Product Listing

SilverStone Raven RV04 - A Flight of Fancy?

By Wong Chung Wee - 30 Aug 2013
Launch SRP: S$249

Interior Design (Part II)

Interior Design (Part II)

To kick off our installation process, we started by examining the 3.5-inch drive enclosure that we had removed earlier. It has foam padding but it doesn't have any rail guides for the 3.5-inch drive. So get ready to bring out your screwdriver should you install drives here. There are also no drive adapters that will allow us to mount 2.5-inch drives. Besides this enclosure, there are two other bottom-mounted 3.5-inch drive enclosures; however, each can only accommodate a single 3.5-inch drive. One of them even has a CPU cooler support arm that is adjustable.

 The 3.5-inch drive enclosure is able to fit up to five 3.5-inch drives.

The two bottom-mounted 3.5-inch drive enclosures can each only fit a single 3.5-inch drive.

Next, we take a closer look at the drive enclosure with the CPU cooler support arm. The drive enclosure is secured to the bottom of the chassis with four screws. The CPU cooler support arm is fairly adjustable as its fastening screws require the use of a screwdriver. The installation of our 3.5-inch drive was hassle-free; we pushed a front plastic stopper out of the way before sliding the drive into the enclosure. 

The CPU cooler support arm that is found on one of the 3.5-inch drive enclosures.

We lifted the plastic stopper before we could slide our drive into place. It was secured by pushing the stopper back to its original position.

According to the manual, these two bottom-mounted 3.5-inch drive enclosures support hot-swappable drives; however, the CP05 or CP05-SAS will be required as additional purchases in order to enjoy this feature. To support this feature, the drive bay has a woven strap that allows the drive to be released quickly, after the plastic stop has been unlocked.

This is the rear of the installed 3.5-inch drive, with the quick release strap in place.

The drive can be released with a quick tug at the strap.

After removing the two 3.5-inch drive enclosures, we installed our 2.5-inch drive at the bottom of the chassis. This area supports up to four such drives. We are surprised by the lack of foam cushions at their mounting options, as well as 3.5-inch drive adapters. The latter should have been supplied in the event we decide to mount our 2.5-inch drives into any of the seven 3.5-inch drive options. After all, SSD drives are getting popular in enthusiast DIY systems.

The Raven RV04 is able to fit four bottom-mounted 2.5-inch drives.

After the 2.5-inch drive's installation, we proceeded to put back all the 3.5-inch drive enclosures and carried on with the installation of the rest of our test components. One pleasant surprise was due to the company's attention to details. There are allowance holes near the expansion slot covers, which enable us to use our long screwdriver to secure our graphics card. Usually, we would have to opt for a shortscrew driver in order to secure the screws from the interior of the chassis; however, with these allowance holes, the length of our screw driver didn't matter.

The allowance holes that are located near the expansion slot covers of the chassis help us secure the expansion cards easily.

As expected, the hardest part during installation was the connection of the power and data cables for our 2.5-inch drive. It involved a fair deal of squeezing before we could attach both cables to the drive. This is because of the narrow space between the two 3.5-inch drive enclosures, as well as the cut-out of the enclosure that allowed us to connect the cables. This could have been avoided if there were adapters for 2.5-inch drive that would have allowed us to install our drive into any of 3.5-inch drive enclosures. Alternatively, pre-prepare your cable routing prior to mounting the 3.5-inch drive cage over these 2.5-inch drives.

Connecting the power and data cables to the bottom-mounted 2.5-inch drive was the most difficult task during our installation procedure.

From the other side of the chassis, we bear witness to the effectiveness of the cut-outs of the motherboard tray for cable management.

 The cut-outs of the motherboard tray were well-placed for cable management.

A view from the top where we see the power cables snaking their way to their intended components.

The view from the rear.

There is also a bundled "VGA supporter holder"; it functions as a buttress support for your high-end graphics card that tends to be heavy. It will help to prevent your motherboard from warping due to the weight of the card.

The plastic support for graphics cards.

The VGA support holder.

There are a total of three bundled VGA support claws, enough for a 4-way graphics cards configuration. The claw is screwed onto the support holder while the graphics card will rest on the horizontal portion of the claw.

There are three bundled VGA support claws.

After installing the VGA support holder, we installed the side panel and the support holder didn't pose any obstructions.

We installed the side panel without any issues.

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7.5
  • Aesthetics 8.5
  • Functionality 7
  • Usability 7
  • Value 7
The Good
Aesthetically unique
Fits practically any mobo form factor, including certain server boards.
The Bad
No cooling options besides the front and rear
No bundled drive adapters for 2.5-inch drives
No cushioning found at 2.5-inch drive mounts
Not completely tool-free usage
Limited front I/O control and options
Hot-swap drive bays not accessible from front
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