Raven Rv03 Build

[hata]

My second build, made in early February, my first build was 4 years ago. I originally intended to make a very small build with a htpc case but then I found the Raven RV03 and fell in love with it and decided I would try to make something with good long lasting parts that was pretty nice looking by my standards with a dark color scheme and purple lights. Total cost of this build was about $1350.
 
Parts list:

 

Intel Core i5-3570K
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77
EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 660 2GB
G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)
CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler
SILVERSTONE RAVEN Series RV03B-WA
CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 128GB

 

NZXT Sentry Mesh Fan Controller w/ Five 30 watts Channels
NZXT HUE RGB Led Controller
EVERCOOL 40mm Case Cooling Fan (used in io shield intake on mobo)
StarTech 6" TX3 Fan Power Splitter Cable (used two put both radiator fans on one fan controller channel)
2x bgears b-Blaster 120 120mm Case Fan (radiator)
Silverstone 120mm Fan Filter with Magnet (side intake)
Some random Cougar fan (unnecessary rear exhaust)
a bit of soft foam from the H100i box (you don't want to know)
and some rubber cut from a phone case ("homemade" washers for radiator)
 
I didn't really do anything fancy with this build, since I like it the way it is, but the H100i is installed loosely.
 
For starters, in order to put the H100i where I wanted it, in the front 5.25" bays I had to leave it completely unmounted, however it does not move around.

 

Lengthy explanation of the situation:

The fan holders in the RV03 that attach to the HDD cages could be used to mount one side of the H100i to the 5.25" bays, however I wanted the fans set in pull and the fan holder wouldn't be able to mount to the case on the front of the radiator, the fan holder also is too large to use on the fans so they have to be on the opposite side in order to use more than one fan. That soft foam I mentioned, is used to seal off the sides of the H100i and keep it from rubbing against the 5.25" bays and the PSU. Also because the bgear fans I have do not have open corners I had to use long screws to attach them to the radiator, and since I couldn't use the fan folders to space the long screws out and I did not have more washers, I made little rubber washers from an old phone case to fasten the screws fully without hitting the fins. Also I did not use the stock H100i fans because they are overall bad and one of them was very bad. Despite this H100i having the new firmware, the fans still made awful noise. And since the temps never reach dangerous levels with the bgears at a near silent 40% voltage and unrealistic cpu load being applied there doesn't seem to be much point in having the bad pwm fans anyways.

Also because of the size of the H100i, the 5.25" bay accessories (LED controller and fan controller) had to be partially disassembled and left unmounted, however they are not completely loose. 
 

There are three 3.5" HDDs mounted behind the motherboard in addition to the single SSD, cable management is messy but not problematic, and it is kind of weird having the motherboard rotated, the HDDs in the back, and the power supply in the front, and numerous additional cables thanks to the accessories and such, but the front does look good to me so I'm not overly concerned with the back.

 

Temps are all good despite the somewhat low airflow to the HDDs in the back and the fact that I've blocked off the front intake so the H100i just sucks in air from inside the case.

 

Fans are all running at 40% voltage and are nearly silent, assistant fans in mobo are set to automatic based on temperatures with fan off enabled. Fan noise is minimal, the only noise problem I have is a quiet high pitch whining noise (doesn't sound like fan noise) I can hear almost constantly, no idea where it's coming from.

 

My thoughts on the case:

The functionality is good quite with multiple options for fan and HDD mounting, however the native water cooling support is minimal. Also very little dust gets in thanks to the positive air pressure setup, even with the cut outs for the power supply on each side of the case. It's pretty roomy and I don't really have any problems with it aside from having no proper 240mm rad mounting options (the H100 appears to fit the front 5.25" bay mounting option but the larger H100i seems to be the issue here). And there is one little issue with the side panels, the window side is uneven and one of the thumbscrews doesn't go in well, but it doesn't detract too much from the appearance, also the back side panel has a screw alignment issue (both still go in) but the panel itself does line of properly. Overall I really love the case and don't see myself switching any time soon.

 

Pictures are from phone, would be decent quality if not for horrible lighting. 
 

 
 



 

 

 

[Bluejay0]

This is awesome! I love the purple scheme! Keep up the work!

[andrevautour]

Nice build. I really like the RAVEN cases. Something about purple lighting I like too. 

[hata]

Thanks. I like the purple because I feel like it goes well with black, and the other colors just feel too ordinary to me, and plain white-ish light just makes the various wire colors on the 24 pin stand out a lot.

[crocski]

Nice build..

[Anusha]

Can you show us some pics of the H100i mounted in there? Also, can you run push pull on the H100i fitted like the way you have?

[heineygoat]

Damn those ravens are sweeeeet.

[hiyayhi]

mmmm, very nice!

love the back mounted SSD :D