Silverstone RV03 - first impressions (and camera phone pics)

Soldato
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is there any hard drive cooling with them behind the motherboard like that

One of the two lower fans (the front one) is offset so it sends some of the cooling behind the motherboard to where the hard drives are. Silverstone do recommend that if you have lots of hard drives back there you install a fan on the right hand sidepanel.

I made a few minor changes yesterday (added a white cathode on the front, tidied some cabling off the fan at the back, changed a WD500 to a Hitachi 1TB) and I've just checked the temperatures of my two mechanical hard drives:

WD500AAKS - lower, rear HDD slot - idle 18C, maximum during HD Tune benchmark 30C
Hitachi 7K1000.C - upper, rear HDD slot - idle 20C, maximum during HD Tune benchmark 28C
 
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Hmmm... just checked hard drive temperatures after a long evening of gaming. The WD500 has hit 47C maximum and the Hitachi hit 42C maximum. While I'm sure they'd be fine running at this kind of temperature, I think I'm going to have to get a quiet 120mm fan to go on the sidepanel behind the motherboard just for peace of mind.

On the plus side, I think adding the Akasa twin white cathode into the case really shows off the inside just as I'd hoped:

s1050974.jpg


s1050975.jpg


It's not actually as bright as the second picture makes out. The first picture is the more realistic. As you can see, it also shows off the dust on the side window but that's more noticable in pictures than in reality. I know opinions vary but I really like the look of the inside of the case and I wanted to be able to see it properly - hence the lighting! My case, my rules! :)
 
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Little update on a few things, I bought a couple of 120mm fans to put on the side behind the motherboard to cool the hard drives - an Antec Tri-Cool and a Yates Loon:

Yates Loon - had to plug this straight into the power (haven't got a fan controller) and although nice and quiet outside the case, caused vibration when in place on the sidepanel. Stupidly I hadn't thought to buy any anti-vibration stuff - d'oh!

Antec Tri-Cool - set to low or even medium this didn't move the same volume of air at all as the Yates, but high is just too loud. It also doesn't produce any vibration noise on low though, so this is the one that's in place.

My HDD temperatures are now not going higher than 35C with the Antec in place. I am planning on grabbing some anti-vibration stuff when I next order something, so my long-term plan is to put the Yates in place and see if I can keep them in the 30C-33C range.

I've also replaced the faulty rear 180mm AP fan with another (the one that came with the case switched off when set to High). Both fans now work properly on both low and high, and the new fan seems a little quieter than the old one on low but this might be my imagination. Both are set to Low all the time but now I might switch it to High mid-game and see if it makes any noticeable difference.

Also, I tried the front mic and headphone sockets last night for the first time, and I've got to say they're pretty stiff to insert into. The headphone went in OK, but the mic required a fair bit of pressure and didn't seem to go down far enough to engage first time. I am sure this will ease with a little bit of use but it doesn't feel great straight out of the box.

Overall, after a week of playing with it I am absolutely sure I made the right choice for me. I can completely understand people not liking the look (I personally do) but it really is the best thought out and built case I've ever used or seen. Based on this one, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Silverstone cases to anyone.

Finally, wanted to say thank you to everyone for the kind comments about the build. They're all really appreciated - thanks! :)
 
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theres not an eviden cooler vantage compared to a classic case whit this disposition type. Its right ?

And is it not too little small for hard drivers and optical drives ?
is RV02 better for dimensions ?
 
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ordered one of these myself, been a little worried, it should arrive tomorrow, can i ask, can you fit a DVI -> VGA adaper in the back of the video card? (im talking about the short silver ones provided with sapphire video cards) ive been worrying about this ever since i hit order! :(
 
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this user said that there's no difference compared to a low end case like Antec 900, how is possible ?

Is VGA card temperatures not "MUCH" better ?
 
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Did a build with this case at the weekend for a m8. I have to say I was really impressed with it. Takes a bit of getting your head round, where all the components are going to go with the rotated motherboard, but it's an awesome air cooling case and feels very well made. I have done a few builds in the last couple of months for friends and I would choose this over the corsair 600t and 850d that were used previously. It felt better quality and was better at cooling. Another plus is it has loads of cable management room on the other side of the case as well. As confused stu has already said, make sure you get at least a couple of long sata leads, as reaching the top hard drives and dvd drives requires longer than normal sata leads. Some braided psu and vga extension leads is not a bad idea either to get a nice finish. As for the gold colour stripes down the sides, I didn't think I would like them but in the flesh they look pretty good. I have seen this case is aslo available with silver stripes as well if you prefer. Any friends wanting an air cooled pc in the future I will be recommending this case for sure.

If I had to pick any faults with this case it would be the lack of 120mm fan bundled with the case.
 
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There are two issues with this case as pointed out by many unboxers and reviewers.

The powersupply solution doesn't work for Corsair PSU's. The extension cable that they use actually pushes in on the power switch of the PSU and either turns it off or makes it hover in between.

The second issue is the mounting of harddrives and optical drives is quite a pain compared to the standard way of doing things. Other than that I think it might be a good case. Not liking the turned MB though.
 
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C64

C64

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There are two issues with this case as pointed out by many unboxers and reviewers.

The powersupply solution doesn't work for Corsair PSU's. The extension cable that they use actually pushes in on the power switch of the PSU and either turns it off or makes it hover in between.

The second issue is the mounting of harddrives and optical drives is quite a pain compared to the standard way of doing things. Other than that I think it might be a good case. Not liking the turned MB though.

the connector works fine with my corsair psu ?
 

C64

C64

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this user said that there's no difference compared to a low end case like Antec 900, how is possible ?

Is VGA card temperatures not "MUCH" better ?

probably because he has reference leaf blower style coolers you aren't going to see that much improvement just as you wont see much changing case with a stock cpu cooler.
 
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