Silverstone Raven RVZ02 Mini ITX Case Review

One of the biggest hurdles when building a small form factor machine is the case.  For far too long many enthusiasts have avoided building Mini-ITX systems due to the lack luster case selection that either forced them to use toaster style cases or revert to a larger desktop case.  The end result was a system that was larger than it needed to be and/or contained mismatched hardware. 

In this review we looked at a case that is helping refine the perception of what it means to build a SFF or SLIM PC.  The case is divided into two major sections with the lower section being dedicated to the SFX power supply, storage and Mini-ITX motherboard.  Despite how compact everything appears there is still plenty of room to run cables and the large vented window shows off your hardware nicely.

The upper section of the RVZ02 is dedicated to your video card and is physically separated from the lower section due to the angled chassis divider.  There is still airflow between the chambers but this is restricted once the side panels have been installed.  I really like this approach because the separation is not only visual but also thermal given that video cards tend to run a little hotter than a CPU.

When looking at the cooling aspect of the Raven RVZ02 I do have a few concerns and biggest of which is the passive cooling nature of this chassis.  In the past I have built a few HTPC type machines and focused on making them run as quietly as possible.  Unfortunately that also ment the inevitable overheat and loud spinning CPU fan.  Given that the RVZ02 is intended to sit vertically you will get a natural stacked cooling effect but only if the air is allowed to freely move between the chambers.  Given the physically barrier I don’t see that happening with much efficiency.   With that said using a video card with a squirrel cage heatsink and oversized cpu cooler might remove those concerns.

Despite the cooling concerns I am very impressed with the Raven RVZ02.  The installation and layout are extremely good allowing the case to be very compact and yet appear spacious and well organized. 

Small Form Factor (12 Liters)
SFX-L Power Supply Support
Video Card Support up to 13 inches
Only 3.5 Inches Thick
Elegant Layout
Passive Cooling

Passive cooling
2.5 inch drive requirement (optional 3.5)