titleWe have taken a look at a whole collection of unique case designs in the past with two standing out more than the others. The Silverstone Fortress FT01 and the Silverstone Raven. Both stood out because of their 90 degree rotated motherboard design that works so well for cooling. Although no one else been making cases with the motherboard oriented that way, Silverstone is still working on perfecting the design now with their Raven 3. We loved the previous versions so I have high hopes for the Raven 3. Lets take a look to see what is new and how it performs.

Product Name: Silverstone Raven 3

Review Sample Provided by: Silverstone

Written by: Wes, Adam

Pictures by: Wes


Specifications

Model No.

SST-RV03B (black, champagne trimming)

SST-RV03B-W (black, champagne trimming + window)

SST-RV03B-WA (black, grey trimming + window)

Material

Reinforced plastic outer shell, 0.8mm Steel body

Color

Matte black

Motherboard

SSI-EEB, SSI-CEB, Extended ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX

External Drive Bays

5.25" x 7

Internal Drive Bays

3.5" x 10 (6 from 5.25” adapters), 2.5” x 2 for SSD

Cooling System

Front         4 x 120mm fan slot*

Rear         1 x 120mm fan slot**

Side          1 x 120mm fan slot

Top           1 x 120mm exhaust fan, 900rpm, 18dBA

Bottom      2 x 180mm AP181 fan 700/1200rpm, 18/34dBA

                 (compatible with 3 x 120mm fan)

Expansion Slot

8

Front I/O Port

USB 3.0 x 2 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0)

audio x 1

MIC x 1

Power Supply

1 x optional standard PS2(ATX), depth limit 180mm

Expansion Card

Compatible with expansion cards up to 13.58 inches, width restriction-6.61"

Limitation of CPU cooler

163mm

Limitation of PSU

180mm

Net Weight

11.4kg

Dimension

235mm (W) x 522mm (H) x 570mm (D), 69.9 liters


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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #29671 28 Feb 2013 21:51
Another case review today, we take a look at the unique Raven 3's design
NitrosDragon's Avatar
NitrosDragon replied the topic: #29673 28 Feb 2013 23:15
Awesome review! I'm glad to see that Silverstone is still pioneering the rotated motherboard style. I really enjoy it in my FT02.

I wish I could see how the Raven 3 would have handled a different heatsink while pushing high temps.
evildoer's Avatar
evildoer replied the topic: #29675 01 Mar 2013 00:19
Raven 4 is supposed to be out soonish too.

I had the Raven 3 for about six months. Very nice case and easy to build in with a ton of built in cable management.

What I didn't like with the 3 is that:

1) The Raven 2 had an extra fan on the bottom of the chassis
2) No consideration for mounting of consumer grade liquid coolers (Corsair H70, for example) I had to mount one in push&pull and vent it out the top. It looked a little weird.
3) The front panel USB were USB 3.0 A connectors that piggybacked off of I/O USB 3.0 and not a header connector.
4) The position of the power plug was kind of asinine.

From what I was told by someone I used to work with who attended Computex last y ear is that the issues I had with the Raven 3 were fixed in the Raven 4, just keep in mind that I am waaaaaaaaaay pickier than the person who told me this.

Over-all Silverstone cases, IMO, are the best there is. The Fortress and Raven series are just massive and awesome. The problem of course is they're massive. Probably why we don't see many at LAN parties!
L0rdG1gabyt3's Avatar
L0rdG1gabyt3 replied the topic: #29678 01 Mar 2013 01:08
Ive got a Raven RV01, and I really like it. My temps, with an H60 stay pretty cool.
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #29679 01 Mar 2013 01:38

evildoer wrote: 1) The Raven 2 had an extra fan on the bottom of the chassis


yeah this bothered me a little, but then I went back to what I wrote about the Raven 2 when I reviewed it. The way they had the hard drives orientated blocked the flow of air from that third fan anyhow.

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