SilverStone Raven RV03: Streamlined Bird of Prey
by Dustin Sklavos on July 20, 2011 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
- Full-Tower
Conclusion: Not Bad, But Needs Care
I'm not going to sugar coat it: I'm a little disappointed with the SilverStone Raven RV03. As a dyed-in-the-wool fan of their engineering and having been particularly impressed by how the FT02 acquitted itself in handling an extremely power-hungry, heat-heavy build when I tested DigitalStorm's Black Ops, I was expecting the RV03 to be a lean and aggressive enthusiast option. What I'm left with is an enclosure that's by no means bad (and certainly a good conversation piece), but it feels like it's being pulled in too many directions.
The RV03 lacks the focus of enclosures like the FT02, FT03, and even its predecessor, the RV02. And what our thermal testing didn't show you was just how hot the single hard drive got: pushing 43C under load. That's within spec, true, but that's also just one drive out of a possible four behind the motherboard tray. The FT03 at least pushes the drives against the aluminum side panel to dissipate heat, but the RV03 has no such allowance. Likewise, the drive bay adapters in the front seem like a nice idea that makes the case even more modular, but the fan mounts make them feel self-defeating.
When you get something that's off the beaten path like the RV03 is, you should be expecting to have to work a little harder to put it together, so I can't fault it for not being a tool-less design the way many of the other cases I've tested are. What I wasn't prepared for was just how much work the RV03 really is. After my initial testing I e-mailed the SilverStone representative with my findings and he replied saying the case frankly should've worked better. He narrowed it down to my cabling: he felt the odd couple of cables (the two video card leads and a couple of SATA cables) above one of the intakes was hampering performance. That felt like an awful lot of impact for just some thin cables, but retesting after tying them back vindicated him as the RV03's performance jumped up to near, if not the top, of our charts. Of course, this meant crowding the space behind the motherboard tray even more, which wound up being bit difficult in and of itself.
If you're the type of end user that loves to tinker, there's a good chance that the RV03 is going to be a lot of fun for you and will pay off handsomely once you've customized it. But for users that want to focus more on the hardware in their machine than cooling it, the RV03 is going to seem like too much work. The RV03's noise floor at 37.8dB is good, but the enclosure will need some coaxing to deliver its best performance.
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V3ctorPT - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
Sorry man... I have an FT02WRi and it's a beautiful case, it's not like this ugly case.http://img.zwame.pt/portal/caixas/silverstone/FT02...
It's not even close to this RV03
Zoeff - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
The FT02 was actually my first choice but that actually costs about 90 euros more than the RV03. So I went for the RV02-E which only costs 10 euros more than the RV03.HanSolo71 - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
Dustin first off I have been loving your recent work keep up the great work.Secondly as a reviewer myself I have to agree about the type of noise these cases give off. I have found that it isn't so much of a winny noise that other cases have but rather a low wooshing noise that sounds much like the noise that the ventilation system in a building would give off. Also I would have to agree that while the RV02 was far from subtle the RV03 went in the wrong direction. Personal I love the Apple-esque design of the TF02 and was hoping more of its design would rub off on the new RV03 design.
Still with all of its faults I love the RV02 as it is great to work with and keeps my 4.7Ghz i5 2500k nice and cool.
7amood - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
I wanted a trusted review for the RV03 and I finally got it from a trusted site.I'm missing a review for the RV02-E.
You might wanna review the SG08 when it comes out, it's a nice one.
Thanks
beginner99 - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
..the fractal define R3 case. It has tons of 3.5 bays (and only 2 5.25), more than enough possibilities for mounting fans and a simple, straight forward design. ( I have the R2)It is also small compared to monsters like the Ravens or FT. Only complaint i have is space behind mobo tray and the side panel mounting but maybe that was improved in the R3.
AssBall - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
Great review, Dustin.The killer for me on this case is having the I/O come out of the top. It is a cool idea, but I put too much junk on the top of my cases; I need em to be flat for the extra shelf room. Their nontraditional approach to cooling makes me a little weary too. The thing looks pretty nice though.
Footman36 - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
I just got rid of this case. I gave it to my father in law. It now houses a very simple i920 at stock with stock cooler and 5670 with Artic Cooling HSF.I previously owned the RV-02 which was an Epic Fail, burnt out an X58 motherboard around the IO area as there was not enough air flow to cool the VRM's positioned there.
Anyhow, decided to try the RV-03. (I also own the Thermaltake Level 10 GT and the CM HAF-X).
Not a good idea, first of all the design is terrible, from the lousy magnetic dust filters that either vibrate or fall off if you blow on them, to the abysmal design of the hard drive cages!!!
The icing on the cake is this type of design does not work with certain heat pipe coolers. For example my pair of GTX 560 Ti's would run full load at 68C in the HAF-X, but in the RV-03 they hit 94C before shutting down the computer (and this was after 10 minutes of BF2).... This is by far one of the loudest cases I have owned at full speed.....
Avoid like a plague....
While i like the idea of this design it is not as efficient as standard cases with the motherboard in the usual position....
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
I'm not sure your complaints are entirely fair.First, just looking at the airflow in the RV03 vs. the more traditional cases I have on hand, I don't really see how the inverted motherboard layout and airflow design starves the VRMs any more than a traditional layout would.
Second, SilverStone even says as much that these enclosures aren't going to be at their best with heatpipe based GPU coolers that don't exhaust out the back of the case; SilverStone's design is really geared towards the blower-style coolers that higher end graphics cards tend to ship with stock, and from our testing it does handle those with aplomb.
It's true the RV03 is pretty loud at full speed, but it also doesn't NEED to be run at full speed.
The rotated board kind of changes the game a bit. In some situations it's not going to seem quite as efficient as a traditional orientation, but once we went into the overclocked configuration I think it proved itself.
Footman36 - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - link
Reviewing a case is not the same as living with a case 24/7. I have many months of experience with the RV-02 and RV-03 Dustin. I agree with your review on many levels but feel that there are inherent issues with this case, notwithstanding the 90 degree turnaround of the motherboard.First of all the two front mounted drive cages are the worst designed drive cages I have ever had the misfortune of working with. They need to be completely disassembled before a drive can be placed within. This takes a considerable amount of time and if you want to add an extra HHD or SSD after the fact you have to disassemble again.
The bottom dust filters do not stay in place and vibrate if they are even 1mm out of place, what a terrible idea compared to the dust filter design of the RV-02.
Finally airflow, while Silverstone may indicate in their manual that the RV03 may not be suitable for certain heat pipe coolers or GPU's I wonder how many purchasers will have access to this information BEFORE they buy the case? Hot air rises, as we all know and in an atx case the IO plate is not the top of the computer, there is usually space above for a power supply or top mounted fan, so hot air does not accumulate around this point. In the RV-02 and RV-03, the IO plate is the uppermost point in this case and as it is solid, the hot air remains around this area in a pocket, heating up the VRM's which again dump more heat in to this localized area. I guarantee you that after running for 3-6 hours you will find the IO plate extremely hot and this is ultimately what caused a VRM to burn out on my X58 motherboard according to the report from their support team.
I am a enthusiast and this year alone I have purchased approximately 15 or so cases for my builds including Silverstone, Coolermaster, Antec, Lian-Li and NZXT....
In any event, this case is performing well for my father in law who likes the top IO ports as he does not have to pull the PC out of position when he wants to connect a peripheral, also I used the solid i920 stock HSF and the 5670 has solid HSF, the hard drive was mounted on the backside of the case and the fans are running at low. I just believe that there are better cases available for less, the CM 690 springs to mind for one.....
Looking forward to your next review.
MagicPants - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link
One thing I'd really like to see in case reviews is just how much you can jam into the thing. Most of the stats relayed in the article are things I can pick up from reading documentation, or opinions on the looks and build quality.What I really want to know is how many video cards can I jam in into the thing, will the cooling still work well, and will there be enough room left over for a sound card.
I'd like to see an sli/crossfire system with a soundcard, and a pci-xpress interface ssd. Single video card only installations in case reviews are next to useless. Please review how well each case will work in (and limit) the type of system it is meant for.
Most case reviews (on this and every other mainstream site) are the equivalent of testing the newest video card with only WoW, or testing a race car by driving to the store.