Product Listing

Let's Get Vertical - SilverStone Raven RV02

By Kenny Yeo - 12 Aug 2009

Deviant Insides - Interior

Deviant Insides - Interior

Peering inside the SilverStone Raven RV02, we were greeted by the same flat back color scheme that adorns the Raven RV02's exterior. Shifting our attention downwards, it's hard not to notice the three colossal 180mm fans that line the bottom of the casing. These fans work alongside the smaller 120mm exhaust fan that is positioned at the top of the casing to expel warm air out of the system.

And if you didn't know about the Raven RV02's unique motherboard mounting position, you'll think that the motherboard tray has been placed the wrong way. For those who skipped the introduction of this review, the motherboard tray is positioned as such because the motherboard is meant to be vertically-mounted, that is with its rear I/O ports facing upwards. We recommend reading the introduction of this article to get a better understanding of the reason behind such a design.

Moving on, despite the large size of the Raven RV02, its internals aren't as large as you'd think it'll be. This is because much of the real estate in the casing is taken up by the three massive fans. But fortunately, the fans do a good job of keeping the systems cool. Powering the Raven RV02, we were welcomed by a cool breeze at the top of the case as the exhaust fan spun wildly. It was really windy, so it seems then that the principle behind the Raven RV02 works - air really does get expelled faster in a vertical layout as such. Also, despite the size of the fans on the Raven RV02, they were amazingly quiet under operation, even when we increased the speeds of the large intake fans from "low" to "high".

The SilverStone Raven RV02 in its full naked glory. The casing might be huge, but much of the space is occupied by the huge intake fans at the bottom.

The reverse side of the motherboard tray has an opening for easy swapping of CPU cooler. Note also the SSD tray to the right.

You can attach an optional SSD tray to the side of the 5.25-inch drive bays for a single SSD.

The drive cage has space for only three 3.5-inch hard drives. To fit the drives into the cage, you'll need to turn some screws. Note that the mounting holes come with rubber grommets installed.

The drive cage goes beneath the 5.25-inch drive bays. If you are willing to sacrifice the drive cage, you can have up to eight 5.25-inch drives. Although it's hard to see why anyone would want to do that.

A closer look at the three 180mm intake fans. Each has its own filter for easy cleaning.

This is the 3-pin connector that powers the fan. You'll need four system fan headers to get all the fans in the Raven RV02 spinning. Not many motherboards might have that many spare fan headers so be ready to spend some dollars on 3-pin to 4-pin Molex power converters.

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