SilverStone Introduces Raven RVZ02, The Successor To RVZ01 HTPC Chassis
SilverStone announced the successor to its popular RVZ01 chassis, the RVZ02. It is similar to the previous model, but it's clear that SilverStone's design team spent significant efforts refining the already-efficient design of the previous model. The RVZ02 is a mini-ITX case with space for up to three storage drives, a slim optical drive and graphics cards as long as 13 inches. It could be a very attractive option for anyone looking to build a living room gaming PC.
The RVZ02 uses a very similar layout to the previous model. If oriented vertically, the motherboard mounts in the lower rear of the case, and the SFX power supply is mounted directly in front of the board, drawing in air from the bottom. An extension cable running through the inside of the case connects the power supply to the external power jack located in the upper rear.
Above the motherboard tray is a rigid mounted raised section. Two tool-less 2.5-inch hard drive mounts can be found on top of this section, along with the mounting area for the slim optical drive. On the back side of this raised section is the space for the graphics card. With the use of a riser card that passes through the raised section, the graphics card is installed vertically in its own section. A third hard drive mount can be found here, and depending on the length of the graphics card installed, it can accommodate a 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drive.
The Raven RVZ02 case comes in two different variants. The black version (model RVZ02B) has two large black mesh sections providing air flow to cool the components. The mesh sections can be found on either side of the case, with one above the motherboard and CPU and another on the opposite side of the graphics card, providing fresh air.
SilverStone said the case is capable of being used in either a horizontal configuration (similar to a set top box) or vertically to save surface space. There is a stand included with the case so that it can stand securely.
SilverStone's RVZ02B has a suggested price of $93.48. The windowed RVZ02-B is priced at $106.68. Both cases are available now.
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This is very misleading. Silverstone, and a paragraph lower in the article, explain that you can either have 3 drives and a short video card or 2 drive and a long video card. You can't mention that you can have up to 3 drive and a 13" video card in the same line, there is a caveat to whether you can have 3 drives or not depending on the length of video card (or lack of video card).
You can have three drives, the caveat is which size drive.
a 3.5-inch drive will not fit with a full length card. None of Silverstone's documentation states that an SSD won't fit if a full length card is installed.
Maybe you should have gone to Silverstone's site, like I did, and read the specifications before making the above statement you made.
From the Silverstone RVZ-02 site:
See that it states that the addition of the third drive, be it 3.5" or 2.5" depends on the length of the graphics card installed which means that if you install a 13" video card, there is no room for using the third installation spot for a drive be it 3.5" or 2.5". That's pretty specific that you cannot have a 13" video card and also use the third mounting point. If you could mount a third 2.5" drive with a 13" video card, Silverstone would have been very specific about that.
I have a Raven Z01, mainly because I was tired of waiting for the Z02 to be released. But the Z01 you can mount 2 x 2.5" drives (SSDs, laptop drives, etc) and still have enough room for a full 10" video card. I'm not entirely sure what the maximum length of a GPU you can install is, but my EVGA GTX 760 fit perfectly fine with two drives and a CD burner installed.
My buddy will be home soon (Marines) and wants to build a desktop but he is always on the go. This is perfect as long as he can budget for an expensive big SSD. Fast, small, with big space.
Any word on the release of other revisions of this design?
"Up to three" meaning it could be less. They didn't say you could have 3 drives and a 13" video card. They said up to 3. They were just listing off features.
3.5"/2.5" bay x1 (if you're using a mini-ITX sized graphics card)
ODD/2.5" bay x1
So four drives total. Not that hard. Nothing misleading about it. Also, if you want to, you can have a 13" graphics card AND three 2.5" drives, either SSD or laptop hard drives.
There are many nice, small mini-ITX cases. This one just seems to be of the longer, flatter case design than the rectangular cube-style. I have a SilverStone SUGO, and with their design experience, I would lean towards their cases being well-designed & NOT having heat issues rather than having them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBSaonIvQ9c
The only place i know of is http://aerocooler.com/silverstone-sst-rvz02b-black-mini-itx-slim-desktop-htpc-case/ and yeah shipping is a pain
But I decided at the end of the day it wasnt going to kill me, i got mine a few weeks ago.
Thanks for the vote of confidence but the node 202 is a fractal design case. They are also known for good case design. Also, the layout is near identical. Yes there are also subtle differences which may contribute to the heat. I am just curious if it is systemic to the layout or if there is something odd with the node 202.
So one curious but pretty big difference in the Node 202 is when the case is standing vertically the GPU is on the bottom and mobo / PSU on top, where as the silverstone its flipped. I'm not sure why Node built it that way, as all the weight in the PSU would be much better to have on the bottom, and perhaps this translates to heat issues as well. Also a horizontal orientation on either case would not be as ideal for heat. Finally depends what components are inside etc and OCing expectations, I run fairly basic and low power stuff in my RVZ02 (960 and i5 4460) so honestly most of the time the fans (that support 0rpm) don't even spin, its very quiet and very cool.
I did read the website before writing this, and I did not come to the same conclusion as you.
It does not state that you can't have a drive at all with a full length card. It does imply that a full size drive won't work, but doesn't say you can't put an SSD there.