SilverStone RVZ01-E Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The SilverStone SST-RVZ01B-E Raven is available from Scan.co.uk for £69.98. That’s not exactly cheap, but despite its compact form factor, this is still a high-end gaming chassis and falls about on par with similar offerings in various form factors given the level of features.

Overview

The SilverStone Raven series has long been one of my favorite ranges and it’s great to see SilverStone looking at ways to take on their customer feedback and improve on their designs. Unfortunately, I’m not sure this model is an improvement over the last design of the Raven mini-ITX range and for our build in particular, the shift to ATX PSUs meant we couldn’t finish the build, which is obviously a huge problem. The use of SFX power supplies brings a lot of benefits, most importantly the fact that they’re smaller. SFX units are more often than not more than powerful enough for a mini-ITX system with a single GPU too.

I can see why SilverStone put the ATX support in, it’s certainly taken up more space inside the chassis, but ATX PSUs are often more powerful and more affordable than their SFX counterparts, and also quieter too as they use larger fans. However, the easy of use that SFX offers, I’d be tempted to invest in the SFX model of this chassis for myself, but to each their own and it’s great that there is a choice of both PSU models on the market.

The Raven is a fantastic chassis, no matter which PSU form factor you go with. Having a chassis this slim that’s the perfect size to fit on your home AV stand is a lot of fun, and the fact that you can fit virtually any modern high-end GPU in there means that you can really tap into the full potential of big screen gaming in the living room. It’s not without its compromises, but since you only have to build it once, the issues are short-lived and the potential for a great gaming system will pay off in the long run.

Pros

• Stylish design
• Horizontal and vertical standing
• ATX PSU support
• Same external design as SFX model
• Support for long GPU
• High-quality slim fans pre-installed

Cons

• Tricky to build a system inside
• Challenging cable management

Neutral

• Make sure you get a proper ATX PSU, as many are actually longer than the base specifications

“The Raven may be slim, but it packs support for some seriously high-end hardware. If you need a HTPC style gaming system with support for a large graphics card, ATX PSU and mini-ITX motherboard, you couldn’t hope for a better looking chassis. An ideal choice for a versatile gaming system.”