Silverstone raven 2 temps

[bettyfromhell]

I'm curious if this case offers an excellent cooling or a suckie one..

I've been reading many reviews and there are many different opinions in this matter.

According to this site http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1002-page7.html , Raven2 performs better than antec 1200.

According to this one http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cas...-case-review/3 , it sucks.

According to users http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163154 , it offers the best cooling in the market.

What is the truth then? I have an HAF932 and I'm considering to buy this raven 2 or the FT-02, but I'd like to maintain very good temps.

Can somebody owning this case tell me?

thx

[nascasho]

If you're going for that hardcore perfomance, veer away. The cooling is decent at best. I did a mini-review on here, all you need to do is search for it.

I went from an Antec 1200 to the Raven RV02, and it pissed me off so much how bad the temps were that I went back. The fans being rated at 100cfm is pure BS. Since theres restriced airflow from fliter, and the floor, your cfm is cut down pretty low, so your GPU's get a breeze of air vs. a freaking tornado like the Antec 1200 or HAF932 cases. CPU temps didn't seem too afected surprisingly, but GPU temps rose anywhere from 10C+ at load from what I was used to. For the first time I saw my GTX260's hit 90C... on a cool day!!! Silverstone recommends that you swap out the fans for their 150cfm ones (FM181's, google it) for better air flow, but they cost around $25+ a pop, and are white. The white + black case... not a good match. I have yet to see any reviews of the temp differences between the stock and FM181's, but my guess is that an extra 50cfm with restrictions etc. won't work a miracle with that case.

It's an amazing case, great cable management, looks great, and high-build quality. Amazingly high. But if you're looking to replace that HAF932 I say look elsewhere. Otherwise, for air cooling and looks, a great case.


...and newegg reviews = epic fail. That guy obviously never owned a case in his life.


EDIT: Here's the link.

[bettyfromhell]

hmm so you are saying that silentpcreviews.com is writing crap, this time, aren't you?

Well, I only trust users, so I trust you.. Thx then, I will look for a different case

[bettyfromhell]

Ah now I undestand.. Maybe they tested The antec 1200 with fans set to low speed, and the Raven 2 with fans set to high, in order to have similar noise levels.

[nascasho]

I hate to crap on certain cases. I got the case because I thought two things:

1. It looks sick no matter what anyone says, beautiful design and layout. One of the better ones imo, great for out of the box cable management.

2. I got bored of the Antec and all the fans and crap, wanted something new without much of a hit in peformance. The vertical layout works... just not like you would think.

Now, if you're using the machine in your sig, thats a little different because though the case was initially designed for multi-gpu setup, a single card will do just fine with temps. I was mainly having temp issues because I had two cards sandwiched. Top card always had no problem breathing in the Antec, only because there was a gust of wind being pushed into the gaps. With that breeze, I'm guessing little to nothing got in. But the last cards temps were just as bad at times.

Because I'm hating on it's performance doesn't mean it's a bad case at all, I in fact recommend it to everyone that don't like the HAF, Antec cases and don't want to spend $300 on a decent Lian Li.

I'd recommend you get one and try to mod it. Maybe replace the two 180mm fans with super high cfm 120mm's. DO something different.

One case I been considering though is the FT02 as stupid as that sounds. I have a weakness for side mounted HDD cages. The case is identicle to the RV02 internally except that theres one less PCIe bracket and side mounted HDD cages. Cooling is the same and still has the same modding capabilities.

[bettyfromhell]

Yes, I'm in fact very interested in FT-02, because I'm trying to build a silent, yet well cooled, system. My components are now slightly different from my signature. I have a 8800gt cooled by arctic cooling accelero s1 rev.2 , and I bought the Thermalright HR-01 plus to cool my cpu. I'd like to keep all this completely passive, so I'm looking for a silent case that can give me the right amount of airflow to insure good temps. I think that FT-02 can be the right one, but as long as it's almost identical to the raven 2, I'm not sure it will give me good temps. But if you say that a single card is well cooled in rv02 (air should pass nicely through the accelero s1 fins ), then it will be the same in ft-02! This one should be even more quiet because of noise reduction foam.

[nascasho]

Yes, I'm in fact very interested in FT-02, because I'm trying to build a silent, yet well cooled, system. My components are now slightly different from my signature. I have a 8800gt cooled by arctic cooling accelero s1 rev.2 , and I bought the Thermalright HR-01 plus to cool my cpu. I'd like to keep all this completely passive, so I'm looking for a silent case that can give me the right amount of airflow to insure good temps. I think that FT-02 can be the right one, but as long as it's almost identical to the raven 2, I'm not sure it will give me good temps. But if you say that a single card is well cooled in rv02 (air should pass nicely throgh the accelero s1 fins ), then it will be the same in ft-02! This one should be even more quiet because of noise reduction foam.

Worst case scenario get a 900rpm silent fan and put it on the heatsink. You won't be able to hear it, but it'll be enough to keep the air moving.

[dctokyo]

Yes, I'm in fact very interested in FT-02, because I'm trying to build a silent, yet well cooled, system. My components are now slightly different from my signature. I have a 8800gt cooled by arctic cooling accelero s1 rev.2 , and I bought the Thermalright HR-01 plus to cool my cpu. I'd like to keep all this completely passive, so I'm looking for a silent case that can give me the right amount of airflow to insure good temps. I think that FT-02 can be the right one, but as long as it's almost identical to the raven 2, I'm not sure it will give me good temps. But if you say that a single card is well cooled in rv02 (air should pass nicely through the accelero s1 fins ), then it will be the same in ft-02! This one should be even more quiet because of noise reduction foam.

The FT-02 will be better than the antec 1200 for less noise and temps IMHO. I have owned both and for me, my current case the RV02 runs cooler, but I have also changed to the FM181's, and run them around 800 RPM's instead of the top speed of 1,300 RPM's as the low setting runs everything quite cool. The only noise is my video card.

I prefer the FT-02 over the RV02 as the HDD cage is better because of the side mounding, but the price at the moment is double the price that I got the RV02 at.

[nascasho]

The FT-02 will be better than the antec 1200 for less noise and temps IMHO. I have owned both and for me, my current case the RV02 runs cooler, but I have also changed to the FM181's, and run them around 800 RPM's instead of the top speed of 1,300 RPM's as the low setting runs everything quite cool. The only noise is my video card.

I prefer the FT-02 over the RV02 as the HDD cage is better because of the side mounding, but the price at the moment is double the price that I got the RV02 at.

Only way the Raven's temps were better than the Antec's if you had one of two things:

1. No Fans in the case.
2. Blocking the intake holes with cardboard and put a heater inside of it.

You're comparing a wind tunnel to a vertical cooling theory that fail's at accomplishing anything. Also, not to sound rude, but why did you end up getting the FM181's if you only going to keep them at 800rpm? The only differences between the stock and the 181's is the rpm's and the color. Keeping it below the rated specs is a waste of $70 IMO.

[dctokyo]

Also, not to sound rude, but why did you end up getting the FM181's if you only going to keep them at 800rpm? The only differences between the stock and the 181's is the rpm's and the color. Keeping it below the rated specs is a waste of $70 IMO.

These fans run from 500rpm ~ 1300rpm speed range. So not below specs as you mention.

Also why 800 rpm's for now, well it is winter here in Japan and as I mention for now the temps are great,And I will drop down to 500rpm's when it gets colder in the room. cpu idles at 28C and the video card at 48C and the NB at 42C, and on this board a 42C NB is great. So no need to run them at full speed until summer.
I got the fans for when summer hits, I will raise the fans up to 1,300 as my room will hit well over 32C compared to 22C now.

Anyway, sorry to hear that this case did not work out for you, but for me it is the best case that I have owned to date, the only way I will upgrade is for next build. It will be the FT-02 as I prefer the HDD cage over the RV02.

PS/ did you every think to cut out the bottom grills to get even better temps and less noise? I cut out the grills on my old Antec P183 and that did help little, but I wonder if cutting the grills out on this case will make it weaker?

[nascasho]

These fans run from 500rpm ~ 1300rpm speed range. So not below specs as you mention.

Also why 800 rpm's for now, well it is winter here in Japan and as I mention for now the temps are great,And I will drop down to 500rpm's when it gets colder in the room. cpu idles at 28C and the video card at 48C and the NB at 42C, and on this board a 42C NB is great. So no need to run them at full speed until summer.
I got the fans for when summer hits, I will raise the fans up to 1,300 as my room will hit well over 32C compared to 22C now.

Anyway, sorry to hear that this case did not work out for you, but for me it is the best case that I have owned to date, the only way I will upgrade is for next build. It will be the FT-02 as I prefer the HDD cage over the RV02.

PS/ did you every think to cut out the bottom grills to get even better temps and less noise? I cut out the grills on my old Antec P183 and that did help little, but I wonder if cutting the grills out on this case will make it weaker?

No matter the fans, or cutting or anything, it won't knock 10C - 15C off the increased load temps. Only way with this case thats ever gonna happen is if delta designed some 5000rpm 180mm fans and named them OMFG's RV02.

[Frag Maniac]

One of the main problems of the RV02 is all MB and passive GPU cooler manufacturers orient the heatpipes on their boards/cards for vertical alignment for the MBs, and horizontal for the GPU coolers. Worse yet when you call Silverstone like I did, they exaggerate as to what will work fine. I asked them about a Gigabyte MB that clearly did not have the recommended heatpipe alignment shown on their site, yet they said it would probably work OK.

I have read chat from someone having had such issues concerning a passive Accelero GPU cooler in his RV02. When he has the case in it's normal position the GPU temps skyrocket past 80c. When he lays the case sideways so the GPU is horizontal, the GPU temps drop back down to their norm 65c temps.

It also appears from what nas is saying you need to separate the GPUs considerably in a dual GPU setup to keep hot parts away from each other and provide more space for vertical airflow. The slow moving positive pressure design simply cannot exhaust the heat fast enough. I can only imagine what a tri SLI setup would be like with 3 top end GPUs.

Since the new Nvidia slides seem to show very good performance from just a single GPU card, I may not bother with SLI, but I really don't want to go with a design that is not compatible with most MB heatpipe alignment. In my mind the RV02 already had a few nit picks against it, like the odd left side MB tray, extremely large depth dimension, and I really don't like dust prone bottom mount intakes either.

All things considered the Antec 1200 nit picks aren't looking so bad anymore. The cable storage is very shallow but can work and is a one time setup. The filters are a pain to get at but I'm hoping the fronts of the cages are detachable and I can arrange a quick detach for them with mini wire pull server tray type handles on the screens.

[bettyfromhell]

So you are saying that in Rv02 gravity can affect performances of vga coolers, because of the out-of-the-ordinary orientation of the heatpipes?

Hmm if this is true then I can just try a little experiment with my haf932. If I make it sit on his front panel I should have the same vga orientation I would have in raven2. Let's see if temps change.

[bettyfromhell]

Ok I just tried..... Not-a-single-degree change in idle gpu temps. I'm using an accelero s1 rev2.. Well it sounded a bit strange in fact that gravity could affect heatpipes performances. I think the biggest problem in raven2 design is the exaust.. Even though air should passively exaust just fine, because of the vertical mobo orientation and the upper ventilation holes, I think that the case needs more active exaust. A single 120mm fan is not enough, but the design doesn't allow the installation of more (or bigger) fans...

[nascasho]

This is the setup I had in the Raven:



I never took the time to take any pics because when idling,the temps worried me. Then when I was testing with Crysis... dear god the temps. It didn't last long enough in my machine for me to take pictures.

90% fans at 90C ftw.

Good thing I didn't try FurMark first, seriously.

[Frag Maniac]

I thought you were running a dual SLI setup nas. Hmmm, pretty good testimonial for the 1200 there, not so good for the RV02. You see I assumed you could separate your GPUs by using different slots since I thought it was dual SLI, but obviously in tri SLI that's not an option.

@bettyfromhell,

What I mentioned about the heatpipes is taken from one person's testimonial regarding an Accelero passive GPU cooler AND Silverstone's own recommendations with pics showing how heatpipes should be arranged on a MB. Not knowing exactly how you did your test I cannot say if anything affected the results. It would no doubt matter whether you affected the airflow of any of the intake or exhaust fans when placing the case "sideways", and you may have even mistaken what was meant by sideways. The only way to really do it so the GPU is facing as it would be in a normal case is to prop up the case on something to keep the airflow going and lay it on it's BACK, not side.

[nascasho]

I thought you were running a dual SLI setup nas. Hmmm, pretty good testimonial for the 1200 there, not so good for the RV02. You see I assumed you could separate your GPUs by using different slots since I thought it was dual SLI, but obviously in tri SLI that's not an option.

I don't have anything setup like that anymore to test it and I only ran 3 of them for a brief moment, like 2-3hrs tops after I didn't feel comfortable with the temps.

[zalbard]

There is nothing wrong with Raven 2 temps for me.
I own the case for around 2 weeks now, and can give you some input.
First of all, the case is pretty much separated into 2 areas: 1) CPU / NB / RAM / VREG / PSU and 2) VGA / drives.
FUD uses 4 sections, I am just simplifying this a bit.



Talking about the 1st one.
There is only one exhaust for the entire area, and it is a 120 mm fan at the top. Its performance is crucial. The included 120mm fan (1200 RPM, low performance, too) - ditch it.
I can give you some numbers.
Using GT as an exhaust fan.
I have EVGA Classified with a passively cooled NB (I'll get a 40 mm fan in a few days) which responds to the airflow change perfectly.
GT @ 700 RPM, 180 mm fans @ low = 76C, very hot NB temps. Nearly silent.
GT @ 1700 RPM, 180 mm fans @ high = 56C, pretty cool. Yes, here is your huge temp difference. Very low noise at that.
Talking about the 2nd area. I have no idea what's up with your temps.
It's pretty well made, especially for 5870 (I have a single VGA card).
The 180 mm fan in the middle provides airflow for 2 holes at the end of the 5870's heatsink.
The 180 mm fan which is closer to the drive bay provides the cool air for the turbine cooler intake at the side.
5870 has 2 exhausts, the one at the output ports obviously works well, and the one at the side of the card... There is a nice mesh area at the top of RV02 that helps get rid of the hot air coming from that exhaust.
My VGA fan speed is on auto, in idle it's at 21%, inaudible, in Furmark it goes to 25%, still silent...

I'm not trying to say that nascasho is not telling the truth or something, but just trying to point out the fact that RV02 can still work out pretty well for some people.
It looks great, cable management is great, too (especially the top area with the motherboard USB / VGA / audio / etc connectors, all cables in one place, sweet! ), plus it's much smaller than regular full towers, like 10 sm less tall.
Sorry for my English, hope I made myself clear.

[dctokyo]

There is nothing wrong with Raven 2 temps for me.
I own the case for around 2 weeks now, and can give you some input.
First of all, the case is pretty much separated into 2 areas: 1) CPU / NB / RAM / VREG / PSU and 2) VGA / drives.
FUD uses 4 sections, I am just simplifying this a bit.



Talking about the 1st one.
There is only one exhaust for the entire area, and it is a 120 mm fan at the top. Its performance is crucial. The included 120mm fan (1200 RPM, low performance, too) - ditch it.
I can give you some numbers.
Using GT as an exhaust fan.
I have EVGA Classified with a passively cooled NB (I'll get a 40 mm fan in a few days) which responds to the airflow change perfectly.
GT @ 700 RPM, 180 mm fans @ low = 76C, very hot NB temps. Nearly silent.
GT @ 1700 RPM, 180 mm fans @ high = 56C, pretty cool. Yes, here is your huge temp difference. Very low noise at that.
Talking about the 2nd area. I have no idea what's up with your temps.
It's pretty well made, especially for 5870 (I have a single VGA card).
The 180 mm fan in the middle provides airflow for 2 holes at the end of the 5870's heatsink.
The 180 mm fan which is closer to the drive bay provides the cool air for the turbine cooler intake at the side.
5870 has 2 exhausts, the one at the output ports obviously works well, and the one at the side of the card... There is a nice mesh area at the top of RV02 that helps get rid of the hot air coming from that exhaust.
My VGA fan speed is on auto, in idle it's at 21%, inaudible, in Furmark it goes to 25%, still silent...

I'm not trying to say that nascasho is not telling the truth or something, but just trying to point out the fact that RV02 can still work out pretty well for some people.
It looks great, cable management is great, too (especially the top area with the motherboard USB / VGA / audio / etc connectors, all cables in one place, sweet! ), plus it's much smaller than regular full towers, like 10 sm less tall.
Sorry for my English, hope I made myself clear.

+1 just love my Raven 2, temps are great

[Frag Maniac]

Well I'm sure the RV02 would work fine with most ANY single GPU setup, but seriously, isn't a gaming enthusiast case supposed to be able to handle multi GPU setups well, especially if it's touted as having superior air flow?

[Scoobert]

Well I'm sure the RV02 would work fine with most ANY single GPU setup, but seriously, isn't a gaming enthusiast case supposed to be able to handle multi GPU setups well, especially if it's touted as having superior air flow?

I consider myself a gaming enthusiast and have yet to figure out why I would need more then 1 5870. Even then I cant see this case having any problems keeping 2 5870's cool as long as there was a space between them.
I am not a huge fan of the fact that some aftermarket coolers wont work for the GPU in the Raven but for me its by far the quietest case i have ever owned. Which to me more then makes up for the fact that I might not be able to run 3 video cards at once. I think if you find the need to be so much of an O.C./Entusiast/Benchmarker that you need 3 video cards maybe you should be into water/phase change cooling as well.
Long gone are my days of the old Addtronic's 7896 with 11 fans, now days I am much happier with fast and quiet.

My Rav2 with the GPU (Asus 5870 w/Stock cooling) running full load for more then 3 minutes (it was at 70 C within the first minute). Even with the GPU fan running at 30% its still very quiet. The CPU is cooled by a H50 which is why it almost matches the MB temp.
Play Crysis with everything maxed out and still barely even hear the computer running.


All in all I think its a great case, but will still be happier when/if I find a way to aftermarket cool the GPU, which to me is the cases only draw back. I would still buy it again knowing what I do now about it.