Gadgetory

hello welcome to another hardware connect sport review today we're taking a look at the very interesting and promising case from silverstone this their third revision to the Raven series chassis which if you're not familiar with implements unique interior design with a rotated multiple tray to take advantage of the rising hot air the first two cases proved successful however not without its flaws the new Raven 3 chasse not only gets a facelift on the exterior but Silverstone also throws in a couple of interior modifications that could make this the best raven case so far so let's take a look the case is made from 0.8 millimeter thick steel and reinforced plastic at the front and the top the rv0 3 is to be available in the market in june 2011 and the case retails just under $150 making this the most affordable raven case at the time of its release the outside look reassembles its predecessor the rv0 2 however silverstone has added a touch of color with two champagne stripes although this may not be everyone's choice of color starting from the top under the lid we have a pair of 3.0 USB ports your audio and mic input power and reset button and what seems to be the staple of Ravens series cases the angled blue LED bar which lights up when you power on your system and it also acts like a hard drive activity light next up we have seven external drive bays all have built in dust filters with removable covers the side panel features a window which seems to show only the important parts of your interior and at the bottom right this is the venting area for your power supply looking at the back we have mounting holes for a single 120 millimeter fan the other side panel has more venting for your power supply and mounting for an optional 120 millimeter fan now this fan will provide additional airflow to the back of your motherboard and cool any of the hard drives or SSDs installed at the bottom of Silverstone's unique magnetic dust filters which are extremely easy to remove for cleaning removing the top cover we have a fan controller for the bottom two fans with either high or low speed setting to water cooling holes 120 millimeter exhaust fan io area 8 PCI ventilated expansion slots and plenty of venting it would also have been nice to see a second handle installed at the top for easy transport of the case both side panels are removed with two thumb screws and the interior is all black the pre-installed case wiring is already cleaned up and when the major changes to the Ravens series cases is the relocation of the power supply this allows all the cables to be facing backwards and avoid any cable mess to be seen when the case remains open and interfere with the airflow here we have Silverstone's tools designed for your optical drives and 3.5 inch hard drives the two hard drive cages can be removed although there are 12 screws they have to be removed first 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 and 12 alright so 12 screws later and 4 bay covers removed you can finally slide out the hard drive cage each cage mounts up to three hard drives and two 120mm fans although of both fans are installed it blocks off any wiring to your hard drive so installing a fan either at the front or the rear of the cage is recommended if you want to utilize the extra cooling and storage needs speaking of fans the main cooling mechanism of this chassis are the two bottom air penetrators notices one is slightly pushed in behind the motherboard tray to provide additional cooling if you do decide to install drives at the back since the case is designed for extremely effective air cooling water cooling options for the Raven 3 are limited only a dual route can be installed at the bottom and another one on the hard drive cage the case supports a wide range of motherboards including extended ATX there's also a large CPU backplate opening with markings on the case to guide you during installation there are also cutouts for your main cables around the motherboard at the back you get an idea why silverstone has widened the case from previous two models this where you're able to install additional one two three and four 3.5 inch hard drives and up to to 2.5 inch drives the 3.5 inch drive bay uses anti-vibration grommets too alike quiet operation and silverstone provides specific screws for mounting so now on to the assembly getting ready to install all the components into the case was quite easy and simple process except dealing with a hard drive cage due to the amount of screws that have to be removed first as you can see the relocation the power supply does eliminate any cabling to be seen at the front and to no surprise the cable management at the back was no sweat either the 5 centimeter gap between the motherboard tray and the side panel is plenty of space for any experienced builder and should be fairly simple for beginners as well in the feed more cable room you can move the drive mounts and instead use the drive cage for your drives if the power supply extension cord is too short remove the twist tie behind the front panel and the extra length is enough to plug it in the power supply can only be installed in one position with the fan facing downward maximum support length of the power supply is 180 millimeters this may be a potential problem for 1,000 plus watt power supplies as they tend to be quite long after wiring in the system the front looks extremely clean and the absence of cable clutter will result in better airflow the case supports graphics cards up to thirteen point five eight inches only with the bottom fan removed or up to 12.5 inches with the fan in place so in the time of this review any card on the market should fit just fine with even some room to spare besides its innovative and unique design silverstone has done a great job with cable management options it really feels roomy on the inside considering this being a mid tower chassis there are many drives mounting options available and the rotated motherboard tray provides a really effective airflow and for the case of this caliber we feel it is fairly priced on the downside interior water cooling is limited but not impossible and the removing the hard drive cage is quite a tedious process would have been nice to see a simpler and quicker removal options thumbs up for Silverstone's knew damn good case and that is it for this episode of the hardware canucks product review we hope you enjoyed this review if you have any questions or comments leave them in the youtube comment section below subscribe if you haven't and we'll see you next time