RV02-E Internal Design
Because the motherboard is mounted at a 90-degree angle, the internal layout of the Raven 2 Evolution is very different from most computer cases. The expansion card bay, a 120mm exhaust fan and a power supply mounting bracket are on the roof of the chassis.
There are also three 3-pin fan power connectors hooked up to a basic fan speed controller that lets you set the 180mm intake fans to low, medium or high. However, the fan controller is not powered, so each fan must still be plugged into the motherboard.
The expansion card bay, motherboard I/O panel and power supply mounting bracket are all offset into the Raven 2 Evolution. Silverstone had to do this so that the various power and data cables have enough room to fit under the case lid where they will travel under a handle at the rear.
At the front, there are five external 5.25" bays in the typical location. Unlike the RV02, our RV02-E doesn't feature tool-less bays. Below the 5.25" bays is a horizontally mounted 3.5" drive bay that supports five drives using removable cages. 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.
Located in the bottom the Raven 2 Evolution are three massive 180mm (SST-AP181) fans which, as we mentioned earlier, are connected to an inbuilt fan controller. These fans are part of the new Silverstone AP (Air Penetrator) Series. Silverstone says the Air Penetrator fans are designed specifically for intake applications, where airflow rating is not a priority. The design goal for Air Penetrator is to focus airflow into a column that can be channeled through various obstacles inside the modern computer case for more efficient cooling performance.
All three fans feature easily removable dust filters and are rated to work at speeds between 700 and 1200 rpm with have an effective airflow range of 1.2 to 3 meters at 80 ~ 130 CFM. All this adds up to an operating volume of 18 ~ 34dBA depending on the operating speed.
There's almost nothing to be seen at the rear of the Raven 2 Evolution, just a single fan grill which allows the power supply to draw in cool air.
The non-removable motherboard tray features excellent cable management with three large openings to route wires. There's also a large rectangular hole towards the middle for installing and uninstalling heatsinks, which would normally require you to remove the entire tray. This simple yet amazingly useful feature is becoming standard amongst high-end computer cases.