Silverstone Raven RV04 Case Review

Silverstone Raven RV04 Case Review  

Introduction

The RV04 is unsurprisingly the 4th case from Silverstone to be emblazened with the Raven name and therefore has a pretty tough act to follow. The Raven and Fortress cases from Silverstone are pretty well known for taking what is deemed as normal to many and trying their very best to not do any of that. The first 3 Ravens for example has their motherboard I/O’s at the top of the case – yeah that’s right the cables were at the top too but they had funky roofs to hide all that. 180mm fans drew cold air in threw the bottom and blew all that quiet air over your components and then exhausted it all out of the roof much to the pleasure of uncle thermodynamics. The RV04 is a little more mainstream than its funky hipster rule-breaking brethren so let’s move swiftly on to take a look.
 

Specifications

Silverstone Raven RV04 Case Review

  Silverstone Raven RV04 Case Review

Video Review

Conclusion

Ok so where to start? The video above would be a bloody good start but 3 cups of coffee down and my OCD senses going nuts because of the mess of the office refurb I’ll try to keep my thoughts focused and actually get this companion conclusion written.

The RV04 is much closer to a ‘normal’ layout than we have been used to. I’d have to go with the ‘I find this a little disappointing’ approach because the 3 cases that came before this performed well….REALLY well. So things we don’t like are the GPU support bracket and the lack of cable grommets. The GPU support should never be removed from the box and should be banish to that dark corner under your bed, and no I don’t mean the corner you hide your splash mags from your mum or wife, I mean that other corner where the door to Narnia is. The only other slight niggle we had was with our Silverstone PSU, the 8pin CPU power cable wasn’t long enough for normal fitting so we had to use the 8pin power cable trick (see vid). That was also with the PSU mounted with the fan down away from the vents in the roof. If we faced the fan up for fresh air you would 100% need an extension cable, seems a bit strange seeing as they are both made by the same company.

Anyway, moving swiftly on it was great to see the 180mm air penetrators in the front to help keep temperatures down. Sadly they are the only two fans that come with the case, there is a mount for a 120mm in the back but it doesn’t come with the case. Seeing as most of like things to match this isn’t too much of an issue but its definitely worth keeping in mind when ordering. There are two fan controllers in the front of the case so you can tune the noise and cooling to keep your system and your ears happy. Silverstones of old had very good dust filters, or to be exact the fact they were at the bottom of the case actually helped keep the dust levels down. The RV04 has a much more mainstream in the front approach but the dust filter at least with the small amount of use it has had with us (and decorating dust in the air) seem to have done a very good job.

You can easily fit big air heat sinks but keep in mind that this will effect you being able to use the taller 5 bay mechanical HDD mount, if you want to use a H100i you can but you have to remove the 180mm fans and use the included 120mm fan brackets but again the HDD rack will not be able to be used. Personally this is something else for the dark corner under your bed! While we are on the subject of cooling AND the 120mm mounts are fitted in your minds eye this also leads us onto water cooling…. Epic linkage! The case does come with mounts for 3c 120mm fans and these will allow you to fit a 360mm radiator in the front. Space wise there is loads of room, you can easily have a 60mm thick rad with push pull of an 80mm thick rad and a single set of fans. If you must have an 80mm rad and push pull this is possible but you will over hand the cable routing holes a little, the cables will be fine it just may take a bit of careful fitting. You can also get a 2x 180mm radiator in the front easily and use the standard fans. The water cooling support out of the box is a big step forward for a Raven or a Fortress case because they have always been popular choices in the past with watercoolers, this has just made your lives easier. This will please many but Id hazard a guess this may actually make ‘modders’ go looking else where now its actually an option, you know what Im talking about, yes you, YOU with the Dremel! 

To recap this is a much more mainstream design and laid out case than we have become used to from Silverstone, water cooling options out of the box is a big plus point for the majority of people looking at this as a possible purchase. Beginners wanting to fit a H100i though do need to realise though that you will need to change those front fans to do it. All in all its a great looking case with great cooling, 360mm watercooling support and the price….. A very acceptable £109, so well deserving of our OC3D Gold award.

      

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