Silverstone RV02 owners

[FearTheCow]

What has your experience been so far? would you recommend it over the HAF X? any issues/problems?

 

[oshia86]

Love mine.

You can also check out the FT02 case since the RV02-E and FT02 are nearly identical now.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1429251

 

[JL6speed]

My original choice for a case was the HAF series (932 to be exact). However I ended up getting the RV02. UNFORTUNATELY, I didn't get the RV02-E because newegg didn't have it in stock when I ordered my case plus now that they do have it, it is much more expensive than when I ordered my regular RV02.

But personally I would go w/ the RV02 (or FT02 if you have about $50-80 more to spare). Case has amazing cooling.

I only have a prob w/ the RV02's harddrive cage. I prefer the FT02's cage but if you get the RV02-E it is exactly like the FT02 so problem solved. Other than that, this is the best case I've owned.

 

[BroHamBone]

Instead of starting a new thread, I searched and found this.

The case looks great. On the other hand, the sound of my Antec 920 is extremely loud! I can hear it upstairs! I had my rig inside an Antec 1200 and cut the back grill to mount the 920 horizontally on the outside of the case. My CPU rarely went above 38C since it was outside the case.

Now with the rv02 and the side panel ON it idles around 40C. I take the panel off and idles around 36.7C. I tried to mount the Kuhler on top of the 180mm fans, but I do not want the heat blowing onto the PSU and if I move the rad forward a bit, it runs into the mobo pwr cable.

I purchased a couple slim fans that ramp up to 1600rpm and top mounted one fan on the rad inside and the other outside the case, but they run the temp around 40C-42C. I am thinking I would be better off w/ the quietness since the temps are about the same(or leaving the side panel off with the Kuhler fans ).

I was thinking about removing the a bottom 180mm bracket to allow more room for the rad. That may work. Any other suggestions?

I may just have to put up with the sound till I decide to liquify my hardware...eventually

 

[ob1]

I love my raven case. I will purchase another one when I rebuild. I bought one for my son's rig as well and got one of their sff cases for the wifes build. The cooling is by far the best I have owned. The case is so quiet. The only down side is the size, they are pretty big. The pics don't do them justice on size....

 

[BroHamBone]

I love my raven case. I will purchase another one when I rebuild. I bought one for my son's rig as well and got one of their sff cases for the wifes build. The cooling is by far the best I have owned. The case is so quiet. The only down side is the size, they are pretty big. The pics don't do them justice on size....

Hah, you got that right. The box the case box was packaged in, I could fit in there! And I am 6'2''!

 

[SDBolts619]

I've got a RV02-EW - not sure what board and CPU you're running BroHamBone, but I've got a 3770k (de-lidded with CLU), UD5H and H220. My temps @ idle are upper 20's (ambient 22-23) and my full load temps are upper 60's.

The H220 is a great option for cooling if you're not going full custom loop. I fabricated an adapter plate out of Lexan to mount the radiator on top of the 180mm case fans.

Oh, and the case size is definitely a relative thing. I went from a Cosmos case to the Raven and it's actually quite a bit smaller, lol.

My rig is currently out of service while I do custom cables and sleeving, but here's a couple of pix of it before I started the current project. Once I'm done, I'll post up new pix.

 

[BroHamBone]

I've got a RV02-EW - not sure what board and CPU you're running BroHamBone,

I have an Asus Sabertooth X79 and 3930k

I can mount my rad on the bottom, but it will be more toward the back. I was worried about all the hot air hitting the PSU causing it to be hot all the time. With all the air flow in the case, I am not so sure that will actually happen though. I may go ahead and give it another try to see how it works out.

My previous PSU crapped out because it had no room to bring in cool air, at least I think so. It was an HTPC case and the intake fan was literally 1/2 an inch from the sidwall and only sucking in ambient case temp.

I know this isnt the case here since the PSU is bringing air from the outside, so I am thinking it is worth a shot.

Oh and all the photos are making me want to custom sleeve my wires too!

 

[rtangwai]

What has your experience been so far? would you recommend it over the HAF X? any issues/problems?

I currently own the RV02, I greatly prefer it over the HAF X (which I have also owned, for the same motherboard/CPU in fact). For air-cooling the advantage of the RV02 is the rotated motherboard, the HAF X is better for watercooling because it has more space. I actually prefer the RV02 over the RV02-EW because the RV02 has 8 card slots, the RV02-EW only 7. This is an issue for Crossfire users like myself, especially if you go triple. The HAF X has 9 slots, but the benefit of the extra slot is more than offset by the stacked heating effect and the cards bending from their own weight in air-cooled environments (I prefer air-cooling). I believe the RV02 is of limited interest to a water-cooling user because a closed-loop cooling system is completely indifferent to the orientation of the motherboard. The limited internal space of the RV02 for pumps, reservoirs, etc. makes it less than ideal for that purpose - that's where the HAF X truly shines.

The *IDEAL* case in my opinion would be a steel version of the TJ-11. You get the advantage of dual PSU slots, 9 card slots, and better hard drive layout/cooling than the RV02 and keep the rotated motherboard layout with the extra volume for watercooling if necessary. I hate aluminum because I tinker a lot and my aluminum cases get "screw-rot" pretty quickly, even my Lian-Li PC201B developed that problem despite the steel set screws. That and the $600 price tag has kept me away from the TJ-11 - if they make a Raven version in steel I'll be camping out at NCIX's warehouse waiting for it to arrive

 

[SDBolts619]

BroHamBone - Yeah, as long as your PSU has it's fan facing outwards, you should be fine. Mine is only half exposed (Silverstone ST1000-P) so I called Silverstone support to see if this could be a problem. Joel @ Silverstone told me not to worry about it, that the PSU would get plenty of air from that back grille, even if only half the fan was showing. (Kind of odd that a Silverstone PSU would match up that odd on a Silverstone case, but whatever...)

Liking the sleeving ideas eh? Here's my rig as of last night. I need to make the new PCI-E cables, extend the H220 pump to PWM splitter cable, and sleeve the card reader USB header cable, then it's time to clean up and reinstall the H220.

Other changes - replaced the cold cathode lighting with sunlight sticks, cleaned up and sprayed my H220 adapter plate, replaced all the 120mm fans (2 on the H220, 1 at the top) with Lepa Casino PWM fans (blue)

 

[BroHamBone]

Nice. I plan on sleeving as well. Should I buy the actual tools or just use what I have around? I will take a pic of my setup whenever I get it finished. I trying to start a list for watercooling. This will be my first WC setup, so I dont want to forget anything.

 

[SDBolts619]

For sleeving, gotta go with the right tools. I got most of my stuff from Lutro0Customs - all my Paracord, crimper, sleeving tool, pin removal tools, his custom wire and some of my connectors. Got my ATX pins, other connectors, new thermal compound and a few other things from PerformancePCS. Finally, I got my heatshrink from Willy's Electronics (they're local, but have a website you can order on). Gotta get the good stuff for the heatshrink - 3-1 is a must have and the stuff I get from Willy's is 3-1 with glue on the inside, so once you heat it up, it stays put.

Be prepared to spend quite a bit more time than you'd anticipate sleeving. Especially if you're doing new cables - this was my first go at it and I've learned a lot along the way. Just did the 24pin ATX last night and it took me 5 hours to complete... You'll definitely want to watch Lutro0's videos - just search Youtube for that name and you'll get his tutorials. Have some patience and good luck!

 

[BroHamBone]

Thanks man, I appreciate the direction! I need it, thats for sure

 

[BroHamBone]

So instead of using the platform feet they provide in the case hardware... I just put my kuhler 920 on top of the 180mm fan w/ both 120 fans in push/pull ... wow how cool it stays. Has not gone above 34.1C. Tooo funny!

 

[FaRKle0079]

So instead of using the platform feet they provide in the case hardware... I just put my kuhler 920 on top of the 180mm fan w/ both 120 fans in push/pull ... wow how cool it stays. Has not gone above 34.1C. Tooo funny!

So you have the 180mm fan, followed by a 120mm fan, then radiator, and another 120mm fan??? Why not just mount the stack to the exhaust fan hole then?

 

[BroHamBone]

So you have the 180mm fan, followed by a 120mm fan, then radiator, and another 120mm fan??? Why not just mount the stack to the exhaust fan hole then?

I had it that way, but with the fans silent mode the temps would reach mid 40C. If I turned up the fan RPMs the sound is louder than a box fan on high. Since I stacked it on bottom, it has not even ramped up once and stays below 35C