Silverstone RV05 Mid-Tower Enclosure Review

Silverstone was the first manufacturer to implement a 90 degree mounted system in their Raven series enclosures. In other words, the IO or back of the motherboard actually faces the top. Since hot air rises, it made thermal sense to help video cards as well as CPU coolers push hot air out the top while bottom fans pull cool air into the chassis from the bottom. While the design works, previous enclosures were quite large sporting extra cost in plastic body molds and metals. Things that the new Silverstone RV05 seem to bear in mind.

Features and Specifications

Keeping time with DIY trends, Silverstone has revised their “Raven Series” enclosures to reduce size and cost using the space more efficiently. They’ve added some new features and cut down on others to make space for liquid cooling systems.

So what features are key to the Silverstone RV05? Remember, some of these are carried over from the previous version but here is the break down list.

• New top IO vent for controlled air flow
• Front concealed audio analog jacks and dual USB 3.0 ports
• Elimination of typical 5.25″ ROM and 3.5″ HDD drive bays
• Space for high end lengthy video cards, tall or large CPU air coolers, SSDs and CEB/ATX/m-ATX motherboards
• Accommodates SSI (Server System Infrastructre) or server motherboards
• Wire management space throughout
• Vertical slot for thin DVD ROM drive unit
• Supports dual 120mm, dual 140mm, dual 180mm, or triple 120mm radiators (bottom mounted)
• Includes two AP181 fans with three speed (600, 900, 1200rpm) control
• Bottom front removable fan filter
• Rear removable magnetic fan filter
• Stealth-lever locks side panels

The Stealth-lever locks are kind of cool since it negates the need for thumb screws. Pull the lock and the panels slide up and off. One thing we would have liked to see on such a creative enclosure is a fan hub, or splitter. It’s not a deal breaker. Just something nice to have since not all motherboards offer fan control.

As you can see from the dimensions, the Silverstone RV05 is much lighter (16.75 lbs) and smaller than previous models which reached 27.5 pounds. Previous full tower enclosures have their place and purpose but if you’re looking for something easier to carry for your next LAN party, this would be a much easier chassis to haul.

If you’re hunting the RV05 down, many retailers are offering the enclosure for as little as $110-$115 USD. That’s quite a bit cheaper than some of the previous generation.

What’s In the Box?

Silverstone includes the usual items to ensure a solid installation. They’ve even included something highly reusable for us OCD wire management nuts.

• Installation manual
• Mounting screws and standoffs
• Velcro straps for wires

Finally, someone is finally paying attention to our jabs about single use zip ties. Velcro straps make it so easy to change the system up and can be used in future builds. Now, if we can just get a little fan splitter to manage fans.

Next, let’s have a look inside and outside of the Silverstone RV05.

Closer Look Outside

The Silverstone RV05 is indeed smaller than ever. The front naturally resembles a bird of prey of sorts. There aren’t any front bays to contend with or manage. It’s literally just a bezel. There is one vertical slot for an internal slim-model DVD ROM drive on the right side. We do recommend that you find a Silverstone branded one since their drives typically come with additional hardware that makes the install easier, rather than having to hunt for them if you pick one up not meant for installation in their own cases.

A bottom removable fan vent can be removed via the front for easy cleaning. Pop through the shots for a closer look.

The top of chassis is actually the IO area or back of the system because on a traditional case, that’s where you would find them. The venting allows the hot air to escape easily upwards, which is where hot air wants to go (Science!). A single 120mm fan also helps assist in removing more of the hot air out of the chassis. The front panel audio and USB ports have not been relocated and are still found at the front.

The back of the chassis has a single magnetic removable fan vent. That vent allows the PSU to pull air in to the unit and then out the top. Again, since warm air rises more easily, this is a good use of thermal dynamics.

While the basics are easily covered, there is one thing about the Silverstone RV05 chassis that I think most users would like standard which is a window. A chassis like this will be popular amongst enthusiasts. If the conservative German Companies can do it then I’m sure that this is no problem for the Taiwanese.

Closer Look Inside

The inside of the chassis looks pretty basic thanks to the removal of all those unused optical drive bays. A single back mounted (quad) SSD/ (dual) HDD tooless cage is the only thing that gathers your attention. That’s perfect for a your 480-1TB SSDs which are far more affordable than ever, with very inexpensive 2-6TB platter for larger storage needs.

The bottom contains two 180mm Air Penetrator model case fans that draw cooler air in through the chassis bottom and pushes it directly up on to the hottest component coolers which are in your GPU and CPU. It will also blow past the motherboard perfectly as well.

The bottom chassis will also accommodate three 120mm x 3 fans or two 140mm fans. That means, you can also mount a triple 120mm radiator, dual 120mm radiator, or dual 140mm radiator.

The motherboard tray has many well machined holes placed around it for routing wires from the power supply. Instead of a standard CPU-cutout for CPU cooler access, there is an enormous open area which makes it easier to attach any style and size of CPU cooler on the market. The tray also accommodates SSI-CEB, ATX and Micro-ATX motherboards. Anything larger like an extended ATX or BTX will require a larger case from Silverstone.

Test System Setup

Given the inverted mounting design, it should be possible to assemble a rather quiet test system. These are the components used to test that theory.

• Processor: Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon
• Motherboard: ASUS Z97 Deluxe
• Memory: Kingston HyperX Savage 1866MHz 16GB DDR3
• Storage 1: Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB SSD
• Storage 2: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
• Power: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W 80Plus Gold
• Cooling: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3
• OS: Windows 7 Pro

Even though we used a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 video card, the fans don’t often spin up unless there is poor air flow. Again, this will put the internal air flow to the test.

Let’s put the parts in and start heating up this box!

Installation

Installing the listed test system went without issue. The SSD and hard drive fit perfectly in to the cage as well as behind. More importantly, the motherboard and the large CPU cooler were really easy to install. Routing wires requires the usual amount of patience for any enclosure. For giggles, I installed a 240mm Black Ice and 360mm Koolance 1050 radiator at the bottom after removing the two 180mm fans. That is where things get interesting.

There isn’t a lot of room inside the enclosure for a custom liquid cooling system. A dual or triple radiator needs a pump which most likely means removing the drive cage and mounting the SSDs to the back of the motherboard tray. However, an all in one liquid cooling system, like the Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate, will fit much more efficiently. Keep that in mind when you pick your parts.

Cooling and Noise

The test system was left to idle for an hour and then pushed to full load for an hour. That gave the case a chance to heat up representing a more real world system load. The three hottest components which include the motherboard, CPU and video card were monitored. At the same time, any fan noise from any of the component coolers was also monitored.

Idle temps are nice and cool. Load temps didn’t climb very high. The reason is that the Silverstone RV05 blows cool air from the bottom up directly on to the video card and CPU cooler. That means, the air also hits the heat sinks where motherboard temps are recorded.

Thanks to all that cool air, fan noise wasn’t a problem for the performance system. The stock Intel cooler didn’t get too loud either. The video card was the loudest component which was expected since it’s a single fan GPU cooler. If you have a dual or triple fan GPU cooler on your card, you’ll likely never hear it. You could build one very silent and high performance system with this chassis.

Quality Control

The metal chassis feels quite solid all around. There aren’t any bent or unmachined edges. Everything lines up as it should including the Stealth Locking panels. The plastic bezel and top are made from very light weight plastic. While we didn’t have any problems, we recommend care if you removed the top panel often. Additionally, we did see some unpainted corners on the back side of the motherboard tray. However, Silverstone has assured us that they have corrected the issue on all current batches of products moving into production after our review unit was produced.

Final Thoughts

The Silverstone RV05 is a slight shift in traditional “Raven Series” case design. Instead of boasting a large cavernous interior, designers focused on a slimmed down chassis as well as form and function, leaving out often unused 5.25″ and 3.5″ drive bays. However, it still offers good cable management, removable fan filters, triple speed 180mm cooling fans and space for standard liquid cooling.

The Silverstone RV05’s 90 degree design continues to make cooling high performance components easy simply because hot air rises. That means the air wants to naturally rise up and out the top of the chassis. Our hot Devil’s Canyon gaming system revealed that one could easily build a silent system inside the RV05. There are a couple things that enthusiasts should consider though if picking this chassis for your next build.

For starters, the Silverstone RV05 is setup to support one standard sized 240mm or 360mm radiator. Any customized radiators will need a little modification. The bundled cooling fans won’t work with standard radiators which is a shame. Due to limited space, there’s no real location for a water pump so be prepared to get creative. And finally, if the SSD cage is removed, there’s no place left for a standard platter hard drive. That said, an all in one liquid cooling system would fit nicely without issue.

The Silverstone RV05 can be found from the more popular online retailers for $110-125 US which is an extremely good price for this level of thought and engineering. Given the features, cooling performance and good price, we have no problems recommending the Silverstone RV05 to enthusiasts looking for something that truly stands out.