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SilverStone RV01 Raven Case Review
Author: William West
Published: Thursday, March 12, 2009
Stack Effect Cooling
SilverStone has been working very hard on not only making unique cases, but also making them more efficient at cooling themselves. The SilverStone RV01 Raven is a great example of creating a ground up design specifically for better at cooling and they call it Stack Effect Cooling.
This cooling system works great once the case is put back together, but let's all take a look at where things are placed for the cooling system to do its job properly. We’ll start at the bottom with the PSU. The PSU is very isolated and technically has its own cooling loop so no power supply heat is introduced into the system.
The hard drives and 5.25” drive bays are in line for fresh air pulled from the 180mm fan underneath them. This will keep them cool and minimize heat being transferred to the main PC components.
Motherboard, Video cards, and the processor are left together in the main chamber. Most of today's high-end video cards exhaust heat directly out the back of the case and tower style heatsinks benefit from the natural convection and whatever fans you have in place. As you can imagine natural convection works much like a heatpipe and the more heat you have on one end the faster the transfer will be. Well this is true here as well and is why we have a 120mm fan exhausting out the top of the case and 2 180mm fans pulling cool air in from the bottom.
The hard drives and 5.25” drive bays are in line for fresh air pulled from the 180mm fan underneath them. This will keep them cool and minimize heat being transferred to the main PC components.
Motherboard, Video cards, and the processor are left together in the main chamber. Most of today's high-end video cards exhaust heat directly out the back of the case and tower style heatsinks benefit from the natural convection and whatever fans you have in place. As you can imagine natural convection works much like a heatpipe and the more heat you have on one end the faster the transfer will be. Well this is true here as well and is why we have a 120mm fan exhausting out the top of the case and 2 180mm fans pulling cool air in from the bottom.
Here is one of the vents the 180mm fans pull fresh air from. Both doors have a screened vents to allow air in and minimize dust infiltration.
This is the vent at the very bottom of the SilverStone Raven with a mesh screen to help collect dust before its gets into the system. This vent also looks to be able to house another fan if someone should desire to do so.
This is the 180mm fan that brings that fresh air into the PC component area. These 180mm fans do a great job or pushing air while staying on the quite side of the sound spectrum.
The other fan is a little harder to find as it's hidden by the drive cage.
The other fan is a little harder to find as it's hidden by the drive cage.
Here is a shot of the 120mm fan for the exhaust and take notice of the vent holes on each one of the expansion slot cover plates. The larger vent holes make sure there is enough room to get all of the heated air out.
Here are a few awesome videos that show the Stack Effect Cooling in action. Enjoy!
Stack Effect Cooling Raven RV01 Part 1
Stack Effect Cooling Raven RV01 Part 2
Here are a few awesome videos that show the Stack Effect Cooling in action. Enjoy!
Stack Effect Cooling Raven RV01 Part 1
Stack Effect Cooling Raven RV01 Part 2
