Even though the majority of the chassis is a ‘tool-less' design, getting access to the insides requires four screws to be removed – seen above. Two on each side panel.
When the side panel is opened we are presented with a spaceous mid tower design painted all black. The finish is actually without fault. No silver spots are apparent and the level of consistency is high.
There are holes cut for cable routing and a handy area for access to the rear motherboard backplate.
The 5.25″ drive bays feature an automatic locking mechanism which is a treat to use. The drives can be unlocked by pulling one side while pushing the drive through the front of the chassis. The 3.5″ bays feature a sliding locking system for securing drives. The four hard drive bays also feature vibration dampening mounts which is fantastic to see in a budget chassis.
Fitting a hard drive is a straightforward procedure and we fitted an Intel SSD as above in a manner of minutes.
At the bottom of the case are two filtered positions for the PSU and fans can be fitted here if desired.
The only fan supplied is a 120mm unit which is mounted at the CPU area on the rear of the case. It is a ‘Martech” model and while budget, is surprisingly quiet while pushing a considerable amount of air outside the chassis. Martech are also known as XinChangfeng Electronics and while there is no information on this particular unit we noticed the same model was used in the Raven case.
Taking an educated guess I assume this is a Rifle bearing fan as it displays no shaft or off axis blade slop which is consistent with rifle bearing units. At full speed it does produce a slight ticking sound but during real world use it never approached 75% never mind 100%. It is rated at 50,000 hour life expectancy.
An overview from the underside. It is a rather attractive case and while there are key areas I would like to see improved I found it hard to believe they are managing to sell this for £40 in the UK.
We fitted a Thermaltake 675w PSU into the bottom of the case with no problems at all. A nice clean fit mounted at the rear with four screws.
For this system build we used our ‘old faithful' AMD build which consists of an AMD 955 Black Edition CPU, MSI 890GXM-G65 Motherboard, Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate Edition, 4GB of Kingston 1600mhz DDR3 (8GB review here) and a Thermaltake Contac 29 cooler. This is a very affordable, but high performing set of components that make a great partner for this chassis.
This is the other side of the chassis showing possible routing locations as well as the cut out area to get access to the rear motherboard backplate.
It is worth pointing out that some caution needs to be taken before fitting some of the longer coolers. The picture above shows the Thermaltake Contact 29 installed – it just fits into the chassis.
Ok.
I am not easy surprised, but all those features are pretty spectacular for the low cost. I think I paid more for a third party cooler for my GTX 285 last year. Very nice indeed.
Christ, thats a bargain and a half ain’t it ?
It seems weird seeing Silverstone releasing budget chassis like this though, they always seemed such a high end maker to me. The plastic bits dont impress me, but the cooler performance seems quite good. Perhaps they should release a £50 version with more fans.
I am afraid this isnt for me. its too cheap and it looks quite ugly. I appreciate the price tho, and like to see fan filters included. some more expensive cases dont offer those.
That is a marvellous review KG – I love adding diodes to parts of the chassis and adding fans etc and posting diagrams of the locations. Never seen that done before. kudos.
ingenious review for a brilliant product. I have just ordered one of these for my son’s new pc which I need to build soon.
I won some money on the lottery last week (no not the jackpot but enough to cover this). just ordered it. Shall post about it on the forums when i arrives. Just before the england match too, nice timing !
Loved the testing KitGuru, top marks !
Hey, nice idea on the diodes and showing diagrams of measuresments, dead spots etc. Like the product too.
amazes me how they still make money on this. its less than a night out on the piss.
I would spend more on a case than this, but what a great deal for people who don’t have money to spare.
THanks for the review just ordered one on Scan.
Shame they only include one fan which doesnt look too good. a few silverstone fans, and say £45 would have sweetened the deal more i think.
product looks ok, bit ugly in parts, but the internals are brilliant. stunning review Zardon, best ive seen for a chassis.
You keep knockin these out man, amazing work.
Chassis looks wicked, shall pass it around to my mates.
stunning price and stunning article. like the testing, really useful rather than some idiot reading out temps on everest for the northbridge like most reviews
Looks a bit nasty from the front, top is nice and the cooling seems good. Have they any versions of this with more fans as standard and maybe something more metal than plastic?
Love it, ordered two online for some other builds I have planned.
mmmmm , not entirely sold. and no im not saying its great value, however Antec make a few just slightly more expensive but which look nicer IMO. personal taste maybe.
Fan filters included for £40? cant really beat that. I have heard that fan btw in the Raven case, original not V2. its a good fan, worth a few quid.
fuck me, £40 for a case with dust filters, a fan, nice black internal design and good cooling? How times have changed.
Very good price, its hard to knock it, even though there are a few things i would like to fix.
well tested. very good price,but I dont think I could live looking at the cheap plastic. great for budget minded audience.
IT really does need at least one more fan. no intakes can work if the exhaust fans help to suck air in but its not ideal. that said, the price is as competitive as I have seen
Decided to pick one of these up for my mother to build her a new system on a tight budget. all she uses is word and email so will be more than enough.
Good reading and thorough testing, found that interesting, the discussion on air flow etc. looks alright, but it performs well, and beggars cant be choosers!
I meant to say earlier I want to see KitGuru review the Raven 03. I read Zardons review of the Raven 02 last year and bought it based on that review. Am I glad I did? you betcha! Hope you get one to review.
Yeah looking forward to seeing a review of the Raven 03 as well. Z is the man to review it to 🙂
This is a very good product for the asking price, dont often see all those little touches on a low end chassis.
Great testing ideas, took a lot of work. Thanks for the review
Ordered one for my girlfriend, looks brilliant !