measures just 395 x 86 x 380mm (W x H x D), it can accommodate full-size, triple-slot graphics cards; a pair of 120mm fans; and two 2.5” HDDs. This case is specifically designed with small form factor power supplies in mind, making it a perfect candidate for one of the company’s own 800W passive SFX-L power supplies. Information regarding CPU cooler height was not available, but, given the fact that the ASRock Z170M-PIO2 motherboard was fitted with a SilverStone Nitrogon NT08-115XP CPU air cooler, we can surmise that coolers up to 35mm in height are compatible with the FTZ02.
The chassis features a steel frame with an aluminum front fascia and a clear acrylic top panel that gives you a great view of your system components. There is a large bracket for 120mm fans over the GPU area, but a high-capacity 3.5” spinning disk could be added to one of the fan mounting locations with very little effort.
Overall, this is a very interesting prototype chassis that could easily live up to the company’s claims of being an “SFF for power users”...if and when it comes to market. Given its prototype status, no information on pricing or availability is available at this time.
