SilverStone Raven RV01

Examination:

The Raven RV01 looks like no other SilverStone case we have reviewed before, but as interesting as it looks, the most interesting attribute about the case is its motherboard positioning. Rather than having the motherboard expansion slots and I/O panel at the back of the chassis, it is at the top, as the motherboard tray has been rotated 90 degrees. Why? For better cooling performance, but we will talk more about that later. On the exterior of the RV01 is a lot more plastic than we are used to seeing for a SilverStone product. Generally, everything is made of aluminum and other metals on the SilverStone enclosures, but with this unique design for the Raven, SilverStone went with a lot of plastic on the exterior. While it is plastic, it seems to be quite durable and is not like the cheap computer cases with their abundance of easily breakable plastic.

The front of the SilverStone Raven RV01 looks rather bare, but that is because the external 5.25" drive bays are concealed. Rather than just hiding the drive bays behind a door like most other cases, the RV01 employs a sliding door that actually slides down to expose the five 5.25" bays. Above the drive bay area are several recessed LEDs that will illuminate when the system is running. At the top of the case is the power and reset buttons along with the front I/O ports. These ports include one Firewire, microphone input, headphone audio output, and two USB 2.0 ports.

On the left hand side of the case is a small acrylic window. The side panels on the RV01 are not like other cases where you just remove a couple of thumbscrews, but instead it’s latched into the case at the top and a small lever needs to be moved in order to release each of the side panels. The panel on the right hand side is the same but goes without an acrylic window, for obvious reasons.

The rear of the case is rather plain since all of the motherboard ports and slots are concealed at the top of the chassis, but on the backside there is just the ATX power supply mount at the very bottom. A portion of the plastic on the back panel can be removed for those needing to mount a radiator to the chassis for water-cooling. At the bottom of the case are dual 180mm intake fans for cooling. Fortunately, these fan slots are covered with fan filters to prevent dust from entering the system.