Silverstone Raven RV03 or CM Storm Trooper

[smeg4brainsuk]

Hey all i currently own a Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Mid Tower Case and it has served me well over the years however its getting a bit long in the tooth now and i broken both the front USB slots so time for an upgrade!

I dont really care about the case looks, its all about cooling for me and hoping to spend around the £100 mark (though willing to spend more for a long term case)

My first choice is the Raven RV03, it looks great and performs well in the reviews and i haven't heard too many bad things about it with the exception of some PSU's being an annoyance to install

or

The CM Storm Trooper. Great reviews, tonnes of space but costs just over £40 more

Now if i was going to get the Storm Trooper my main issue would be that i seem to be paying an extra premium for the name as the Raven seems to beat it in more areas unless i have missed something. In addition to that for £60 more i could get the Thermaltake level 10 which is a beast, but at £210 its more than double the £93 asking price for the Raven!

I'm upgrading my system atm but won't be getting the CPU/mobo till later in the year (OC'ed i5-2500k) and i already own my ASUS GTX570 so cooling is very important as it will all be air.

Thank you for any comments and suggestions, if you think there's a better case than these 3 please comment

 

[sosofm]

Buy the RAVEN , it comes with a lot of fans mounted , and looks great.

 

[AdrianPerry]

The RAVEN really depends if you can get on board with the 90 degree motherboard rotation.

Its better for cooling, fact. But personally I HATE the layout inside the case. Building at 90 degree's with PCI card/Motherboard outputs coming out of the top of the case just looks ugly. However the over-all design of the RV03 and outer appearance looks good

Pick whichever you prefer the aesthetics of That's what matters.

 

[Rugger]

Have you considered the Antec p280:
http://www.ebuyer.com/312927-antec-p280-case-0761345-82000-4
Slightly more than the RV03 at 110.

I've had a P180 for a couple of years and love it...quiet, great ventilation, solid construction. P280 has shifted the external ports to the top of the case - good idea IMHO. Depending on your PSU and your cable management plan, you may need a couple of PSU extension cables. I routed my power cables behind the mobo to reduce clutter and had to get a couple of PCIe 6-pin extension cables to reach my GPU.

What PSU are you planning on using?

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

Something like a OCZ ZX Series 850W 80+ GOLD PSU Fully Modular PSU but its not set in stone yet

 

[Rugger]

I don't have personal expeerience with this PSU, but some quick research shows that it has pretty long cables; it may not require any extensions even when routed behind the mobo.

I love my p180 and think the p280 is a good option for you...especially if you don't want to deal with the 90 degree mobo offset in the Raven.

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

After some more research i have found a slight issue with the Raven, according to Silverstone themselves some GPU's are not great at cooling in these systems due to the way the heatpipes are set. Have sent them an email to see if this might be an issue with my ASUS GTX 570

That P280 does look very nice though, but does the PSU sitting right under the GPU not cause any heating issues? cheers

 

[AdrianPerry]

With the GTX 570 your looking at a fairly high end card, not to mention the ASUS models have dual fans for cooling. Heat shouldn't be an issue here.

This review might be worth checking out: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/chassis/32868-antec-p280/?page=5

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

Well that answers that then, reply from silverstone technician says using the asus gtx 570 in he raven 3 will increase temperatures so it is not advisable to use one. Such a shame as i did love the concept of the raven series but at least they were honest and told me straight.

Gonna research a few more cases and get a nice short list sorted!

 

[Rugger]

Happy hunting!