(DEAD) Silverstone RVZ02 $64.99 free shipping

[cbn]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163288

Some interesting points:

1. Despite the small desktop footprint it can accommodate up to a 13" video card. (If a short enough video card is installed, the surplus area can be used to mount either a 3.5" or 2.5" drive)

2. There is a cut-out on the back of the motherboard tray that allows access to the awkwardly placed M.2 SSD slot commonly found on the back of LGA 1151 Mini-ITX motherboards.

3. Despite the small volume of 12 liters every PC component is directly accessible without removing other components first (other than the side panels of the case itself).

4. A carrying handle is available for this case (and the internally identical ML08):

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=689&area=en

Some things to keep in mind:

1. CPU cooler maximum height is 58mm. (As a point of reference the new AMD FM2+ 95W Quiet cooler with the copper base is 58mm tall as is the blue fan Argon AR06 cooler shown below. However, notice how the vents make running the maximum size cooler feasible from a ventilation standpoint):

2. It uses SFX and SFX-L PSUs which are more expensive than ATX PSUs.

Some reviews:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1062-silverstone-raven-rvz02/

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2015/10/15/silverstone-raven-rvz02-review/1

 

[cbn]

If anyone gets this case lets us how it worked out, Newegg reviews were generally positive (17 total reviews, 8 five egg, 4 four egg, 3 three egg, 2 two egg, 0 one egg).....but here are the two egg reviews to consider:

Decent design, but noisy and poorly executed

This review is from: SilverStone RAVEN RVZ02B Black Reinforced plastic outer shell, steel body Mini-ITX Computer Case Compatible with SFX & SFX-L Power Supply

Pros: * Compact
* Easy to work in
* Surprisingly spacious inside

Cons: * Extremely noisy; You'll hear every speed variation in every fan...loudly
* Many of the pieces are poorly fit; the video card retainer was particularly bad
* Very, very flimsy; the sides are wobbly and not easy to install flat, the black plastic bit on the sliding faceplate cover was broken off out of the box
* Unnecessarily complex; they could have simplified installation by having both "compartments" with the same orientation and shipping with a PCIe x16 cable, instead of a pair of adapter brackets

Other Thoughts: This is very close to a perfect case. Add about 1/2" in each dimension for sound insulating foam, make sure the screws actually reach their intended threads, "flip" the video card compartment and use a PCIe cable, and find a better attachment for the sliding bit.

While the formfactor is handy for my desk situation, I'll probably be ordering something like a Fractal Design Node 304 and returning this. If nothing else, the buzz from my Asus GTX 970 is just about enough to make me want to gouge my own eardrums out. I could barely hear it in my plane-jane Antec case, and couldn't hear it at less than full load in my Fractal Design Define.

Good case, but missing front panel speaker
This review is from: SilverStone RAVEN RVZ02B Black Reinforced plastic outer shell, steel body Mini-ITX Computer Case Compatible with SFX & SFX-L Power Supply

Pros: Great design

Looks nice

Relatively easy to work with for a small form factor

Cons: The case does not have a front panel speaker (the one that connects straight to the motherboard via a four-pin connector and is used to troubleshoot the system). If your build boots on the first try, great, you don't need one. If it doesn't, which is common in self-built systems, then you're out of luck for troubleshooting until you buy your own mini motherboard speaker, which means a) you're out more money, and b) your build is delayed.

Other Thoughts: I would highly recommend this case if it came with all essential functionalities.

And the three egg reviews to consider:

The case is frustrating.

This review is from: SilverStone RAVEN RVZ02B Black Reinforced plastic outer shell, steel body Mini-ITX Computer Case Compatible with SFX & SFX-L Power Supply

Pros: -Compact Sleek Design
-Separated CPU and Graphics heat compartments

Cons: -SFX & SFX-L Power Supply. Make absolutely certain you read the measurements! They won't all fit and even the ones from the same company aren't a guaranteed fit.

-Case "J" sides are infuriating. You have to take one side off to get to the video card slot (top) then take the other side off to get to the main compartment (bottom). First thing is this seems completely backwards. Shouldn't the main compartment be the top? As in the easier one to get to. Also what is up with these absurd sides. You have to take the entire PC apart to get them off. It is not like just sliding a simple square panel off the side to look at your computer.

-All these plastic bits inside must be designed specifically to annoy me. First it was the SSD blocks. There were these little plastic blocks above the SSD bays. I couldnt close the bays with them there because the cables hit them. The frustrating part though is I had to go to the back side of the case, take out the already installed graphics card, then unscrew the super tiny screws to get both of them out.

-Cable Routing? What Cable Routing? Ok.. given the "design" of this case some sort of leniency may be necessary here. Still the cable routing is non-existent pretty much relying on you just stuffing things where you can.

-That third drive bay may as well not even be listed. Ok so I REALLY wanted to use 3 drives. Unfortunately the graphics card covers the third drive bay. Soooo, no third drive bay. You either have gaming PC with good graphics, or extra storage. You can't have both.

Other Thoughts: If you are adding a graphics card watch the depth measurements. It is extremely important! The case states "up to 13 inches" but neglects to state that if the card has a particularly big fan/heatsink it wont fit. Which any of them that long will have.

Here is a good example because it is the one I put in mine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131672

It does NOT fit right out of the box. I had to mod the case to make the card fit. The card was too large by 4mm in depth.
The card did fit though length wise just like they state. The card is 11 1/2 inches. If it was much bigger I wouldnt have any place to put cables though

a few months later... re-review
This review is from: SilverStone RAVEN RVZ02B Black Reinforced plastic outer shell, steel body Mini-ITX Computer Case Compatible with SFX & SFX-L Power Supply

Pros: looks great
love the small size
decent build quality

Cons: HOT
HOT
HOT
CPU temps are terrible; system as a whole runs really hot even with low tdp cpu

Other Thoughts: I would not recommend this for gaming; my temps were terrible after gaming. perhaps this will work better with a skylake cpu (lower tdp than the i5 I was using) but I was not happy with it

Looks nice, but...
This review is from: SilverStone RAVEN RVZ02B Black Reinforced plastic outer shell, steel body Mini-ITX Computer Case Compatible with SFX & SFX-L Power Supply

Pros: Looks nice really cool design and it has dust filters. The dual chamber design is nice and we'll thought out with both side panel being identical.

Cons: Your are not just paying extra for the case you HAVE TO pay extra for the slim power supply and the slim cooler and their only space for putting in a graphics card longer then 7 inches if you have a 3.5 inch drive which isn't to bad because you are limited to a 500w power supply.

Other Thoughts: I got this case because it looked really nice and it is slim and I would probably buy it again.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Interesting. Not in the market for that kind of case right now, but thanks for the heads-up.

 

[you2]

interesting case but deal is dead. I wonder how well it actually works with regards to heat; but still interesting. I have a 250D but might give this a try anyway as orientation wise it is a better fit.

 

[cbn]

Silverstone ML08 (which is internally identical to the RVZ02), it is on sale for $59.99 AR ($10) plus $5.99 shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811163286

 

[cbn]

interesting case but deal is dead. I wonder how well it actually works with regards to heat; but still interesting. I have a 250D but might give this a try anyway as orientation wise it is a better fit.

From the techspot review:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1062-silverstone-raven-rvz02/page4.html

Performance & Wrap Up

For testing we used the Core i7-6700K which was cooled by the Silverstone Argon Series AR06 low-profile air-cooler. The graphics card of choice was the Gainward GTX 980 Ti which when stressed on an open testbed reaches 74 degrees.

The results were taken with an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees. For the stress test we left 3DMark's 'Sky Diver' test on loop for 20 minutes. We then waited another five minutes and recoreded the lowest temperature as the idle temp.

CPU GPU
Idle 33 34
3DMark 61 76

At idle the system ran cool at a little over 30 degrees for the CPU and GPU. Under load temperatures naturally climbed quite dramatically, though they stayed well within acceptable limits. The Gainward GTX 980 Ti remained quiet under load and only ran a few degrees hotter than the test bed result. The AR06 did an excellent job of keeping the Core i7-6700K cool as it never exceeded 61 degrees.

P.S. Eventually I would like to test this case with something like a retired R9 290/390 mining card.

 

[you2]

I read the review; but the case with the filters (which is not the one reviewed) is giving folks more problems from the newegg reviews. My graphic card would be the mini-1070. I require 3 ssd in the system but that should work with the 1070. Also the newegg reviews were critical of the converter for pcie (you ahve to rotate the graphics card 90 degree in this case).
-
What is the difference between the r02 and ml08b ? They look very similar.

 

[cbn]

I read the review; but the case with the filters (which is not the one reviewed) is giving folks more problems from the newegg reviews. My graphic card would be the mini-1070. I require 3 ssd in the system but that should work with the 1070. Also the newegg reviews were critical of the converter for pcie (you ahve to rotate the graphics card 90 degree in this case).

That is right, I didn't notice this Black version has dust filters (seen on page 3 of the manual below):

http://www.silverstonetek.com/downloads/Manual/case/Multi-RVZ02-Manual.pdf

What is the difference between the r02 and ml08b ? They look very similar.

Internally they are the same.

 

[cbn]

Some reviews on the ML08:

http://www.modders-inc.com/silverstone-ml08b-h-review/3/

http://benchmarkreviews.com/32573/silverstone-ml08-mini-itx-slim-case-review/

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Silverstone/Milo_ML08/

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/chassis/89438-silverstone-milo-ml08/

http://www.eteknix.com/silverstone-milo-sst-ml08b-mini-itx-gaming-chassis-review/

(None of these had testing with a high TDP video card though.)

 

[you2]

well one thing is for sure; I think the pcie slot on the mb i have in mind is too close to the pcie slot for the ar06. Unfortunately the z97 itx boards are extremely limited these days.

 

[cbn]

For someone planning a relatively low power build using the ML08 from post #5 the Silverstone 300W SFX PSU is on sale for $44.99 AR ($5 rebate) free shipping:

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Factor-BRONZE-ST30SF/dp/B00FA4KP8S/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1476168161&sr=1-1&keywords=SilverStone+Technology+300W+SFX&th=1

It has a 6 pin PCIe connector, but only 22amps on the single 12v rail.

EDIT: After posting this I noticed Silverstone also has a version 2.0 of this PSU (which is not on sale). Improvements include 92mm fan (replacing V1.0's 80mm fan) and 25amps on the 12v.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=458#

 

[you2]

The coarsair sf600 has fantastic reviews but is not cheap. Anyway for the record i went with the pc-q33a which had a better form factor (for myself) though it was little mroe expensive. On the postive it takes an atx psu.