SilverStone is one of several PC-case makers prodding consumers to think small—and thin—when building home PCs.
Small form factor (SFF) cases are nothing new, but the subcategory of small-and-thin cases has proven to be a tough needle to thread. How do you design a case that supports a full-size graphics card while keeping it under 5 inches thick? SilverStone thinks it has the answer with the second version of its Raven RVZ01 chassis, the RVZ01-E ($89.99 MSRP). And it's only a little more than 4 inches thick. Intrigued? So were we, so we brought one in-house and opened it up.
If you're familiar with ultra-thin cases like the Raven RVZ01-E, it won't surprise you to learn that it supports only the Mini-ITX and Mini-DTX motherboard standards, rather than the full ATX specification (or even the middling-size MicroATX). Mini-ITX motherboards are small, square boards that usually measure about 6.7x6.7 inches. They're big enough to handle desktop CPUs and full-size memory modules, along with a PCI Express graphics slot, but they don't have the room for all the features and accessories you'll find on a full-ATX motherboard.
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The Raven RVZ01-E arrives just in time for DIYers who want to pick up a Mini-ITX board with Intel's new 200-series chipsets (code-named "Union Point") that support the company's latest desktop processors. These boards were somewhat scarce to purchase when we wrote this in mid-February 2017, but there are some notable entries already, including ASRock's colorful Fatal1ty B250 Gaming K4, sporting Intel's B250 chipset, and the MSI Z270I Gaming Pro Carbon AC, featuring the higher-end Z270 chipset. These boards have LGA 1151 CPU sockets and support processors ranging from Celerons to 7th-Generation Core i7 "Kaby Lake" CPUs.
SilverStone sets aside its Raven brand for chassis that are well apart from its usual fare. Even the SilverStone Primera PM-01, which has a dark, Raven-esque vibe, isn't included in the exclusive Raven club. The RVZ01-E, which uses a custom PCI Express riser to mount the graphics card parallel to (and next to) the motherboard, is a natural fit for the series. Let's take a look.
Design
The Raven RVZ01-E is just a little taller than it is deep, at 15 inches high by 13.8 inches deep. (That's without the included feet.) As we mentioned earlier, it's only 4.1 inches across, well less than half as wide as its sibling, the ATX-supporting SilverStone Raven RV05, or another prominent fellow Mini-ITX case, the NZXT Manta.
As you can imagine, that makes for very little room inside the Raven RVZ01-E. In fact, it has a capacity of just 14 liters. Compare that to the 63.8 liters of the Raven RV05, and you'll get a good sense of just how little internal space the RV01-E affords.
Before we dig any further into the Raven RV01-E's interior space, let's take a look at its exterior. The case is jet black and isn't very resistant to fingerprints. If you keep a microfiber cloth handy, you'll be able to keep the chassis fairly clean, but we found it difficult to remove some of the smudges that appeared while we were building the system. (And, mind you, we laid off the potato chips while we did.) Still, the exterior's matte-black finish isn't nearly the fingerprint magnet that a piano-black finish would be, and the smudges were generally visible only when we were very close to the system.
The Raven RVZ01-E's body is steel, with a plastic shell covering much of the exterior. The case comes off as reasonably durable and stood up well to the bumps and bangs (and one memorable drop...let's forget that, shall we?) that go with building a complete PC. The case is capable of sitting in tower mode, thanks to attachable feet, or it can sit horizontally on rubber bumpers. The latter is a better position for, say, a PC that will sit under your TV and handle media playback and storage duties. We wouldn't be surprised to see the Raven RVZ01-E finding a home in many living rooms.
When the Raven RVZ01-E sits flat, like a set-top box, its two front-panel USB 3.0 ports are near the top of the chassis, with mic and headphone jacks sandwiched between them...
Below the USB 3.0 ports (or to their side, if you stand the Raven RVZ01-E on its side) are the Power and Reset buttons, along with two slant-line status LEDs that look like slash marks. Regardless of how you stand the chassis (upright or flat), you can rotate the actual "Raven" logo so that it reads correctly, which is a nice touch on SilverStone's part.
But that leads us to the problem with the Raven RVZ01-E's looks: even the logo is all-black, and hard to see against the all-black case. The lack of any kind of color accent makes the case a little boring, at least for our tastes. Our patience has a low threshold when it comes to gaudy colors and lighting, but the all-black (and matte black, at that) had us singing "Mr. Cellophane."
This is a case that begs for a few well-placed LEDs. Done carefully, the lights would emphasize the Raven RVZ01-E's multi-layered look without detracting from its classy vibe. As it stands, the case's curves and tiers are likely to get lost in the shadows of an entertainment cabinet. Then again, for some builders, that will be exactly what they want.
You'll remove the side panel of the Raven RVZ01-E (or the top, in set-top box mode) to see the interior. One of the first things you'll notice is just how little of that interior you can reach; only the motherboard tray is easy to spot, and even that is partially blocked by the video-card riser. To begin installing nearly any component in the case, you'll first have to remove some screws.
As intimidating as the Raven RVZ01-E's interior seems, it's actually reasonably accessible, once you start pulling screws. The power-supply bay (in the upper right, in the image above), for example, is more like a power-supply sled. To remove it, you'll need to pull four small screws from the exterior of the other side panel. (One of the upsides to the Raven RVZ01-E's all-black color scheme is that SilverStone was able to put eight screws on the side panel without breaking up the system's sleek look.)
Given the compact interior, it's not surprising that the power-supply unit (PSU) area doesn't support large power supplies. But what is a surprise: It does support the ATX power-supply form factor, not mandating the smaller SFX kind pioneered by SilverStone itself. Although ATX PSUs as deep as 150mm are supported, SilverStone recommends using power supplies that are 140mm deep (or shallower) so you have room for connectors (and, possibly, an additional nearby storage drive). A modular power supply is likely to be the best choice here, to reduce cable clutter. A fan grille in the side panel sits just below the PSU for pulling in cool air.
Two of the four 2.5-inch bays are visible as soon as you remove the left side panel...
Full 3.5-inch hard drives won't find a home in this packed case, but that's not surprising in such a slim PC. The plastic tray that holds those drives runs the length of the chassis (front to back) and is held in place by six screws.
The other two storage-drive bays aren't so much bays as simply areas big enough to support attaching a 2.5-inch drive. One is on the underside of the long panel, and the other is on a metal divider that separates the front-panel connectors from the power-supply area...
Screw a 2.5-inch drive into that middle divider, and you'll have an extremely tight fit for your PSU.
The graphics-card riser is attached to the long panel that sports the two 2.5-inch drive bays, so as soon as you pull the panel from the case, you have much more room in which to work. Here's what the assembly looks like...
This area features a single SilverStone AP121 fan (with black blades, as opposed to the blue blades that appear on some versions of this fan), but you can add a second fan of the same size directly next to the first. It's worth mentioning that the removable side panel (the top panel) also has an AP121 fan onboard. The cord is long enough to give you plenty of slack when you open the chassis.
SilverStone can't afford to waste any space in the Raven RVZ01-E, so it uses the channel between the fan and the case wall to route an internal power-supply cord. The cord lets SilverStone bend the unwritten rules of chassis design by putting the power supply at the front of the case, with the power socket still on the back of the chassis. But it also creates a limitation for power draw in certain settings. SilverStone warns against PSUs over 800 watts being plugged into 110-volt outlets in this chassis. That said, you're not likely to need such a heavy PSU in this case, even if you're planning to stock it with a serious video card. After all, you're getting only one video card in here.
Installation
Because the space in the PSU bay appeared to be extremely tight, we opted to install the power supply first. Smaller PSUs are better here, and SilverStone makes a PSU designed to fit in small cases like the Raven RVZ01-E. After unscrewing the four screws from the side panel and removing the PSU enclosure, we lowered a SilverStone Strider Platinum Series ST55F-PT power supply into the chassis. This 550-watt ATX PSU uses modular cabling and has a depth of 140mm.
We spent more time installing the PSU than we expected to, thanks largely to the extension power cord. It wraps completely around the PSU, but its channel is extremely tight. Once we were able to get the power supply in place (with the PSU bracket attached), we carefully replaced the screws through the other side of the panel. Be sure that the PSU's power switch is in the "On" position before the installation; once the PSU is screwed into place, you can't reach the switch.
As soon as we installed the PSU, it became apparent that we would need to remove the metal case divider behind it to plug in some of the power cords for the system's components. You can see the dilemma here...
You can save time by plugging in those cords before installing the PSU. But if you do it the hard way (as we did), you'll be glad to know that removing (and replacing) that divider isn't all that hard.
Next, we installed the Mini-ITX motherboard, the processor, and some DIMM-format RAM. We chose some modest Mini-ITX hardware we had around: an Asus AM1I-A motherboard, matched with an AMD Athlon 5350 and 4GB of AMD Radeon Entertainment Series 4GB DDR3-1600 memory. The case ships with motherboard spacers already installed, so we simply snapped in the motherboard's I/O panel and then screwed the board down into place.
The motherboard's heatsink and fan sit well inside the Raven RVZ01-E. Admittedly, on the low-powered AMD AM1 platform, these are almost comically small. Even so, despite the case's ultra-slim profile, we doubt that most coolers (designed for use on Mini-ITX motherboards) will present height problems in the system. Still, it's worth keeping in mind that you have roughly 3.25 inches of headroom over the CPU on a typical board.
Next, we attached a 240GB ADATA Premier SP550 SSD. Rather than try to squeeze the drive between the metal divider and the power-supply unit, we attached it to one of the two spaces on the top side of the panel that includes the graphics riser. Attaching the drive is easy, thanks to finger-size holes SilverStone cut into the panel opposite each screw hole. You simply slide the drive into the bay, push it upward through one of the holes, and install the screws.
We were intrigued by the third SSD bay, as it's on the underside of the same panel, so we attached the drive there briefly. SilverStone made clever use of the panel here, creating a window just big enough to expose the drive's connectors. It also created a channel to direct your cable toward the motherboard. So, three out of the four bays are easy to reach.
With the other components installed, we moved to the most interesting step of this system build: the graphics card. Ordinarily, the graphics-card installation is unremarkable: You plug the card into the PCI Express slot, screw the I/O plate into place, and attach a power cord. The Raven RVZ01-E has to turn the graphics card on its side to accommodate its height, which requires the use of the graphics riser bracket.
The Raven RVZ01-E is designed to handle most video cards, so we put that to the test by installing a bulky XFX Radeon R7 370 Double Dissipation Black Edition graphics card. The chassis will take cards up to 13 inches long and two slots side, as you can see on the chassis back...
The R7 370 card is more powerful than necessary for board like the Asus AM1I-A, but it gave us a feel for how a true gaming card fits in this case. Here is the card attached to the riser hardware...
The graphics riser has two pieces, one of which is an extender/L-adapter for the PCI Express connector on the graphics card. We attached the extender to the card, then plugged the card into the riser, which would allow the card lie on its side inside the Raven chassis. Here, you see the situation with the riser and card installed. The card is facing downward and is not visible, except for the video connectors sticking out the back of the chassis...
Nearly all of the empty space opposite the motherboard and PSU was immediately filled by the card, leaving just a little room for cable management. We used an included foam pad to protect the card, then screwed the panel into place and attached the remaining power cords.
Conclusion
As complicated as its interior is, the SilverStone Raven RVZ01-E's exterior is remarkably simple. Buyers who really dig no-nonsense, solid designs will love the RVZ01-E for that reason, but we sense that others will want a little more color from their PC. SilverStone is perfectly capable of delivering bold accents while keeping the design classy (the extraordinarily slim SilverStone Raven RVZ02 strikes us as a good example).
What matters more than looks, of course, is the functionality of the case's design and the quality of the case's materials. We think SilverStone hit home runs, or at least triples, in both of these categories. The design gives you room to pack this thin case with great hardware, including the graphics card of your choice. That is critical if you're building a living-room PC and want to play high-end games from the comfort of your couch. And, so long as you're willing to turn a few more screws than you would encounter in a typical case, you'll find that working inside the tiny, 14-liter RVZ01-E's interior isn't as awkward as it might seem.
Sure, two of the four 2.5-inch hard drives are in weird locations, but it's not unusual for case manufacturers to punch drive holes in various panels to create extra storage capacity. Look at those extra drive spots the way you'd view a non-conforming bedroom while house-hunting; it's not perfect, but if you need the extra space, it'll certainly do.
As for the materials, we're not ordinarily fans of using plastic panels inside cases, but the plastic inside the Raven RVZ01-E bears little weight and keeps the system light. The plastic also doesn't seem to detract from the case's overall durability. As we mentioned earlier, the Raven RVZ01-E survived a complete build and a drop without showing any signs that it was the worse for wear.
As for the $89.99 price tag, it strikes us as in line with the pricing for other good-quality small-form-factor cases in this market. The NZXT Manta ( at Amazon) , which is another SFF case we recently checked out, goes for $139.99 (though it's worth mentioning that the Manta has a window and lighting).
The Raven RVZ01-E is solid choice for a living room PC, or other situations in which a slim, unassuming case is needed. The exterior is too understated (and the interior is too small) to make this case appealing to some gamers, but we think DIY builders will love assembling a killer living room PC with the Raven RVZ01-E.
If you're building a PC for your living room, consider this slim, unassuming chassis. The interior is tight, but clever design leaves room for serious graphics muscle.
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