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When the door is removed, we are greeted to a nice black painted interior design.
Flipping the case around highlights plenty of positions for routing cables and there are locations for mounting drives here also.
Due to the unique design, the power supply is mounted sideways into the front of the case. To keep cable mess to a minimum Silverstone have adopted a short cable which connects to the power supply and then runs down the front of the chassis to an external mount position (above, bottom image). We will look at this later in the building phase section of the review.
A 120mm fan can be fitted at the rear of the case. A 120mm fan is positioned at the top, in an exhaust position to improve the vertical upwards airflow cooling methodology. Two 120mm fans can also be installed on the 5.25 inch/3.5 inch drive bays.
There are some nice little touches, such as the thick rubber mounted feet on the underside, this not only helps with vibration dampening, but it would protect a delicate wooden floor from marking. These weren't on the preproduction model we had access to months ago.
The power supply is inserted from the right hand side with the fan pointing downwards, pulling in cold air. There is a fan filter here for long term protection. This side of the case also has positions for drive mounting, these little bays are removable.
The Raven 3 supports video cards up to 345 mm long, which accommodates every graphics solution on the market right now, even the HD6990 (310mm) – these are screwed into place, no fancy locking mechanism is used. It is wide enough to support CPU coolers up to 163mm in height. and EEB motherboards up to 305 x 330mm. The Raven 2 was limited to motherboards 305mm x 267 mm in size. The Raven 3 accommodates E-ATX boards.
The Raven 2 has three 180mm fans installed, but the Raven 3 only has two. While on paper this sounds worse, the Raven 3 is using the newer models which produce higher airflow. These AP181 (Air Penetrator) fans are extremely good – we have reviewed them before.
| Model No. | SST-AP181 (Air Penetrator) |
| Color | Black |
| Bearing | Sleeve |
| Rated Voltage | 12V DC |
| Start Voltage | 10.8V DC (low RPM mode) |
| Rated Current | 0.45 AMP |
| Rated Power | 5.4W |
| Speed | 700 rpm / 1200 rpm |
| Effective Airflow Range | 1.2; 3 meter |
| Airflow | 80-130cfm |
| Static Pressure | Max 1.1-2.45mm H20 |
| Noise Level | 18/34 dBa |
| Dimension | 180mm (L) x 180mm (W) x 32 mm (H) |
The redesign with the Raven 3 places the power supply at the front of the case, at the bottom. In the Raven 2 the power supply was raised, with another fan below it. Silverstone have adjusted this cooling system to ensure that the power supply is not taking up any extra space in the overall design, separating it from the main system at the very front, down low.
Well im glad they changed the spiky monster design from last year into this. I think its rather fetching.
The fans are nice, the overall design isn’t ugly but I am not sure im sold on some of the internal designs. the PSU at the front from the side? its rather hard to get used to that.
I like it, good airflow, like v2
The gold stripe is a bit different, wasnt it blue originally
I likethe routing arou d the back of the case but i dont like the looks at all.
To me this seems like a bit of a mish mash of a case – nobody likes the racing stripes down the front and whilst it may look nicer in the flesh, very few people will get the chance to view it in person before purchasing.
I think if they had simply updated the superb Raven Evolution then they would have been on to a dead cert – I can see where they are coming from though because adding a 3 to the party probably attracts a lot more attention and therefor more sales.
If they do ever bring the Evo up to date with front intenal usb3.0 headers then I will be on it like a flash.