Silverstone Raven RVZ01 Mini-ITX Case Review

The Silverstone Raven is a product line reserved for expressive case designs that allow Silverstone to try new things.  For instance, the first Raven, RV01, was a large case that pushed the limits of positive air pressure cooling.  That case also introduced us to the 90 degree motherboard mounting which later became a standard feature until the release of the Raven RV04.  Up until then the Raven series kept improving on their 90 degree motherboard mounting by making the cases more efficient and more compact until they were no larger than a standard midtower.

In this review we will be looking at the new Raven RVZ01 from Silverstone.  One of the latest trends in the enthusiast hardware world is to build high powered small form factor machines.  This might be a response to SteamOS and the promise of playing PC games in the living room or the realization that you don’t need a monster motherboard to build a high-end system.  Silverstone is no stranger to small case designs and the RVZ01 will not dissapoint.

While Steam Machine comes to mind when you think of small cases you must remember that a Steam Machine is nothing more than a PC running a version of Linux designed to play games.  The hardware and cooling are very much personal computer so why not use it for that.

Model No. SST-RVZ01B (black)
Material Reinforced plastic outer shell, steel body
Color black
Motherboard DTX, Mini-ITX
Drive Bay External Slim slot-loading optical x 1 / Internal 3.5" x 1, 2.5" x 3
Cooling System Top 1 x 120mm fan, 1500rpm, 18dBA / Bottom 1 x 120mm fan, 1500rpm, 18dBA 1 x 120mm fan slot
Expansion Slot 2
Front I/O Port USB 3.0 x 2 / audio x 1 / MIC x 1
Power Supply SFX
Expansion Card Support graphics card up to 13", width restriction - 5.88"
Limitation of CPU cooler 83mm
Net Weight 3.71kg
Dimension 382mm (W) x 105mm (H) x 350mm (D), 14 liters
Extra Support two Kensington locks