RV05 Internal Design
Because the motherboard is mounted at a 90-degree angle, the internal layout of the Raven 5 is very different from most computer cases. The expansion card bay, optional 120mm exhaust fan and a power supply mounting bracket are on the roof of the chassis.
There are also two 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 5. 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.
In the RV02-E and RV03 we found a number of 5.25" and 3.5" drive bays in the front. The RV05 has none of that, in fact there are no 5.25" bays at all. We first saw the NZXT H440 ditch the old 5.25" bays and we had no problem with it. The same is true here.
Getting rid of the bulky 5.25" bays, which are largely unused by power users, frees up room for modern features or to simply improve airflow. As in the case of the RV05 the 5.25" bays have been removed to make the case more compact. The drawback being that the RV05 supports just two 3.5" devices in a plastic cage found in the rear of the case.
While this has helped Silverstone make a more compact case, I do not feel it has helped them make a better case, nor have they eliminated wasted space.
The problem is the two 3.5" bays, which are positioned vertically to maximize airflow, are mounted directly under the power supply bracket. This means that without removing them and removing all 3.5" drive support from the Raven 5, it is not possible to install power supplies longer than 160mm or ideally 150mm. We first ran into this problem when trying to install our first half a dozen power supply candidates.
Silverstone doesn't see this as being an issue as they offer many PSUs that are 160mm or shorter, the most powerful of which is the impressive Strider Gold S 850w. However most high-end power supplies are longer than 160mm as we found when trying to install ours. Not wanting to sacrifice the only 3.5" drive bays in the Raven 5, we had to install a less powerful unit in the meantime.
It seems strange that a computer case geared towards gamers which can support four full-length graphics cards and massive air-coolers is so unexpectedly limited when it comes to the power supply.
Moving past that, we find two massive 180mm Air Penetrator fans in the bottom of the Raven 5 which, as we mentioned earlier, are connected to an inbuilt fan controller. The design goal for Air Penetrator is to focus airflow into a column that can be channeled through various obstacles inside the case for more efficient cooling performance.
The fans feature easily removable dust filters and are rated to work at speeds between 700 and 1200 RPM with 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 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 isn't actually a motherboard tray if we are honest. It's a pretty intelligent design that sees the bottom half of the motherboard positioned over a tray while the top half, where the CPU is located, floats over empty space. The only catch is the slim optical drive cage needs to be removed in order to properly access the rear side of the motherboard socket.
Speaking of which, behind the motherboard there is room to install a pair of 2.5" drives along with a slit optical drive. The optical drive can be fitted into the plastic bracket we just spoke of while 2.5" devices such as SSDs fit into place using a pair of screws. The only downside to this is the SSDs and slim optical drive can make cable management a challenge.