Gadgetory

all right so great news in this product showcase we're taking a look at the Silverstone Raven our vo to the second case the silver stones unique Raven series now like the original the O two features a unique design that carries some similar aspects to its sibling but really it's a whole new breed of case they've continued to use the innovative stack cooling effect which has the motherboard rotated on a 90 degree angle however as you'll see they've also made some major design changes that hopefully are for the best the case currently retails for just under the $200 price tag and that lumps it in with some very popular competition so what exactly does the Raven are vo to offer that sets it apart well let's take a look one thing you notice right off the bat is that the Raven is a bit of a funky shape it's rectangle as opposed to the usual square it measures 19 point 8 inches high 8.3 inches wide and 25 point 3 inches long body is constructed out of a very solid steel and accented with plastic for the top and front panels weighs a hefty 27.6 pounds first on the list is the top panel we have our power and reset buttons along with just a simple two USB and audio jacks like the rvo one there is an angled blue LED bar along the top and the front face has a uniform angle design jumping to the bottom we have three major air intake ports this is the source of the Ravens cooling and then at the very bottom we have holes for water coolant tubes now because of the relined motherboard some things really aren't where they should be at the back we have just a removable dust filter over top of the power supply so where your connections go well up back to the top removing a portion of the panel it gives you your typical layout at the back the power supply area along with three fan controls 120 millimeter exhaust fan io area and eight PCI expansion slots along with plenty of venting so if you weren't already a bit confused silverstone has also swapped the access side panel over to the right side of the case release a few thousands and it easily pulls off revealing a well painted black interior at the bottom is one of the literally big features of the case it's completely taken up by three massive 180 millimeter fans and they all include easy to remove dust filters focusing on the motherboard tray the case supports SSI CEB ATX and M ATX form factors and there are plenty of spaces around the motherboard tray in order to run wires from behind they've also included a heatsink backplate opening everything's a bit flipped around but it's all going to make sense when fully assembled on the bottom at the right we have the hard drive bays and then for five and a quarter inch ROM bays with the familiar looking screwless system the drive bay cage is actually held in by four thumb screws on each side of the case and there is no screwless or rack style setup in order to easily swap the drives the cage has rubber grommets in order to reduce the noise and as you can see supports only three yes three hard drives now before we get started on the build let's take a quick look at the accessories they've included an SSD bracket which won't eat up a hard drive space 3.5 inch drive Bay brackets along with a three by three pin molex adapter in order to plug in those 180 millimeter fans there is also radiator brackets a power supply tie-down strap and a front 3.5 inch cover so when fully assembled you get a better understanding of the reason for the rotation hot air rises the power hosts of fans at the bottom are there to keep things cool and the sideways angle of the board means that you won't have the hot air from the video card going up into the CPU like you would with more traditional alignment now despite the fact that the Raven RV o2 is a full tower with the giant fans at the bottom and the rectangle design it really doesn't feel like it has a lot of room inside and we found the process of actually assembling the unit a little bit tricky installing the cd-rom drive actually required us to bust out the installation manual in order to find out how it's done apparently the trick is to find a screwdriver thin enough to fit into these little oval holes along the side and push the front cover out from there however the screwless locking system is really simple also while the case has no trouble fitting longer cards if you intend on filling your bottom PCI Express slot you're going to have to be prepared to fight for room with your hard drives in our case the issue actually prevented our video card from installing it all now Silverstone has included a good number of cable spacing options in the motherboard tray in order to run wires up the back and then out the front in order to keep things relatively clean however there isn't a lot of room between the back panel and the tray so you're not going to be able to store any wires there and you're likely going to have to spend extra time making sure that thicker cables aren't clumped up or crossing each other in order to be able to fit the back panel on now the major attraction to the Raven rvo 2 is that it's unique design promises to deliver some exceptional cooling so of course we had to put it to the test the rvo 2 really pulled it off it literally forces all of the warm air out at the top and then brings in the cool air from the bottom and because of its orientation none of this hot air passes over the other components it's relatively simple but it's an incredibly effective design and that wraps up our look at the silverstone Raven rvo 2 the company has done an excellent job in taking their original concept with the RV o1 and revamping it into a case that aesthetically is likely to appeal to a larger audience it's a great looking case that has a lot to offer with its unique concept and best of all they're innovative stack cooling effect really works it's a chassis to consider for those who may be having airflow problems on the flip side it has its fair share of nagging issues for starters space for only three hard drives is definitely too few and then on top of this they've made the process of installing devices fairly complicated having to juggle dozens of screws completely opposite to the simplified clean and screwless direction that a majority of manufacturers are going I hope you enjoyed our product showcase on the RV o2 and don't forget to subscribe to receive all of our video updates