SilverStone Raven 4

Shopping for a new case? Well then, head on over to Vortez today and check out their review of the SilverStone Raven 4.

Raven 4 is a full tower chassis with a distinct design, utilising a reversed and inverted motherboard tray. Adorned with two 180mm front intake fans, CPU cooler and graphics card support mechanisms, this new case is set to push the boundaries for computer case design.

Click to expand...

I'll pass. PSU is sitting at the top of the case, away from the connectors are for the 24 motherboard, 8 pin CPU and a lot of the drive bays. My preference is for the PSU to be at the bottom of the case with an inverted motherboard mounting tray the Raven 4 has.

I feel the exact opposite way. I prefer my psu at the top, less dust and heat for it to deal with in my view.

USB connectors being on the side is not good. Top is better since not everyone has that side of the case clear.

As well, (imo), they've ruined the design of the RV02/RV03 by switching back to a "horizontal" orientation. I have a RV03 currently, which orients all the expansion cards vertically (motherboard ports on top), and I absolutely love that design...7970 rarely ever reaches 40C even under load.

I've got a Maingear SHIFT case, which is a modified Raven (RFV02 I believe) and I love the case, although in large part that is because they replaced all the plastic panels with aluminum.

Everytime I see the front door of this one it makes me think of mud flaps, which doesn't exactly make me want to buy one.

Minomine said:

As well, (imo), they've ruined the design of the RV02/RV03 by switching back to a "horizontal" orientation. I have a RV03 currently, which orients all the expansion cards vertically (motherboard ports on top), and I absolutely love that design...7970 rarely ever reaches 40C even under load.

Click to expand...

Ummm...not at all.

The reason the RV02 were good at air cooling was because of the fans feeding the components...the motherboard orientation was purely a gimmick from a cooling standpont.

wow not thats unfortunate, hope they dont let that designer do any more work... that's hidious

far cry from the rv02/03, hope they keep making the ft02, still my fav

Putz said:

wow not thats unfortunate, hope they dont let that designer do any more work... that's hidious

far cry from the rv02/03, hope they keep making the ft02, still my fav

Click to expand...

Not any more hideous that RV02 IMHO. This design is better suited for more desk configurations, and will be less of a vacuum cleaner on carpets.

Skripka said:

Not any more hideous that RV02 IMHO. This design is better suited for more desk configurations, and will be less of a vacuum cleaner on carpets.

Click to expand...

RV02 was much better looking. The plastic-y look with all the unnecessary lines on the front of the RV04 is just nasty.

And by the way, the motherboard orientation is not a gimmick. It's the exact same principle as with the RV04 just vertical rather than horizontal. It was done to help with heat since it rises (but that may just be a gimmick, but I will say the RV02 is the best cooling case I've had for air cooled video cards). If they mounted the RV02's motherboard horizontally then it would totally defeat it's purpose as there is no front fans, and no exhaust other than the 120mm slot above the processor.

King Icewind said:

RV02 was much better looking. The plastic-y look with all the unnecessary lines on the front of the RV04 is just nasty.

And by the way, the motherboard orientation is not a gimmick. It's the exact same principle as with the RV04 just vertical rather than horizontal. It was done to help with heat since it rises (but that may just be a gimmick, but I will say the RV02 is the best cooling case I've had for air cooled video cards). If they mounted the RV02's motherboard horizontally then it would totally defeat it's purpose as there is no front fans, and no exhaust other than the 120mm slot above the processor.

Click to expand...

Stack effect by itself is a cooling gimmick compared to the cooling effect of 3x180mm fans directly beneath the motherboard or in front of the motherboard. Turn off the fans in the RV02 and it's cooling is scarcely any better than any other ATX case. RV02's great cooling came from the fan configuration, not the orientation of the motherboard. If we see head-to-head tests of RV02 and RV04, I'll wager the results will bear that hunch of mine out. Take the RV02 and turn the whole case 90*, the cooling properties will not change much if at all measurably.

RV02 also looked plastic'y. RV02 also had "unnecessary" lines everywhere, as well as the ugly necessity of the motherboard orientation having cables snaked out the top of the case. All your aesthetic qualms apply to both.


I say all of the above having an old RV02 I quit using a while back sitting down in my dungeon.

Skripka said:

Stack effect by itself is a cooling gimmick compared to the cooling effect of 3x180mm fans directly beneath the motherboard or in front of the motherboard. Turn off the fans in the RV02 and it's cooling is scarcely any better than any other ATX case. RV02's great cooling came from the fan configuration, not the orientation of the motherboard. If we see head-to-head tests of RV02 and RV04, I'll wager the results will bear that hunch of mine out. Take the RV02 and turn the whole case 90*, the cooling properties will not change much if at all measurably.

RV02 also looked plastic'y. RV02 also had "unnecessary" lines everywhere, as well as the ugly necessity of the motherboard orientation having cables snaked out the top of the case. All your aesthetic qualms apply to both.


I say all of the above having an old RV02 I quit using a while back sitting down in my dungeon.

Click to expand...

Okay... turn off the fans in another case and they do worse too... It very much so did have everything to do with the motherboard orientation.

Do you not understand how the wind tunnel affect works?

I say all the above currently using an RV02. The RV02 did not have lines everywhere. It had the bay covers and few small accent lines next to them.

http://www.cowcotland.com/images/news/2009/09/big/raven-033.jpg

King Icewind said:

Okay... turn off the fans in another case and they do worse too... It very much so did have everything to do with the motherboard orientation.

Do you not understand how the wind tunnel affect works?

I say all the above currently using an RV02. The RV02 did not have lines everywhere. It had the bay covers and few small accent lines next to them.

http://www.cowcotland.com/images/news/2009/09/big/raven-033.jpg

Click to expand...

The fact that Silverstone ditched the old orientation tells me they more than likely tested it....and are quite sure of the gains of stack effect being a gimmick compared to the gains of the fan configuration, hence why they kept the fan configuration and ditched the motherboard orientation. I'm not sure why you bring wind tunnels entering into it, RV04 and RV02 are each about as much a wind tunnel or not as the other. RV04 is basically an RV02 turned 90* in terms of fan configuration wrt motherboard.

Skripka said:

The fact that Silverstone ditched the old orientation tells me they more than likely tested it....and are quite sure of the gains of stack effect being a gimmick compared to the gains of the fan configuration, hence why they kept the fan configuration and ditched the motherboard orientation. I'm not sure why you bring wind tunnels entering into it, RV04 and RV02 are each about as much a wind tunnel or not as the other. RV04 is basically an RV02 turned 90* in terms of fan configuration wrt motherboard.

Click to expand...

SS didn't ditch the 90 degree munting, they will improve on it in the near future.

Here's why the RV/FT04 made the change:

SS Rep:

Without giving away too much of our thought process publicly, I can tell you that many of the things you suggested as improvements were indeed discussed internally by ourselves as well. We are not standing still and development is always ongoing in the background as we introduce new cases to the market. Going after the mainstream market is a necessity for us from time to time because building and selling only high-end and specialized products presents supply issues due to economic scale. Most enthusiasts here on OCN no doubt love our 90 degree designs, but the reality is that as good as our RV02 and FT02 cases have been, they still only represent fractions of sales when compared to other similarly priced offerings from bigger, mainstream brands. You'd be surprised how many more people out there refuse to consider or take a second look at our cases simply because they felt the layout was too weird/uncomfortable/gimmicky to them. We believe that over time, more people will warm up to them, but in the meantime we still need to cater to their current needs. So RV04 and FT04 represent a culmination of SilverStone's latest case designs and ideas in a traditional tower layout (albeit not entirely traditional due to flipped motherboard) that we believe should help us meet those needs. They are truly great products and we hope that they succeed and give us the economic scale and resources to enable even more risk taking designs for future products (and of course more opportunity to refine or improve classics such as FT02).

RAVEN (e.g. RV01, RV04) - This series was created in 2008 to break away from SilverStone's original brand image of clean, conservative styling. Besides just being more audacious with styling, RAVEN series would be the platform to launch bold/crazy ideas that may otherwise be deemed to radical for other series. 90 degree motherboard mounting was the most memorable of these new ideas, hence a lot of people think RAVEN series is all about that layout. But if you look closely, each successive RAVEN cases have at least one design feature that has not been done before and are pretty far out. The RV02 went all out in 2009 with entire floor covered in 180mm fans, RV03 in 2011 utilized motherboard backside like no other cases before it with impressive drive arrays and recently RV04 design went to extreme to optimize airflow with a one-piece open air front door (or should that be called a "cover" instead?).

Skripka said:

The fact that Silverstone ditched the old orientation tells me they more than likely tested it....and are quite sure of the gains of stack effect being a gimmick compared to the gains of the fan configuration, hence why they kept the fan configuration and ditched the motherboard orientation. I'm not sure why you bring wind tunnels entering into it, RV04 and RV02 are each about as much a wind tunnel or not as the other. RV04 is basically an RV02 turned 90* in terms of fan configuration wrt motherboard.

Click to expand...

That's how this line of the Raven cases operate. The video cards and parts need to be positioned in the direction the air is flowing to maximize air flow and dissipation. If they moved everything like a traditional case where the video card is sideways and blocking half the air flow that completely diminishes the purpose.

The RV02 is like below, however the RV04 is the same thing just horizontal. ([fan]>>video card>>[exit])

[exit]
^
V
C
A
R
D
^
^
[fan]

Not,

[exit]
^
Video Card (blocks the air flow)
^
^
[fan]