Silverstone Raven: A New Concept in Case Cooling
by Christoph Katzer on February 6, 2009 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Performance Comparison
With everything installed, let's take a look at one of the more important aspects of any case: cooling performance and acoustic noise.
Even with everything installed -- which includes some rather noisy GPUs -- the net result is a very quiet system. It's noticeably quieter than the Silverstone FT01 with a difference of 5 to 8 dB.
Temperatures also look pretty good, but we need to compare this case with the competition to put things in perspective.
Note: The first column is the CPU temperature, the second represents the graphics cards, the third is for the hard drives, and the last one is the ambient temperature.
At idle, CPU temperature is a cool 30°C, which compares very favorably to other previously tested systems. (Note that we have some cases in the above charts that we haven't officially reviewed yet; these cases will be reviewed in the near future.) Load temperatures are similarly impressive, reaching just 36°C. Out of the tested cases, only the Antec Skeleton posts a better CPU result, but that's an open air case.
We expected better results from the graphics cards, but it appears the top cover restricts exhaust and thus hampers cooling. You can remove the top cover to improve the temperature results, but at the cost of marring the appearance. The large 180mm fan cools the hard drives nicely, keeping them at the same temperature in idle and load conditions.
All of the temperatures are good to very good, with one exception: ambient temperature. We were shocked by the ambient temperature as we expected much better results. It was 38°C at idle and 43°C at load, which is much higher than anything else we've tested so far. The temperature diode was directly below the CPU cooler at the height of the system memory, so it may simply have been caught in a dead spot where there wasn't much airflow. This is the same location we use in the other cases, but it could be that the motherboard orientation adversely affected airflow to this area. Still, we didn't feel we should change it as we wanted to stay consistent in our tests.
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Visual - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
i really don't fancy the idea of intake fans on the bottom. there's going to be a huge amount of dust gathering down there.and expansion cards and cables at the top, really? maybe it can work if i hide the case under the desk, but what if it is on top?
weevil - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
But you would never have to sweep the floor.HelToupee - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
I really like the idea of the layout of this case. It's the perfect arrangement for an under-the-desk setup. You are right that the intakes on the bottom of the case are a terrible idea. They'll clog with dust, and need cleaning constantly, and are in the most inconvenient place they could possibly be. Maybe if they add some kind of ducting along the back to direct air underneath the case and raised the case off the ground a bit.What I really like is the cable management. Where the cables come out of the power supply is right next to where they plug into the motherboard. If you look at the pictures of the system assembly, there are no cables at all routed over the motherboard. All the cable mess tucks nicely away into the bottom front of the case where it's not visible, and not in the way of airflow. Perfect. Plus, when the case is sitting under your desk, all the ports are the closest they can be to where you want them -- rear top of the case. I love the idea of having access to the back panel (now on top) of the case by just rolling the case out a bit. Lighting will be better, cables will not be strained and crimped around corners. Very convenient.
I hope other (cheaper) options appear with this configuration. I may have to consider picking one up.
Dreamwalker - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
A very interesting case, but I do wonder how you manages the cables that are coming at the top, the VGA cables and all the other stuff. A picture would be great here. Can't realy imagine how it looks like all the cables coming at the top rather than from the bac side.Anyone got the Lamborghini Reventon in his minde when looking at he pictures?
weevil - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
Looks like an F-117 Stealth fighter to me, Love the interier but the outside is ugly. But at least it will evade radar, I could replace the fairing on my Harley with this and the CHP will never see me.strikeback03 - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
Personally, I think the person in the previous look who compared it to a Jawa Sandcrawler was dead-on.Bigjee - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
That's the first thing that came to my mind.The lamborghini Reventon.
This case perfectly portrays it. The lines make it look like its been designed by the same person who designed that car.
soydeedo - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
With dreadlocks.maxnix - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Had this case two years now and it has been rock solid except for a bad fan that would rattle when installed. Replaced with an even quieter one and all is well. Not overclocked yet, so acoustic signature could increase when it is. Access is great and easy. Case is heavy.Now the Raven 3 is out.
By the way the filters while rudimentary, are a lot better than nothing in most other cases.