Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/8801/silverstone-raven-rv05-case-review
SilverStone Raven RV05 Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on December 24, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
- Case
Introduction
SilverStone is a company known for their atypical, sometimes even strange case designs. The ML04 and ML05 that we reviewed several months ago are a good example, but the company offers dozens of small form factor and unique enclosures, each designed with specific applications in mind. Their designs often bend (or even entirely neglect) the ATX design guide rules. The cases of the Raven series are another example as well, with the 90° rotated motherboard design. We hosted reviews of the first Raven (RV01), the RV03 and the RV04 during the past years.
With the exception of the RV04, which does not share the 90° design, the cases of the Raven series were somewhat bulky and excessively long – features that did not make them very popular among users. In response to that, SilverStone has released the RV05, the most compact case of the Raven series to date. Despite the reduced dimensions of the case, SilverStone boasts that it retains outstanding thermal performance and usability. We will provide an in-depth look at the Raven RV05 in this review.
SilverStone Raven RV05 Specifications | ||
Motherboard Form Factor | ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX | |
Drive Bays | External | 1 x Slim Slot Loading |
Internal | 2 x 3.5" (front drive cage) 2 x 2.5" (rear of motherboard tray) |
|
Cooling | Front | - |
Rear | - | |
Top | 1 x 120 mm (optional) | |
Left Side | - | |
Bottom | 2 x 180 (included) | |
Radiator Support | Front | - |
Rear | - | |
Top | - | |
Side | - | |
Bottom | 240 mm / 280 mm | |
I/O Port | 2x USB 3.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic | |
Power Supply Size | ATX | |
Clearances | HSF | 160 mm |
PSU | 170 mm | |
GPU | 310 mm | |
Dimensions | 529 mm × 242 mm × 498 mm (H×W×D) 20.83 in × 9.53 in × 19.6 in (H×W×D) |
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Prominent Features | Signature RAVEN styling touches Revolutionary 90 degree motherboard mounting from RAVEN RV01 Breakthrough 5.25 inch bay-free design for unprecedented power to size ratio Two Air Penetrator fans included for great performance and quietness Positive air pressure design for excellent cooling/quietness and dust-prevention Quick-release latch for fast side panel removal Front access to main filter for easy maintenance Support for various liquid cooling radiator sizes |
|
Price | $117 Including Shipping ($107 after rebate) $115 for non-windowed version |
Packaging and Bundle
We received the Raven RV05 in a colorful, sturdy cardboard box. The artwork is very aggressive and a bit chaotic, with pictures of the case mixed with the shadow of a raven and numerous abstract shapes. The lightweight case is very well protected inside the box, with thick Styrofoam slabs ensuring its safety during shipping.
SilverStone supplies only the hardware essential for the installation of the components, a few simple cable ties, and a 120mm fan filter. There also is a very well written manual, but there are no extras such as cable straps or decorative stickers.
SilverStone Raven RV05 Exterior
Much like the previous models of the Raven series, the RV05 sports a very aggressive appearance, with numerous sharp angles and long lines. It is less extravagant than most of the previous Raven models but it definitely is not a case for everyone. Most of its body is made out of plastic, with the metal parts reduced to just the core of the chassis and the side panels. It is much more compact than the previous models of the series and no larger than a typical Midi-ATX tower, while it weighs 7.75kg.
The Coke can is there for size comparison, if you're wondering.
There are no external 5.25" bays on the Raven RV05, but SilverStone does offer a solution for an optical drive, albeit an expensive one. An opening to the right side of the face panel gives access to a slim slot-loading optical drive (not included). In their attempt to blend the opening in the design as much as possible, there is no eject button either.
The power and reset buttons can be found along the top of the faceplate, one on either side of the front I/O ports. SilverStone installed two USB 3.0 ports and two 3.5" audio jacks (headphones, microphone), which are beneath a rubber cover. The rubber cover is functional as far as keeping the dust out goes, but it hardly is practical at all. It needs to come off and stay off completely each time the user needs to attach any cable. We suspect that many users will just put it in a drawer (and eventually lose it).
All of the air intake is at the bottom of the case, which is why the small case has such tall feet. SilverStone installed a single, large washable filter there, removable towards the front of the case. This is the only filter pre-installed on the Raven RV05 and cleaning it should be a very easy and quick task for any user. There is another opening at the rear of the case, but that is for the PSU fan intake only.
The top of the case is perhaps the most important part of the Raven RV05. Beneath the plastic cover, we see a spacious area for routing cables, the expansion slot cover, and a 120mm fan opening. Device cables (USB, monitor, LAN, etc.) and the power cable enter this area from the opening at the rear of the case. There is no fan installed but SilverStone does provide an extra filter if you feel like installing one as intake. Latches hold the side panels in place and simply pressing on them is enough to remove a side panel; there are no screws involved. From this area, the user can also access the basic fan controllers of the case, two switches behind the I/O ports that offer three fan speed settings (High, Medium, and Low).
SilverStone Raven RV05 Interior
Once the side panels are off, the miniscule dimensions of the Raven RV05 become apparent. The system area is much smaller than one would originally assume by the external dimensions of the case, as a large area at the top of the case is reserved for routing the device and power cables, and tall feet elevate it so the fans to have a clear intake, leaving a space hardly larger than the motherboard tray itself.
Inside, the case has its motherboard tray rotated by about 100°, facing up and slightly tilted towards the front of the case. There are few supports and only half of the motherboard tray remains, but the small size of the case grants it admirable mechanical cohesion considering the materials used. Everything in and around the Raven RV05 is black, including the fans, plastic, supports, screws, cables, etc.
When the side panels are removed, the plastic braces at the top of the case that support the top and side panels can be used as handles. They are sturdy enough to hold the weight of the case and the system with ease, so the user does not have to fear about picking up and moving the case using them. For the installation of components, such as the PSU, a medium-long shank screwdriver is necessary, as some of the screws are only accessible through the holes in these plastic braces.
The PSU compartment is at the upper rear side of the case, and the PSU is installed with its exhaust facing upwards. There is room for a PSU up to 170mm long, which limits the choices for enthusiasts that want a powerful unit. SilverStone provided us with one of their Strider Gold 750W units for this article that, according to the company, is the world's smallest modular PSU. We can certainly see how that is useful, as the 750W unit still barely fits in the compartment. If 3.5" drives are unnecessary, the plastic cage can be removed and then PSUs of virtually any length can be installed. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend against the installation of a long PSU, as the fan of the PSU will not be in alignment with the intake opening of the case.
Two massive 180mm "Penetrator" SST-AP181-H fans are preinstalled at the bottom of the Raven RV05. Each of these fans can move up to 130CFM – a ludicrous volume of air for 1200RPM fans. They are not really quiet at maximum speed but the Raven RV05 has basic fan speed switches installed. The dense plastic guard is very practical, as the many cables that will be going around that area would surely cause problems. If you want to install a watercooling radiator, these fans can be removed and a dual 240mm/280mm radiator can be installed. A smaller radiator (up to 120mm and thin) could fit at the smaller opening at the top of the case, but the proximity of the motherboard can create compatibility issues.
As for the drives, the Raven RV05 offers somewhat limited storage expansion options. The user can only install two 3.5" drives in the modular bay below the PSU compartment. Two 3.5" should suffice for most home users, so we have no real complaints here, though a typical ATX case can easily hold at least four. There are two additional slots for 2.5" drives, behind the motherboard tray. This peculiar position is not very practical and it makes the routing of cables a nightmare, as there is no room or clearance for routing the cables of the system, or even of the drives themselves. Finally, as we also mentioned in the previous page, there is no support for 5.25" devices at all. There is only support for a slim, slot-loading drive, the tray of which needs to be removed if you are trying to install a CPU cooler with the motherboard inside the case.
As exhibited in the pictures of our test build, the interior of the Raven RV05 can end up looking rather messy, even with just one GPU installed. There are simply no pathways for routing the cables, the bulk of which will amass at the bottom of the case, between the motherboard and the intake fans. Graphics cards longer than 310mm cannot fit and that rules out a few performance behemoths and dual GPU implementations.
Routing the cables from the rear of the motherboard tray is not really practical, as there is very little space when a 2.5" drive has been installed. There is also the possibility of damaged cables from the sharp edges of the motherboard tray, so bundling the cables and then pressing the side panel hard until it closes is not a particularly wise idea. Overall, it's not too difficult to assemble a system in the RV05, but the compact design doesn't really lend itself towards a clean looking interior; the non-windows case might be a better option for users that don't want to spend a lot of time cleaning up the interior cabling.
Test Setup
Professional testing requires the emulation of real-world situations but with repeatable results; thus, a perfectly controllable test setup and environment are required, especially for comparable results. Testing the thermal performance of any case with a typical real-world setup technically limits the comparability of the results to this setup alone, as an active system interacts with its environment and the change of a single component would alter myriads of variables. For our case reviews, we developed synthetic loads that emulate the thermal output of real systems, but these are passive, steady and quantifiable loads. This allows us to test the thermal capabilities of the case alone, as if it would have to deal with the entire thermal load by itself, regardless of what system an end user might install in it.
Laboratory data loggers are used to monitor the PT100 sensors and control the safety relays, which are fully accessible via our custom software. We have created three such loads, and we'll use the Micro-ATX load for this case. The ATX version simulates a 200W CPU, 50W VRM, 30W RAM and 4 × 120W GPU card thermal load. Finally, three 3.5" HDD dummy loads have also been created, with each of them converting 30W of electrical power to thermal, bringing the total thermal load of the ATX test setup up to 850W. The thermal load is immense and only the best of cases will be able to handle it for more than a few minutes, so we are also performing a test with a thermal load of 400W, with all of the aforementioned components except the HDD drives at about 42% power. This is more suitable for the majority of cases.
Thermal testing has been performed with all of the case's stock fan operating at maximum speed. Noise testing has been performed with a background noise level of 30.4dB(A). Advanced noise testing is also being performed, in order to assess the ability of the case to dampen the noise of the components installed inside it. This includes the installation of two noise-generating sources (strong fans) inside the case, one positioned approximately over the first expansion slot and one over the CPU area, which generate ≈ 44.2 dB(A) when unobstructed. During the advanced noise test, all stock cooling options of the case are entirely disabled.
Note: As the Raven RV05 can only host two 3.5" devices, the maximum load of each test configuration is reduced by 30 Watts (minus one HDD dummy load).
Results and discussion
According to our test results, the thermal performance of the SilverStone Raven RV05 is unexpectedly good for a case of its size, especially if we take the small proportions of the system area into account. It seems that SilverStone's concept of 90° rotated motherboard trays does make sense, at least as far as cooling is concerned. As such, the exotic Raven RV05 can easily compete with Midi-ATX tower cases, outperforming even cases that have nearly twice its volume. The massive 180mm intake fans supplying cool air directly into the system area give it a distinct advantage, especially in the GPU area. It naturally is not capable of competing with massive gaming cases, such as the Nanoxia DS6, but it is in the same league as the Corsair Obsidian 450D (albeit louder) and outperforms the much larger XFX Type 01 with ease.
The 180mm stock cooling fans that SilverStone is so proud of however do have a downside; they are easily audible at maximum speed. We would not go as far as to call them annoyingly loud, but 42.1dB(A) is far above what we would recommend to someone that wants to assemble a low-noise setup. The Raven RV05 however does have fan speed control switches and by reducing the speed of the fans down to about 50% they do become inaudible – at the expense of thermal performance, of course. Even at 50% speed however these fans will provide more than enough airflow for a typical single GPU and moderately tweaked gaming system.
As for the capabilities of the Raven RV05 to block noise generated by the components inside it, our results were mediocre, with the case reducing the noise level of our source from 44.2dB(A) to 42.3dB(A), a measurable but mostly imperceptible difference.
Final Words
The Raven RV05 appears to be an attempt from SilverStone to develop a case not plagued by the issues that the previous models of the series had. By rotating the motherboard tray, the length of the case had to be significantly increased, leading to overly long and peculiarly shaped designs. This is not true for the Raven RV05, which does have a rotated motherboard tray and remains just as small as a typical Midi-ATX case. The cost of this design endeavor however has been tremendous, with a dramatic impact on the expandability and flexibility of the case.
SilverStone's whole point behind the rotated motherboard design is that it offers better thermal performance. We can validate their claims, as the Raven RV05 performed admirably during our testing for a case of this size. SilverStone is not joking with their claims that this design aids convective heat transfer, as the top of the Raven RV05 was literally spilling heat into the room during our testing, with the case acting exactly like a convective heater.
While the thermal performance certainly is the brightest feature of the Raven RV05, the list of the bleak points is fairly long. The 5.25" bays are entirely gone and there are no visible 3.5" bays, with the only optical drive option being a more expensive slot-loading drive. There are only two 3.5" bays, which are probably enough for most users but not for everyone, while the two 2.5" drive slots positioned behind the motherboard tray can be a bit more difficult for wire routing. Adding, removing, or upgrading system components inside the Raven RV05 is very easy, but the lack of proper space for cable management is likely to cause a mess.
The issues are not limited to the expandability of the system but affect its compatibility with current components as well. We cannot (safely) install a very large PSU, therefore we recommend against the installation of a very powerful system inside the RV05 to begin with. With the appropriate selection of components, an SLI/Crossfire system with two cards would be alright – as long as the cards are not longer than 310mm.
Finally, for the installation of a dual radiator, the user needs to remove the 180mm intake fans and rely on the fans of the radiator itself. As this is the only major air intake of the Raven RV05, the installation of a radiator will obviously increase the temperature of the air entering the system as well. The increase of the air temperature will likely be very small but, in conjunction with the notable airflow reduction from the use of smaller fans and the inclusion of the radiator's airflow resistance, it will most certainly make a noticeable difference on the thermal performance of the system. We would recommend users looking to install a radiator opt for a different case.
In terms of design, the Raven RV05 is not a subtle product. It is not as extravagant at the previous models of the series, but the aggressive appearance remains a constant. It may be a unique design, yet it will not appeal to certain groups of users, especially those seeking minimalism or elegance. Bluntly put, the Raven RV05 is not the kind of case that would match an office space or living room. As far as quality goes, SilverStone designed the Raven RV05 very well. We could not find mechanically weak spots and the case is admirably strong and sturdy considering the extensive use of plastic.
The SilverStone Raven RV05 can currently be had for $117 including shipping ($107 after rebate), or there's a windowless version for about the same price (but with no mail-in rebate). It is not a bargain but the price is fair for what this case offers. Would we recommend it? Considering the uniqueness of the case, both internally and externally, that is a complicated question.
Assuming that the user likes the external design to begin with, we would likely recommend it if it is going to host a typical gaming system that is unlikely to be upgraded often and/or soon. For users that do upgrade often or for those that simply feel that they need versatility, the Raven RV05 could cause unnecessary problems in the future. We also advice against the use of dual radiator liquid cooling setups with the Raven RV05 – the case can take them but at the expense of its large intake fans and that can easily have a negative impact on the performance of the case.
In short, the Raven RV05 is like many other SilverStone cases: an acquired taste. Some users will love it, others will find plenty of fault in design decisions. It's not the easiest case to work with, nor is it a great value, but cases are one of the few areas with modern PCs that allow the owner to make a statement. If you like the looks of the RV05 and have experience with building systems, it can make for a good enclosure.