Goatmoose

Xclio Blackhawk Full Tower PC Case

Now this is a cool case. Not just because of its sleek design, black finish and fancy blue LED lighting – but because it keeps your hardware wonderfully cool. With room for tons of drives, a very easy-access control panel on the front top and plenty of space for anything you want to put inside, this case is perfect for a wide range of computer users. From gamers to media professionals, or just the average guy who likes to plug lots of things in, this case will suit.

It is big enough to build just about any system imaginable, and the design of its interior makes it so that you shouldn’t have to remove any hardware to access other hardware when you need to do a swap.

Review Intro:

The Blackhawk is packaged in a big box, because it’s a big boy. This is the type of case you need to make sure you have enough room for before you buy it. A full tower, it stands about 18.5” high and over 20” in depth.

The styrofoam padding in the box is solid and should keep it from getting damaged. It is your standard side of the box padding. The case is also wrapped in a plastic bag for scratch control. The Blackhawk is, not surprisingly, black. In fact, it couldn’t be more black. Even the wording on the control panel that tells you what each knob and button do are black.

So let’s take a closer look…

Specifications:

http://www.xclio.com/products/case-blackhawk.htm

Blackhawk is a solid chassis with powerful multi-function and unique emotional design. Its unbeatable air cooling system is the best among the industry.

There is a massive 25cm blue LED fan on the side panel which produces huge airflow and directly targets to the Motherboard, AGP and Memory ram module, on the front panel with twin 12cm blue led fans directly target the 3.5’ & 5.25’ bays (Hard drive, CD/DVD Rom & Burner), there are also attaching twin 12cm blue LED fans on the top panel to efficiently bring the discarded heat out of the chassis and decrease the interior temperature. All fans and the LED can be adjustable and switched On /Off by the central smart controller on the top panel and everything is tool-less in this chassis for convenient and easy installation. If you need a chassis with excellent function and a stylish look, it’s no doubt that Blackhawk is your best choice.

SPECIAL FEATURE:

UNIQUE & EMOTIONAL DESIGN

SOLID & VERSATILE CASE CHASSIS (0.8MM SECC)

EXCELLENT COOLING SOLUTION

SMART FAN CONTROLLER

SMART HDD MODULAR SYSTEM

BACK PANEL NIGHT LIGHT (ON/OFF SWITCH)

SUPPORT E-SATA

MESHED GRILL WINDOW SIDEPANEL

COOLING SYSTEM:

TOP FAN > BLOW OUT TYPE (1000~2000RPM)

FRONT FAN TOP > 5.25″ OR 3.5″ DEVICES (1300~1800RPM)

FRONT FAN BOTTOM > 5.25″ OR 3.5″ DEVICES (1300~1800RPM)

SIDE FAN > PSU & GRAPHIC VIDEO CARD & MOTHERBOARD (400~800RPM)

Brand: XClio

Model: Blackhawk

Spec:

Type: Full Tower

Color: Fully BLACK Finish

Case Material: Chassis: 0.8mm SECC; ABS Plastic

Motherboard Compatibility: Flex ATX, Micro ATX, ATX & Full ATX (12″x13″)

Expansion:

External 5.25″ Drive Bays: 3 or 6 bays (Smart HDD Modular System)

External 3.5″ Drive Bays: 4 or 8 bays (Smart HDD Modular System)

Expansion Slots: 7

Top Panel:

Top I/O Port: USB2.0 x 4PCS + Audio (AC97+HD Audio) + E-SATA

Top Smart Panel: Top, side & front panel fan smart controller (RPM VR, Fan on/off switch, Blue LED on/off switch)

Cooling System (FAN)

Case Chassis – Front: 12cm 2PCS (Blue LED + transparent frame & blade)

Case Chassis – Side: 25cm 1PC (Blue LED + transparent frame & blade)

Case Chassis – Top: 12cm 2PCS (Blue LED + black frame & blade)

Case Chassis – Rear : 12cm * 1PC (optional)

Physical Spec:

Dimensions: 560 x 210 x 510mm (D*W*H)

Starting with a top-down view of the case, you can see that it has two fans on top. This top portion is made of an open-air black mesh/grill style plastic, allowing as much air flow as possible through the two fans down to the hardware. The front section of the top contains a blue LED bar and a whole mess of controls. The three knobs on the left control fan speeds, the first vertical set of buttons powers the fans on and off, and the third vertical set of buttons turns on/off the fan LED lights. Next to that we have four USB 2.0 ports, a headphone and mic jack and an E-SATA input. The three buttons on the far right are the rear LED, reset and large power button.

These controls are awesome. The blue LEDs are fantastic looking, but are quite bright in the dark, so having the ability to power them off at night is lovely. The fan speed control knobs let you slow down the fans to the point where you can hardly hear them, or crank them up when you are doing more demanding tasks.

The side panel has a massive 250mm clear fan, of course with blue LED. This thing produces huge airflow and effectively cools nearly everything inside, focusing most importantly on the motherboard, and thus the RAM and CPU. This fan has its own power connection and is the only fan in the case that needs hooked up individually. All other fans are powered by a SATA cable running to the board that handles the front control panel. We’ll see that shortly.

The expansion bays are accessed through the front. Hard drives and 5.25” drives are inserted this way behind the fans. The fans are directly responsible for cooling them. Little mini swing doors along the sides grant you access to remove the fan and input hardware.

I’ve read that these front doors are easy to break, and the case’s instruction manual somewhat alludes to that fact as it repeatedly tells you to open it carefully with two hands. However, I had no trouble with them at all and they don’t appear physically brittle. Regardless, the number of steps involved with installing a hard drive or 5.25” increases the chances of something snapping or going wrong.

In the rear, you can note that the power supply gets mounted on the floor of the case, which when installed is a great space option. Six PCI slots, an I/O port and a 120mm fan space also exist. There is no huge fan behind that large grill unless you install one yourself, but unless you really fill this thing up with hardware, it probably won’t be necessary.

Inside the case is a spiffy little sack filled with hardware. It’s full of screws, bay rails, cable ties and one of those little speakers. There is also literature that tells you how to install certain things in the case. I didn’t photograph that because, well, who cares about a picture of an instruction manual? Certainly not you.

Here is a shot of the front bay expansions from the inside. There are two cages that hold four HDDs, allowing you to install up to eight hard drives in this case. All hard drive installations are done through the front of the case, by attaching the slide rails to the drive and putting it in. Then the connections are made inside the case. This is the same for 5.25” drives. You pop off the fan, slide the rack out, attach the rails to the drive, slide it back in, reattach the fan, then hook up the cables inside. It’s a few steps, but it all moves very quickly so I don’t find it to be a tremendous hassle. It’s not something you do every day. The time you save not screwing in tiny screws and having to remove both sides of the case is made up by the few extra seconds you spend latching plastic together in the Blackhawk.

The two fans on the top of the case, from the inside.

And the circuit board that operates the top control panel and all fans, hooked up by simply plugging in a single SATA cable.

The power supply is one of the only components you’ll install in this case that need a screwdriver. It sits on the bottom of the case and screws on very easily.

This case is large enough to support whatever motherboard you want to put inside. These pictures show an installed ATX board and a Zotac GeForce 9800 GT video card. The video card, in many cases, is quite large and will extend all the way to the HDD bay area. In this case you can see it fits just fine. There is so much room in this case that I feel the need to buy more hardware to put inside, as it just looks too darn empty.

When the fans run full blast in this bad boy, they are pretty loud. That’s just because there are a lot of them. But, you won’t always need them operating at full blast, and you have the ability to adjust their speeds or turn them off completely right from the top panel. They do an excellent job of cooling. To be honest, when I have them all running at full speed, I feel a breeze coming from the case as I sit next to it. The top fans in particular throw out a lot of air. On their lowest settings, they are still turning acceptably fast and are almost inaudible, so there’s really nothing to complain about.

My machine has been running for a few hours and has lots of programs running. Core temp is currently 30C.

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Not only do the fans light up, but the LED bar across the top panel is quite bright and functions to illuminate the control panel, and the Xclio logo glows on the front of the case. To the left of the logo, two other LED dots exist. One is constant and indicates power, while the other blinks with HDD activity.

The LEDs in the top fans don’t illuminate as much as the others, likely just a result of their positioning.

The rear LED really helps to light up the ports on the back, which is very handy.

Conclusion:

This is an awesome case that showcases a great combination of function and style. It has plenty of room for expansion for anyone’s needs, cools itself well, has a very intuitive top control panel and generally looks great. Its construction is solid and I can see this thing lasting a very long time.

I’ve really found nothing about this case that bothers me and would recommend it to anyone who spends a lot of time computing and requires a case with lots of space and good cooling.

For the price, it’s a great deal.