Modding Perfecting the SilverStone Stack

I guess most people will be familliar with the SilverStone Raven RV02 case (first picture below) and the soon-to-be released Fortress FT02 (second picture) which use a unique vertical motherboard layout to improve convection cooling.




To my mind, the one major flaw with the implementation of the stack concept is the conventional placement of the 5.75” bays. Notice that none of the pictures show drives installed in these bays: if they did it would show how badly these drives would obstruct the vertical airflow in this part of the case. Also both the cases put far too much unnecessary airflow obstructing structure around the hard drives (although the FT02 is much more intelligent in this area than the RV02).

My modification concept is to mount the 5.75” bays vertically in the area on top of the case currently occupied by the switches and connector panel. This will use a square hole cut in the steel inner chassis in which will sit a new structure I have named the “chimney” (shown in red on this Sketchup model). The chimney will accommodate one laptop CD/DVD drive and up to three standard 5.75” units, although normally only two would be fitted along with two half-height ventilation grills as shown. The chimney will be able to be inserted in any of four orientations depending on which face the user wants to designate as the “front” of the case.



Of course, normal CD/DVD drives will not work in this vertical orientation, which is the reason for the laptop drive. I have experimented with a Sony Optiarc AD-7700S-01 and confirmed it works fine with the tray opening upward. The only problem is that there is no latch to hold the tray open so disk changing becomes a two-handed operation. The full-size bays will work fine for hot-swap drive bays, fan controllers and some water cooling solutions for example.



The other improvement I’d like to make is to the fixed hard drive bays. The FT arrangement is “close but no cigar” as far as I am concerned. It should be possible to use a simple cantilever beam to support the drive along one side with no obstruction at all to the airflow. I’ve planned for four drives, up from the three in the RV and down from the five in the FT. This should leave plenty of room for airflow between the (bare) drives necessary because this airflow is cooling the chimney components as well as the hard drives themselves.



Some people have been complaining of the size of these cases, but remember that with a conventional case you have to leave a lot of room behind to accommodate wiring which is all internal to the stack design. My proposed modification also eliminates the need for space “in front” of the case. All the access is concentrated on the top of the case which reduces the overall envelope of space that is required and also is easier to reach for a floor-standing case. Indeed, the natural “front” of the case is now the face with the window in it and it will be natural to set the case against a wall rather like a storage radiator.

Someone who has already purchased a RV02 can help me: I have scaled dimensions off photographs to make this model. The concept depends on there being free space of at least 5.75” (plus a bit for structure) between the back of the “front” panel (the steel front, not the plastic facia) and the motherboard expansion card recess. I am pretty sure there will be enough space on the FT model, but could someone please measure this for me on the RV?

The chimney design lends itself well to a single case design with multiple assembly options. By providing a blankable square cut-out in the “front” of the case, there could be four more available configurations, including the conventional one albeit with the current cooling problems. (The upside down one would be useless? Remember the drives can be installed either way up too so this allows the laptop drive bay to be at the bottom or the top of the stack). If this is still not enough, a blankable cut-out in the window panel would offer yet another four options! This is a total of twelve different configuration options with a single case design!




I plan on implementing these ideas myself by modifying either an RV02 or a FT02 when and if it finally becomes available. I am happy to put this concept in the public domain, and I’d be very pleased if SilverStone took them up for the RV03 and FT03. If they do, it would be a nice gesture if they gave me the first one off the production line as acknowledgement!

 

Actually, quite a lot will. If you look closely at the tray on most DVD drives, there will be one or more 'ledges' on the edge nearest the drive. These will hold a disc in place as the tray opens and closes vertically. Once it's closed, the spindle will engage, centre the disc away from the ledges, and the drive will spin up as normal.

 

Alternatively I believe slot-loading drives will work in almost any configuration, and are the same size as the laptop drive you've been planning.

 

true, and they look alot cooler than your standard CD/DVD drive.

 

Will slot loading drives work with reduced diameter CDs? I make quite a lot of use of the small ones about the same size as a floppy disk. It is hard to see how a slot loading mechanism would work with these as it must be gripping the edge of the disk. Also I would want to test its ability to lift the disk out upward as this is quite an unusual configuration - as opposed to rolling it out horizontally on edge as used in Apple and other's all-in-one machines.

Certainly tray loading ones that rely on a retaining lip would not work with reduced-size disks.

I recall reading that someone actually had a patient on mounting tray loading CDs vertically such that the tray opened downward from an overhang on the front of the case, but I think they had the drive mounted at a slight angle so gravity would assist with holding the CD in place.

When I was researching this I found it very hard to get definitive information on supported mounting orientations for various drives - I ended up buying the Sony drive and keeping my fingers crossed intending to return it if it did not work.

 

slot loaders aren't compatible with smaller diameter discs afaik

 

I've lost count as to how many slot loading drives I've had to pull apart to remove those little disks. I hate those things.

 

There are newer ones that are, if I recall correctly. Also, vertical slot-loading Cheesecake!

 

The most bizarre bit of this conversation is that anyone actually uses those titchy CDs! I've only ever been given one non-standard CD (it was a business-card shaped one, from Uni) and I don't think I ever found cause to use it.

I'd be interested to know how those work... What I usually see is adaptors like this.

 

Implementation - Finally!

I finally got started on implementing this concept.

Firstly I designed the "chimney" and had the parts manufactured by a German NC milling service. They are expensive, but you do get free jellybeans with your order!



I went for a slightly different design than originally conceived. The square aperture now has slots for three drives equally spaced with narrow gaps between and at each end. These gaps will provide a measure of ventilation even when all slots are occupied. Ultimately there will be mesh fillers finishing the gaps while still allowing airflow. I also had a front panel milled which occupies one slot and contains replacement power and reset switches and the PCB with audio connectors and two USB slots from the original case. This is made from 4mm aluminum and the rectangular cut-out at the bottom is for the laptop optical drive.



The six plates I had milled from 2mm aluminium fitted together perfectly which was a worry since this was my first attempt at this sort of design work and any mistake would have been expensive!

I completely disassembled the FT02 case as far as I could go with just a screwdriver. Neatly, all the aluminium cosmetic cladding can be fully removed and set aside. From here, the steal chassis is assembled with pop-rivets which is a bit of a let-down for a case this expensive.



I removed most of the structure of the original optical drive bays and cut a square hole in the top surface. This entailed drilling out some pop rivets and using an electric jigsaw going through five metal cutting saw blades.



I decided to leave the bottom bay in place partly in case I wanted to use it (although it would wreak the airflow concept) but mainly because I thought it would provide some extra rigidity to the remaining structure.

Time to test fit the new bay structure - the moment of truth for the whole concept! First, the conventional "front" location:



Now the same location rotated for better airflow:



And the true top mounted "chimney" location that I am really interested in:



This can be rotated too:



And the side mounted location:



Finally, one I did not think of initially, the "back" side:



The FT02 could not have been better for this modification and it is really working a treat. I will now need to modify the cosmetic trim for the front-top region and devise a support structure.

To actually use the side mounting options the side panels would need to be modified with a cut-out and cover. I do not think I will do that since I'm not personally interested in those configurations. I just want to go far enough with them to prove the design concept. The original "front" bay covers will also need to be modified since their supports have gone and the conventional layout option cuts through the middle of the second bay up.

Watch this space for progress!

 

RV02 - Positives and Negatives

Just some general comments on the Silverstone RV02 Case on which this mod is based.

Negative:

1. It was impossible to remove the intake fan structures without breaking off the plastic retaining tabs. I think the one under the hard disk cage must have been installed before the cage was pop-riveted in place.
2. The switches are REALLY crappy - they are flush with the top surface and very light touch. They would get accidentally operated if you set something down on top of the case. Fortunately my mod requires them to be lost anyway!
3. The case is really unwieldy to handle. It is very heavy and has no ready hand-holds. It has no wheels even though hidden rollers could easily have been incorporated in the structure of the bottom air intakes.
4. There is a mounting for a Clear CMOS switch, but you have to buy this separately. Also the drive cage accommodates hot-swap connectors, but only one is supplied so you have to buy any more separately. Neither of these is intrinsically an expensive item, and this policy is very stingy in a case costing this much.
5. The steel chassis is held together by pop-rivets meaning you cannot easily remove unwanted mountings. Also these are not particularly strong or rigid giving a surprisingly flimsy feel to the internal structure.

Positive:

1. The aluminium outer shell is fastened to the steel chassis using tapped screws making it possible to completely remove it during modifications. The aluminium cladding on the top covers can also be easily removed and replaced.
2. The hard disk cage is much better designed than it looks in the photos. I have decided there is no need to modify this for improved airflow.
3. It looks great, particularly in silver, windowless trim - kind of like a high-end Apple workstation.
4. The vertical orientation has advantages beyond airflow. The absence of a lot of exposed external connectors at the back makes it much neater when viewed from all sides. The top mounting of all parts requiring regular access (at least with my mod) makes access much less of a strain on ageing bones and means you do not need to leave access space on any of the other sides.

 

Just saw this now via a link at the [H]. I remember when you posted your concepts for the hdd brackets and 5.25" cage, and it's very cool to now see you making the latter a reality. Looking forward to the end results.

 

Preview

Thanks for the feedback - I was beginning to think I was speaking to myself!

I'll try to get time to post more complete documentation soon - I have some raw videos awaiting editing - but here is a photo of the complete working build to be going on with:



I'm very please how it worked out as a design concept, though I am still trying to get the cosmetic finish right round the top-mount for what I'm now calling the "drive cube". It needs some kind of hatch, but two attempts to make this have resulted in something that just looks wrong and have had to be discarded. Main problem is matching the hexagonal mesh Silverstone have used - I'd be grateful if anyone can point me to suppliers that might carry this.