Silverstone Raven: A New Concept in Case Cooling
by Christoph Katzer on February 6, 2009 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Appearance
The case is all matte black with small windows on the left side panel where users can see their motherboard and components. We are rather pleased that Silverstone didn't include a larger window, since this allows you to show off your graphics card(s) and a few other items without worrying about showing the power supply and all of the extra cables that might be present. The top of the case is rather bulky, since there needs to be room for all of the cables that would normally be at the back of your case. The left side also features additional air intakes that bulge out on the bottom of the case; in fact, the case is somewhat reminiscent of HP's Blackbird design, with some obvious changes. The front of the case sports a horizontal clear plastic part at the top that glows blue when the system is powered up. If you use the appropriate motherboard connector, you also see a small red flashing light in the middle of the blue illuminated bar for hard drive accesses.
The front door is quite cool: it slides down into a recess when you push it. It will stay there until you tap it again, at which time it will slowly slide up to its starting position. Above the door in the horizontal glowing bar you find the power and reset buttons. Behind these buttons is a door that you might not at first notice, which provides access to some standard I/O ports -- USB, audio, and FireWire.
Moving to the rear of the case, things take a dramatic turn from what we are used to. You are greeted by a smooth surface, since all the connectors are now at the top of the case. The one exception is the power supply, which is located at the bottom of the chassis. We think this design will appeal particularly to people who have their PCs sitting next to (or under) their desk on the floor. It's possible to hide much of the cable clutter that you would normally see if you're careful. Of course, the flipside is that you would want to have this case sitting on top of something like your desk, as then everyone would see all of the cables hanging down from the top of your chassis.
Opening the top of the case to get all of the cables and expansion ports is very easy. You turn both knobs at the back of the top and then you can lift that part out of the way. You will then have access to all of the expansion slot ports. The removable section is perforated to allow airflow through the top of the chassis, and in fact airflow would probably be better if this perforated top didn't even exist (although then we wouldn't have hidden cables). You'll also need to remove the top panel anytime you want to access the side panels, since the two lovers that open the sides are underneath the top panel. When you push the appropriate lever towards the front, the respective side panel will open.
Another noteworthy feature is that Silverstone installed filters on all of the air intakes, which should help tremendously in keeping the interior of your case free of dust bunnies. Since the case will likely be sitting on the floor, this is an even bigger concern. Just remember to clean your air filters on a regular schedule.
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Th3Eagle - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
I wonder what whould hapen if 1 or maybe even 2 12cm intake fans would be placed at the bottom of the window. Extra cold air intake would force all the hot air out of the top creating a flow over the mb of cold air.andrihb - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
It occoured to me that most of the benefits here are achieved just by having the PSU at the bottom. Does anyone here have the Cooler Master Dominator case? The Bottom PSU configuration is great because you can keep most of your cable clutter at the bottom of the case, and need even shorter pci-e power cables than with this one. You need the case to be somewhat taller than average to have ample room for aftermarket video card coolers on SLI/XF setups though, else they will be uncomfortably close to the psu. Another neat thing is that you can decide which way the PSU faces, with the intake UP (inside the case) or down (drawing air from outside).aapocketz - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
I would have liked to see tests with various fan speeds configured. Are the case fans not throttled, they only run at one speed?I would be concerned about dust, hopefully the air filters work well. Would this case work on carpet? May be interesting to put on a floor vent when the AC is running.
when it comes to air cooling you can do a lot of things but in the end it mostly comes down to volumetric replacement of air, without stalling out the airflow and creating dead zones. with this significant directional airflow, the actual order of components in the airflow path makes much less of a difference. I would have liked to see a stovepipe design without the motherboard rotation to compare.
This theory is even more true for watercooling as well. I had a system that was cooling the CPU, then chipset, then hard drives, and back to the radiator/pump. Reversing the direction of flow so the CPU was cooled last made negligible difference.
superkdogg - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
It seems pretty reasonable that the issue with the temp would be that the graphics card exhause is being limited as you alluded to. If it's harder to get the warm air out, more is going to accumulate inside and the test was running 3 cards.It would be interesting to see the results run with the top off or modded to have black screens where it's currently solid plastic. Or maybe not that interesting, since for $240 you want something that performs awesome right out of the box.
CU - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
Just wish it was cheaper. The cpu heatsink did catch my attention though. I have that same one setting on my X2. Nice to know I can use it on my next cpu also.beepboy - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
"Even though this is a steal chassis with lots of plastic..."Steel :). Great looking case, but I'm still wary about water/accident that might just spill on top of the case...
thanks,
Beepboy
haukionkannel - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
Guite interesting case. So this has the power in the bottom of the case like in Antec 180 series.When all the cables are in the top of case this can be good "under the table" solution, as lond as there is enough space above it.
I still like my P180, but this definitely is one that I may consider depending on the sound level. It would be nice to see some test in more "normal" configuration, but to any heavy user this seems quite ideal. 3 way sli and 7 harddisk and so low temperatus and sound level? Maybe if there would be more space to route the cables behind the mother board would be a nice feature to the revised edition of this case... och and an alumine variant to the rich boys ;-) or one with same idea, but a little bit more conservative appearance...
falchard - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
I don't think the idea is actually that good. You have air coming in from the bottom, and going out the top. Sometimes different isn't always a good thing.The bottom intake will be limited because of the ground, and side intake really would not generate alot of airflow due to the angle it comes in at.
You have all the air flow through the PSU first which is one of the hottest parts on the machine, and now your just flowing warm air over the rest of your PC.
If this design had a descent chance at working, the bottom fans would be angled at 45 degrees and the PSU placed at the top of the case.
RagingDragon - Saturday, February 7, 2009 - link
I think the motherboard orientation has potential, but that the fan layout leaves alot to be desired - I agree completely that the bottom intakes are sub-optimal (to put it kindly). I'd recommend the following layout changes:1. Get rid of bottom intakes
2. Put a big intake fan in the standard bottom front case
location (i.e. under the hard drive trays)
3. Put two or more large intake fans on the side of the case,
above the power supply (blowing cool air on the graphics
cards and motherboard)
4. Enlarge the top exhaust fan to 140mm (port clusters are
about 140mm wide anyway)
5. Add an 8th expansion slot cut out to support support dual
slot graphics cards on motherboards with a PCIe-16 slot in
position #7 (i.e. on the leftmost edge), and also triple slot
graphics cards on more standard motherboards.
And personally, I think the case is hideous. I prefere simple, conservative case styling. But if it sells decently, no doubt Silverstone will offer variants using the same layout with different styling.
C'DaleRider - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
If you really look closely at the photos provided, the PSU's exhaust is to the outside, so the power supply is NOT just taking cool air into it and then circulating it back into the case, which is the way almost EVERY case is set up....the psu takes in air from either outside or from inside the case and exhausts its now heated air directly to the outside......DUH!