Silverstone Raven 2 Evolution (RV02-E) ATX Case Review

[Julio Franco]

If you are looking for a unique case that won't break the bank don't go past the Silverstone Raven 2 Evolution. The RV02-E points the motherboard upward at a 90-degree angle, so the 'rear' I/O panel is placed on top of the enclosure instead of behind.

Read the full review at:
https://www.techspot.com/review/351-silverstone-rv02e/

Please leave your feedback here.

 

[Kibaruk]

The case looks pretty cool, finally something that can't be called generic this days (Digest that slowly). Although I'm a big fan of HAF cases I could see myself buying this one, amazing air flow, slick design, unique form, all in all looks amazing specially for that price range competitors.

 

[Guest]

Coming from an FT02 owner:

Still only 1 sata sata backplate? If so, that is ridiculous! At least corsair does not cheap out on a crap like that.

Also, can you mount ssd's (2.5" to the drive trays yet? hopefully they have figured this out.

 

[Guest]

Is there room to fit a DVI-VGA adapter + cable under the top panel, for those with older monitors or KVM's?

 

[pcnthuziast]

No need for an adapter, just get a cable with vga on 1 side and dvi on the other.

 

[Technochicken]

It looks like there are holes in the motherboard tray and by the power supply for routing cables behind the motherboard. Is there any reason did you did not do this in the installation, or is there not space between the motherboard trey and the the side panel for the cables?

 

[Guest]

I have this Case and its amazing, none of the worries people have expressed in their comments.
My brother liked it so much he had me get him one as well.. Seeing it in person its alot better than the pics. Also I agree with the editor, I've put tons of PC's together over 15 years. And this model does take you back a bit and with figuring things out, but its worth it...

 

[mattfrompa]

Wow, this case is amazing. If I ever get a budget that allows for such a high end case I'll be looking at something like this for sure.

 

[Steve]

Coming from an FT02 owner:

Still only 1 sata sata backplate? If so, that is ridiculous! At least corsair does not cheap out on a crap like that.

Also, can you mount ssd's (2.5" to the drive trays yet? hopefully they have figured this out.

From page 3: The Raven 2 Evolution also comes with a 2.5" drive adapter that can be mounted on the backside of the 5.25" drive bay, providing support for a single SSD.

So just one 2.5” SSD mount.

Is there room to fit a DVI-VGA adapter + cable under the top panel, for those with older monitors or KVM's?

Yes.

It looks like there are holes in the motherboard tray and by the power supply for routing cables behind the motherboard. Is there any reason did you did not do this in the installation, or is there not space between the motherboard trey and the the side panel for the cables?

From page 4: If our 6-pin and 8-pin PCI Express cables were longer we would have directed them behind the motherboard tray, but even so the finished product looked quite good.

 

[red1776]

I just found my case...anyone want to buy a slightly used HAF 932?
This is great for CrossfireX and SLI, It would prevent the stress on the GPU PCB's with as much as they weigh these days.

 

[dividebyzero]

I just found my case...anyone want to buy a slightly used HAF 932?
This is great for CrossfireX and SLI, It would prevent the stress on the GPU PCB's with as much as they weigh these days.

That fourth card of yours might be a tight fit up against the HDD cage. The lead photo (showing 4-way CFX) I believe is the first edition of the RV02 (three HDD + SSD rather than 5+1)
The TJ11 won't be in the same price bracket -guaranteed- but it also should offer just about every bell and whistle there is.
Personally I'm just waiting on the launch and a review or two to confirm radiator compatibility, how well the fan intake ducting pans out and if Silverstone step back from the rumoured $600 price tag as criticism and a degree of realism mounts.

 

[red1776]

That fourth card of yours might be a tight fit up against the HDD cage. The lead photo (showing 4-way CFX) I believe is the first edition of the RV02 (three HDD + SSD rather than 5+1)
The TJ11 won't be in the same price bracket -guaranteed- but it also should offer just about every bell and whistle there is.
Personally I'm just waiting on the launch and a review or two to confirm radiator compatibility, how well the fan intake ducting pans out and if Silverstone step back from the rumoured $600 price tag as criticism and a degree of realism mounts.

It looked like it fit comfortably, but that could be a problem.I have to build a custom 4 step support bracket for every other case. (part of the reason I like the Asus EAH line, they have a metal frame around the PCB) Speaking of the Tj11, they have the black ice rad that I have been looking at. Have you used that one Chef?

 

[dividebyzero]

I've installed Black Ice rads into systems (GT Xtreme not the SR-1 designed for ULV fans) I did once own a Danger Den 360 - which I think was a Black Ice rebadged. I'm a Feser man myself - pretty hard to go past the Xchanger or Thermochills offerings, although from my own experience, temp difference are pretty minimal- it's still going to come down to rad placement and fan selection/orientation for the most part.
The 140 x 4 seems a little overkill unless you're planning on CPU + quad CFX in a single loop. I don't think I've used anything over a 360 in my personal setups.

EDIT: If you were looking for rigidity/bracing and watercooling for the cards then a parallel watercool bridge is pretty much what you should be looking at.

EDIT2: Here's a better illustration of how it all fits together (this one is made by twinConnect).

 

[captainawesome]

Techspot, why do you guys review SO many cases and no Sound Cards, Displays etc. A case is generally something a user upgrades rather infrequently. I've been on the lookup for the best sound card and displays for a while now but nothing comes up.

 

[Steve]

Techspot, why do you guys review SO many cases and no Sound Cards, Displays etc. A case is generally something a user upgrades rather infrequently. I've been on the lookup for the best sound card and displays for a while now but nothing comes up.

We have literally been inundated with requests for sound card reviews. No wait that’s a lie, you are the first person to ask for such a review. That said we review audio codec’s all the time when looking at new motherboards

Honestly I didn’t even know they still made sound cards, I have not seen one in years.

As for displays there is no need. Buy the Dell U3011, you will never look back.

 

[Julio Franco]

@captainawesome, we used to review a lot of soundcards back in the day, when it made sense doing so, today it's a very boring market.

As for displays, I'd love to review more of those but samples are somewhat hard to get, the market is very diversified and to make good comparison reviews we'd need someone in our staff that can get very technical about them.

 

[Guest]

I love you Steve! great review.

Now, will you lend me money to buy that dell thing?

 

[captainawesome]

Hey Julio. Thanks for the reply. That makes sense now. @Steve - you can't be serious? Xonar Xense/ Create Audigy etc. Not to mention decent headphones, both for music/video and gaming (3d positional audio or true surround).
I myself use a Creative Audigy Platinum and Sennheiser HD402. The creative hardware is great but software is rather rubbish and buggy. The Sennheisers are amazing but they certainly not the cheapest brand. Specially considering is straight forward 2 channel headphones. That said, I LOVE my sound. So maybe just a headphone/speaker sets and modern sound card round up SOMETIME this year?

 

[DokkRokken]

captainawesome said:
Hey Julio. Thanks for the reply. That makes sense now. @Steve - you can't be serious? Xonar Xense/ Create Audigy etc. Not to mention decent headphones, both for music/video and gaming (3d positional audio or true surround).
I myself use a Creative Audigy Platinum and Sennheiser HD402. The creative hardware is great but software is rather rubbish and buggy. The Sennheisers are amazing but they certainly not the cheapest brand. Specially considering is straight forward 2 channel headphones. That said, I LOVE my sound. So maybe just a headphone/speaker sets and modern sound card round up SOMETIME this year?

I got your review right here: Xonar Essence ST/STX. Anything else is just a Realtek codec by comparison.

 

[Guest]

I just got one of these RV02-E a few days ago, got it for $178.00 + free ship (Amazon Prime). I put my existing build into it. (ASUS P6X58D-E, i7 930 @ 4.01ghz w/HT, GTX480, 6GB G-Skill Trident RAM @7-7-7-20).

Went from an extremely LOUD Antec 300 case with 7 blue LED fans and zero cable management, to this comparatively quiet beauty, and the RV02-E cools just as well--same temps. And the cable management is to-die-for. One note: I have a modular Corsair HX850 PSU, and the integrated PCI-E cables barely reach the GTX480 when routing behind the mobo--it's a real stretch, but got there.

So then to top it off, I switched from a Corsair A70 air cooler to a Thermalright Silver Arrow (just b/c I could) and that shaved off a couple of degrees @ idle and a good chunk @ load. So if you're wondering if something as big as the Silver Arrow (or the Noctua D14) will fit, yes it will. I put the TY-140's on the Silver Arrow into a pull/pull configuration, which isn't "technically" optimal, but a push fan would not have cleared my RAM. Still works great--probably b/c the AP-181 Penetrators are pushing so much air into the Silver Arrow in the first place. Thanks, Silverstone!

For those wondering, my CPU temps are now 36-39 @ idle and 62-65 @ load (Prime95).

 

[red1776]

@captainawesome, we used to review a lot of soundcards back in the day, when it made sense doing so, today it's a very boring market.

As for displays, I'd love to review more of those but samples are somewhat hard to get, the market is very diversified and to make good comparison reviews we'd need someone in our staff that can get very technical about them.

Oh I don't know Julio, I thought this article was pretty good...I think you're sand baggin. :wave:
I based my monitor purchase on it at the time (I didn't pay for a 5ms display and went for an 8ms.)
https://www.techspot.com/blog/645/a...y-and-what-to-look-for-on-your-next-purchase/

 

[Julio Franco]

@red, well you see, if we could put out one of those articles every month or so I'd be a happy camper, that's all I'm saying

 

[Steve]

Hey Julio. Thanks for the reply. That makes sense now. @Steve - you can't be serious? Xonar Xense/ Create Audigy etc. Not to mention decent headphones, both for music/video and gaming (3d positional audio or true surround).
I myself use a Creative Audigy Platinum and Sennheiser HD402. The creative hardware is great but software is rather rubbish and buggy. The Sennheisers are amazing but they certainly not the cheapest brand. Specially considering is straight forward 2 channel headphones. That said, I LOVE my sound. So maybe just a headphone/speaker sets and modern sound card round up SOMETIME this year?

In all seriousness it really comes down to what Julio said, it’s a boring market. There is very little competition and in my opinion it’s a niche market these days.

As for displays I personally believe that the specifications tell most of the story. I have also never found display reviews to be all that scientific with the majority of them just regurgitating the specifications anyway.

I actually think an article like this that educates the buyer as to what the various specifications mean is a more useful tool... (as Red pointed out)

https://www.techspot.com/blog/645/a...y-and-what-to-look-for-on-your-next-purchase/

I love you Steve! great review.

Now, will you lend me money to buy that dell thing?

Once I finish saving up for mine sure

 

[Andrek]

Now that's a case!

 

[Guest]

So its sucking up the cold air and dirt from the bottom of the case... awesome!!