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Silverstone Launches Raven RV02 Mid-Tower

Paul Lilly — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:09:05 -0500

Silverstone this week launched the Raven RV02, a "smaller, lighter, and higher performing" chassis than the original Raven RV01, the company claims.

Like the original, the updated design also boasts a 90-degree motherboard mounting layout, however the new version no longer supports Extended-ATX motherboards and "server-level storage capacity." Silverstone says that by sacrificing these features, it was able to make the RV02 more compact and consumer-friendly.

Other features include three 180mm fans, support for liquid cooling radiator mounting, motherboard backplate opening behind CPU socket area for easier installation of third-party heastinks, eight expansion slots, and an updated hard drive suspension system to help reduce drive noise.

The Raven RV02 will come configurable with our without a window, though no word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Silverstone

Silverstone Fortress FT01

Nathan Edwards — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:00:00 -0500

Solid, competent, and classy, but not flashy

Silverstone is well-known for releasing a few solid chassis every year, usually rehashes of its Temjin full-tower line. But this year has already brought two excellent cases that mark departures from the tried-and-true: the full-tower Raven RV01 (reviewed in our March full-tower roundup) and the mid-tower Fortress FT01.

The Fortress FT01 is a solidly constructed aluminum unibody case that just screams attention-to-detail. Mid-tower cases often lack the amenities of their full-size cousins (compare Silverstone’s own Kublai line with its mighty full-tower Temjin series), but the Fortress handily escapes that trap.

After the chunky, plastic, stealth-bomber-like trappings of the RV01—which we dug, don’t get us wrong—it’s nice to see Silverstone back to the classy brushed-metal look it’s known for. The Fortress’s side panels and front bezels are black brushed aluminum, while the rest of the machine has a dusty matte-black finish, with a bit of wicked-looking mesh covering the intake fans.

A fine interior finish and plenty of drive bays ensure a warm welcome for the FT01.

Yes, intake fans, plural. Silverstone’s big idea here is filtered positive air pressure that keeps the warm air moving out and keeps dust from getting in (mostly). Two filtered 18cm fans pull cool air into the case—a fan in front pulls air over the hard drives and along the videocards, and a fan on top brings cool air over the RAM and north bridge. Warmed air leaves via the 12cm rear exhaust fan as well as through vents in the back panel and PCI slot covers.

Inside, the FT01 boasts five tool-free optical slots, with the push-button locking mechanism familiar from the Raven, as well as seven slide-in hard drive trays mounted perpendicular to the optical drives. The FT01, like the Raven and TJ10, includes just one CP05 hot-swap SATA cable; more will run you about six bucks each. The FT01’s front connectors, found in a pop-up compartment on top, are Silverstone’s usual: two USB ports, one FireWire, and audio jacks. The only LED to be found is the one that lights up the power button. Like we said, classy.

The Fortress FT01 brings back the brushed-metal, no-nonsense exterior that Silverstone is renowned for.

Although the FT01 is a mid-tower, we had no problem installing our test setup—and we verified that both the GeForce 8800 GTX and GeForce GTX 280 will fit. We do have a few gripes, however. First, there’s not a whole lot of room between the motherboard and the hard drive bays, and folks with side-mounted SATA ports will find plugging them in awkward, though not impossible. The black interior paint, though high-quality, was applied a little liberally; we had trouble screwing in the motherboard standoffs at first.

Although the FT01 has cutouts in the motherboard tray for cable routing, the foam padding on the inside of the side panels leaves little room for cable management without squashing some foam. For the money, Silverstone should include at least two CP05s, too. Finally, the filter for the top intake fan is hard to remove due to a clip holding the front-panel wires to the top of the case.

The Fortress FT01 is a great-looking, well-constructed case with plenty of features for the computer enthusiast. And barring a few modest complaints, there’s a lot to love about it.

Towers of Power: Five Full-Tower Enclosures Reviewed

Nathan Edwards — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:00:00 -0500

Ah, spring: when a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of upgrading. But, alas! Your fancy new videocard is too big for your tiny case, and you’re running out of hard drive bays for your RAID. Fear not! A classy full-tower chassis can be just the solution.

In this roundup we’ve collected five full-tower cases—big and tall enclosures with all the bells and whistles: new looks, toolless expansion slots, intake filters, drive bays aplenty, and more. Space-saving isn’t a priority here: The focus is on features, with room for as much hardware as you need to cram in. If you want a portable rig or something to nestle under your desk, these aren’t the cases for you. But if you’re looking to make the most of your computer, portability be damned, one of these beauts could be your huckleberry.

In evaluating these cases, we focused on a few key points: overall build quality, aesthetics, ease of installation, cooling options, convenience, and features like front-panel connectors. We kept price in mind, too, but only to a degree: After all, we’re Maximum PC. We don’t mind paying for excellence; we just object when gear is offensively overpriced.

They’re big and bold, but which of these full-tower enclosures will make the best abode for your PC?

The Reviews

Cooler Master ATCS 840

ABS Canyon 695

Silverstone Raven RV01

NZXT Zero II

Thermaltake Spedo

Final Thoughts

The Cooler Master 840’s killer combo of good looks and useful features wins the day, but every case has something to offer

At Maximum PC, we go through a lot of components. We build a lot of computers. We know what we like. So when we test a case, we ask a few important questions: How easy is installation? Does this case make our lives easier? Is this case likely to protect our precious components? And while we’re at it, does it look good?

The answers, for the Cooler Master ATCS 840, are yes, yes, yes, and yes. We were won over by the ease of installation, but more importantly the ease of swapping out parts. We love its style and the attention to detail—we can’t say enough good things about its removable motherboard tray and the CPU-cooler cutout.

But other cases here also deserve accolades: We love the Silverstone Raven’s looks, amenities, and innovative motherboard placement, the ABS Canyon 695’s design and SATA backplate, and the Thermaltake Spedo’s cable management features. And the NZXT Zero II is decent if you’re a modder looking for a good starting point.

Each case in this roundup had its drawbacks, too. The Canyon 695 is stupid expensive, while the Zero II is cheap in both senses of the word. We weren’t thrilled by the Spedo’s looks or the flimsiness of its thermal chamber panels. We could have used eSATA in the Raven. And we wish we hadn’t snapped the front-intake cover off of the ATCS 840 (oops).

If you can spare the $280, we’d say go for the Cooler Master ATCS 840. The CPU-cooler backplate cutout and sliding motherboard tray/rear panel alone are worth it for us; we plan on rebuilding our CPU-cooling test rig around it. But even if you’re not in the habit of swapping out CPU coolers regularly, the 840 brings more than enough to the table. Easy install, roomy interior, great looks, screwless drive bays (and plenty of ‘em), and scrupulous attention to detail: The 840 reminds us why we’ve liked so many Cooler Master full-towers in the past.

Wish List: Case Features We Long For

Man, do we love cases with thoughtful amenities. The NZXT Zero II is no slouch of a case, but it’s a Neanderthal compared to the Cooler Master ATCS 840, our favorite case in this roundup. But even the mighty 840 doesn’t have everything we want in a case. Here are a few features we’ve seen in some cases that should really be in all of them.

2.5-inch Drive Bays

With solid state drives making big strides, we see lots of system builders starting to include them as OS volumes. But few cases have dedicated 2.5-inch bays. Our last rig from Velocity Micro solved the problem by mounting its Intel X-25M on the IcePak from a WD Velociraptor. But an actual 2.5-inch bay (or at least an adapter, like that found in the NZXT Whisper), would be better.

Mid-Case Air Duct

A mid-case air duct, like that found in the Silverstone Temjin TJ10, brings cool air from outside into the case to cool the GPUs before exiting out the back. This helps keep other hot components from warming the air before it gets to the GPUs—a literal breath of fresh air for your videocards.

SATA Backplanes

The ABS Canyon 695 and the HP Blackbird are two of many cases that have started featuring SATA backplanes in their drive bays. Forget rails; forget cable routing. Just slap in a couple of hard drives and go. Bonus: Many of these backplanes support RAID and hot-swapping.

ETC.

While we’re at it, let’s make the following things mandatory: Intake fan dust filters, variable-speed fan controllers, a cable routing mechanism, toolless PCI slots, and quality thumbscrews.

Silverstone Raven RV01

Nathan Edwards — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:11:30 -0500

A new twist on mobo orientation

While most Silverstone cases tend toward polished metal and (if you’re lucky) a side window, the Raven’s hard plastic exterior takes its stylistic cues from a stealth bomber. Appropriately, everything on this 24.3x26x11-inch beaut is hidden behind panels: the front connectors (two USB, audio, FireWire) behind a flip-up, and the five 5.25-inch drives behind a garage door–like sliding panel.

We thought it was just a gimmick at first, but the Silverstone Raven RV01 delivers.

The most striking thing about the Raven, besides its appearance, is that its motherboard mount is rotated 90 degrees clockwise—the I/O ports and PCI expansion slots, normally situated on the back of a case, are on the top and covered by a shroud that allows cables to be routed neatly to the back. This improves airflow (allowing air drawn in by two 18cm fans to rise from the bottom of the case to the top) and takes the stress of weighty PCI-E cards (like, say, dual-GPU offerings from Nvidia and ATI) off of the motherboard.

The Raven has plenty of slots and tabs for cable management.

Unlike the ABS Canyon or Cooler Master 840, the Raven’s motherboard tray is not removable, but installation is still pretty easy. And we dig the screwless retention mechanism for the optical drives and the cable-routing clips on the back of the mobo tray. Hard drive trays are nice, though hot-swapping requires buying additional components. And as is becoming standard in high-end cases, the intake vents are covered with removable dust screens.

No more scrabbling around behind the case for cables! The Raven routes all I/O cables from the top of the case.

We like the Raven’s looks, and we actually hope the rotated motherboard thing will catch on. We just wish the outer shell felt a bit more solid. And eSATA on top would be nice, too.

The Raven stealths its front-panel connectors and 5.25-inch drive bays behind clever paneling.

<< Back to the Towers of Power Index

Hands-on: Silverstone Bucks Own Trend with Raven RV-01 Case

Nathan Edwards — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:45:53 -0600

Silverstone is normally known for sleek brushed metal enclosures like its flagship TJ10, but today at CES we got a first look at a case that marks a departure from that norm. The Silverstone Raven RV01 looks more like a stealth bomber than anything - it's all black plastic and strange, radar-baffling angles. But fear not, true believers: it's as fully featured as we expect from a high-end Silverstone enclosure.

The first thing we noticed about the Raven is that it takes the standard ATX motherboard placement and turns it on its side: the mounts are rotated 90 degrees, so the I/O ports and what you normally think of as the backplate is on the top of the case. They say this offers improved airflow. Removable panels on the front, back, and all sides mean you can hide those backplate cables and route them to the back, so everything still looks smooth.

Cables and ports come out the top of the case . . .

. . . but a top shroud keeps the clutter hidden and routes them neatly to the back.

All intake vents are have removable filters to keep debris and dust out of your machine. Holes for cable routing are everywhere, and the back of the mobo tray has plenty of routing clamps. Add in screwless drive bays and support for an adapter (one included) that lets you hot-swap your SATA drives, and it's clear Silverstone didn't skimp on the features.

Look for our full review of the Raven in an upcoming issue of Maximum PC!

SilverStone KL03

David Murphy — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:00:01 -0500

We often jest that SilverStone makes but one case a year—a slight modification of its most recent TJ series case. The company has since proven us wrong with the release of its Kublai series KL03 chassis. But after testing this midtower case, we find ourselves clamoring to go back to the familiar ground of SilverStone’s TJ cases. Given the TJ line’s high level of excellence, the KL03’s deficiencies stand out even more and make this chassis look like an ill-conceived side project.

The first thing you’ll notice after unscrewing the case’s side panels—which lack thumbscrews—is the giant retention bar running horizontally across the KL03’s lower half. It supports two 12cm fans and comes with a number of sliding retention bars for holding your PCI-based components in place. However, we’d prefer to have fans, not fan mounts, and the retention bar does little to support the guts of our rig. Adding insult to injury, the bar itself has to be screwed into the case to stay in place. Its plastic locking mechanism isn’t strong enough to support it.

In contrast to the sleeker SilverStone cases we’ve reviewed, the KL03 feels like a hodgepodge of features—the case never gets any of them quite right.

Our frustrating experience with the case’s motherboard area contrasts with our experience installing components in the KL03’s almost-toolless front drive bays. These four 5.25-inch bays come with rails that allow for speedy insertion and removal of your various devices. While removing the actual bay covers can be a taxing process (we had to use a screwdriver to avoid hurting our fingers on the covers’ snapping locks), at least we didn’t have to physically remove screws or, worse, the entire front panel itself.

The case also comes with rails for your drives, but its four hard drive bays are fitted with removable trays. Just drop a hard drive into the tray, screw it in, and push the entire contraption forward. You then have to manually attach the drives’ connectors, save for the one hard drive bay that includes a hot-swap SATA connector. We’re not sure why the KL03 comes with only a single hot-swap SATA connector: We’d prefer to see a full backplane of hot-swap connectors or none at all. The addition of a single bulky hotswap connector feels like a tease, not a feature.

The KL03 provides ample room for the biggest hardware available. The case also supports ATX, EATX, Micro ATX, and SSI motherboard standards. We tested the case with a standard ATX mobo and had plenty of room for cable management and tube routing after installing a pair of 8800 GTXs into the chassis. But we couldn’t route these cables around the rear of the motherboard. Two holes on the motherboard tray look like they are designed for this purpose, but the side door tightly smashes against the tray, rendering these holes useless.

The KL03 comes with ample cooling in the form of a 12cm fan in the rear of the case near the motherboard area and a 12cm fan on the front that blows air over the hard drive bays. The case is a little lacking in the front-panel connections department, however, offering only two USB ports and a single FireWire 400 connector. SilverStone ups the “cool factor” of the chassis by giving the top of its rounded front a pleasing blue glow. But truth be told, the KL03’s construction shortcomings, awkward drive bays, and cabling failures don’t impress us much at all.

SilverStone DS351

David Murphy — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:23:30 -0600

We have 300 words to tell you about the wonders of SilverStone’s DS351 external hard drive enclosure, but we need just four syllables: me-di-o-cre. It’s not that the enclosure is overwhelmingly slow, broken, or impossible to manage, but the device dips its toe enough into each of each these categories to make for a less than stellar experience.

First, there’s the installation. The DS351 comes with a drive bay of sorts that you have to separate and remove from the unit before you can fill it with storage devices. Up to four drives go in the bay; the fifth drive attaches directly to the enclosure. Removing the bay requires the use of a long-necked screwdriver. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but once you’ve run through your house and realized that all you have are smaller, stouter screwdrivers, you’re hosed. Seriously, SilverStone—there are better ways to hold hard drives.

Firing up a RAID array is easy once the drives are in place. The included software is straightforward, and you don’t even have to muck around in Windows’s drive-management screens or initialize any drives. You pick your RAID, apply the change, and that’s it—done and done.

The performance of said RAID, however, leaves something to be desired. When we connected a single Western Digital Raptor drive to the DS351, we found that the enclosure’s speeds matched the performance of the same Raptor drive connected directly to the motherboard via SATA. Two Raptor drives in a RAID 0 array on the DS351 ended up being faster than a single drive but didn’t offer the absurd jumps in speeds we’re used to seeing in these comparisons—perfectly evidenced in the DS351’s poor RAID 1 performance.

Like a baloney sandwich, the DS351 will get you by, but it won’t be all that tasty—we’ve devoured far better enclosures.

Silverstone Temjin TJ10

David Murphy — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:06:51 -0600

The ongoing joke at Maximum PC is that SilverStone releases a new TJ series case but once a year. Like the arrival of Punxsutawney Phil, the Video Music Awards, and the Dream Machine, this glorious event is marked with celebrations and drunken revelry—only this time around, instead of booze, we’re tipping back kegs of awesome. SilverStone’s TJ10 case is a welcome addition to the company’s strong dynasty of chassis. Like its father before it, the TJ10 is polished and almost perfect… almost.

We’d normally take this paragraph to gush over the TJ10’s design, but we’ve already done that—just read December 2006’s review of the TJ09 case. Functionally, the two are almost identical. The TJ10 differs in only one minor aspect—the large fan mount attached to the side of the hard drive bays is now notched, giving you a place to rest your extra-long graphics card. And that’s all she wrote, folks.

Since we last looked at a SilverStone case of this magnitude, however, a number of vendors have devised features that surpass those in the 9 Kick Ass–scoring TJ09. For example, Cooler Master’s Cosmos case redefined our notions of screwless with its handy door-removal mechanism and push-button locks for its 5.25-inch bays. Antec’s P190 is the supply depot of cases, with its two included power supplies and five fans. And the Zalman FC-ZE1 case? It’s a tank—a freakin’ tank.

In a perfect world, SilverStone would have included some kind of rails—even dinky plastic ones—so users could mount hard drives and peripherals without screws. We also would love to have seen screwless holders for the PCI cards. Filling all of the bays with fans would have been a pleasant touch that surely wouldn’t have shot this $300 case’s price tag through the roof. And still, no eSATA on the front panel connectors?

The TJ10 is still a rockin’ case, but old age has started to creep up on this old faithful. Perhaps we’ll see some innovation come this time next year.