Building With The SilverStone Raven 2 Evolution
Designed to attract gamers, the Raven 2 Evolution (RV02-E) borrows enough features from its "high-end" Fortress 2 sibling that SilverStone decided to present it for our performance-to-noise comparison. Oversized, low-speed, bottom-mounted intake fans are the key design feature that void heat without presenting a front-panel hole by which noise would otherwise be directed at the user.
The RV02-E includes a Velcro power supply support strap, radiator mounting brackets (that reduce supported graphics card length), a combined bag of screws, a 3.5” panel adapter for its 5.25” bays, 3.5” external drive brackets, a fan power splitter, a power supply corner brace, a 2.5” drive mounting plate, and five re-usable cable ties.
Optical drives simply screw into their bays, as outlined in How To Build A PC.
The RV02-E uses slide-out drive rails exclusively for 3.5” devices, but adds a separate 2.5” bay adapter for installation elsewhere. Silicon bushings reduce the transmission of vibration from 3.5” drives to the chassis, while shoulder screws prevent those bushings from being crushed.
The 2.5” drive adapter screws to the side of the 5.25” drive cage, blocking access to the screws of two bays. The tray mount is offset from the drive bay beneath to allow any drive behind it to use standard screws, rather than the longer thumbscrews that SilverStone prefers for convenience.
The RV02-E places the motherboard and power supply in traditional orientation relative to each other, yet flips the entire tray on its face compared to most other systems. With the power supply now hanging from what would have been the back panel, SilverStone adds a removable plastic corner brace and Velcro strap for additional support.
Readers with good spatial reasoning will instantly recognize the similarities and differences between the RV02-E and more conventional builds.
