Silverstone Raven RVX01 Case Review

I mentioned how the RVX01 is quite small and to achieve the unique design a few things needed to be removed.  The most notable of these is an external drive bay.  Yep, all of the 5.25” drive bays have been removed and internal drive bays have been reduced to a single cage and plate supporting two drives each.

As the photo shows you get a rather large opening for heatsink access but no room to store excess cables or drives.  This can pose a challenge when it comes to cable management especially if you are looking to get unobstructed airflow from the bottom mounted fans.

At the top of the case you'll find a familiar layout with a single 120mm fan location, I/O opening and top mounted power supply assuming this system was positioned in the traditional orientation.  The expansion card slots are vented but very little compared to previous designs

The primary cooling intake comes from three 120mm Air Penetrator fans located at the bottom of the case.  Two of the fans vent the main chassis area and are left unobstructed by any internal components while the third is partially obscured by the internal drive cage.  Air Penetrator fans feature a finned grill that will direct airflow in a vertical column instead of spreading the air outwards in a reverse cone making them a perfect addition to vertical case cooling.

At the bottom of the case you will find a removable fine mesh filter that works extremely well at catching ultra fine dust particles despite looking as though it doesn’t exist.

There is support for up to three independent radiators in the Silverstone Raven RVX01.  The first is the exhaust grill near the I/O followed by a 240mm at the bottom of the case over the Air Penetrator fans.  The third eluded me for a long time but is found at the front of the case behind the plastic bezel.  In previous Raven designs this area would have been filled with drives making a third cooling option impossible.