Introduction

It has been some time since I have reviewed any items from Xclio, so when I got an email from them asking if I would be interested in reviewing two of their cases  I of course jumped at the opportunity, the first case we are reviewing today is the Blackhawk Super Tower.

This case is constructed of heavy gauge steel and has plastic front bezel which has room for a total of which has room for up to three 5.25" optical drives.  Located on the left side-panel of Blackhawk is massive 250mm blue LED fan which produces huge airflow which is directly targeted at the motherboard, video card and memory.  Continuing the direct cooling approach you will find a matching set of 120mm blue LED fans which are targeting the 3.5" and 5.25" drive cages.  There are two more 120mm blue LED fans located at the top of the case to remove the warm air from the case and drop the internal temperature to a more comfortable level for the components.  All fans and LEDs are controlled by the smart controller located at the top of the case. The LED lights and fans can not only be adjusted but can be turned completely off if you so desire.    

Features

Specifications

Xclio Profile

    With continued research and development companies keep providing new technology that enhances components used in computers and consumer electronics (i.e. CPU, Hard Drives, video card, etc). Intel and AMD continue to introduce new processors that exponentially increase computing capabilities. Manufacturers of hard drives are providing drives with larger capacity, increased cache speeds and even the revolutions per minute has increased to 15,000 for SATA drives. Both nVIDIA and ATI manufacturers of video cards have increased their graphic process performance while requiring faster and larger memory. But, with all of these electronic components performing more, a great amount of heat is generated.

    XCLIO's philosophy on designing cases is one of simplicity and practicality. XCLIO design group combines the expertise and ideas from designers locally and aboard. Our designs are verified against guidelines from the CE/FCC testing lab, temperature-testing lab, noisy testing lab, so we can achieve the following:

1. Simplicity and Practicality
2. Unique Designs
3. Super Quiet
4. Absolutely heat sink
5. Worldwide safety regulations

So our customers receive the best product design and unique options available in the market.

Packaging

The Shipping carton for the Blackhawk is standard Xclio coloring of black and white and the front and rear of the carton have the identical art work with a perspective view of the case and three additional pictures and the words Xclio Blackhawk on the carton.

Both side panels give you a very complete list of all of the features that you will expect to find in this case.  The overall weight of the case can be classified as slightly heavy due to the fact that this is a steel case and it is heavy duty by most standards.  The fact that it has numerous fans installed add weight to the product as well.

Outside Observations

Looking at the Blackhawk from a slight angle you can clearly see the matching 120mm fans used at the front of the case.  These fans are directly in front of both the drive cages which will hold a total of four 3.5" hard drives each.  Above the fans you have room for a total of three 5.25" devices whether they happen to be all optical drives or a mixture of drives and a fanbus or some other accessory you happen to wish to install.

Looking at the side panel of the Blackhawk you can vaguely see the size and shape of fan that resides on the other side of the panel.  This happens to be a 250mm low speed fan.  The major benefit of this type of fan is the fact that it will move massive amounts of air and do it while making a minimal amount of noise due to large size fan blades.

The side panel on the opposite side of the case is void of any vents, fans or handles.  It pure purpose is to cover this side of the case.  The picture came out rather washed out, but the finish of the case is extremely nice and the only problem I noticed with the paint job it they don't really have a cut-off point from where they painted the outside of the case and left the inside of the case bare.  On the side panels their is considerable amount of overspray around the edges of the panel. 

Moving to the rear of the case you can see that it is pretty standard fare with the power supply opening located at the bottom of the case and a total of seven slots for the motherboard and the slots covers are held in place with screws so there is no tool-free features there.  Above the card slots are a number of holes which will help establish positive case flow through the case.  Above the slots you have the standard I/O plate and a space for a 120mm fan. 

Looking down the top of the case you can get a view of the main control panel for the Blackhawk which we will discuss more about when we get to  the next picture.  Behind the control panel you can see the are that is used by matching set of 120mm fans which we discussed earlier.

Now lets talk about the master control panel. The three over-sized knobs you see on the left-hand side of the case are the fan speed control knobs.  One control is for the side-mounted fan, the next is for the top mounted fans (2) and finally the last speed controller is for the front mounted fans (2).  The next buttons are push buttons that will turn the fans on or off which ever you happen to chose.  The third buttons are for shutting off the LED bulbs that are mounted in each of the fans.

Along with all of the fan controls we have a single e-SATA connector, a headphone and microphone jacks, a total of four (4) USB 2.0 connectors, The last set of buttons on the far right of the case are for the Power, Reset and the the final one is for something I have never seen before. It is for the 'Back-Panel I/O lights" which are mounted under the top plastic piece that cover the top of the case.  This piece extends over the rear of the metal part of the case and has multiple lights that shine down on rear of the case to make it easier for you to hookup wire to your case. 

The bottom of the case has four (4) soft rubber feet that should protect the case from scratching any surface you might place it on and keep if from vibrating off a table or desk.

Inside Observation

The overall size of the inside of the Blackhawk can best be describes as enormous in size, Even when the motherboard and power supply are mounted inside there is still a great deal of room inside the case to work and make all of the needed connections.

While the motherboard tray is not removable the the tray does have holes cut in two locations which make routing wire a great deal easier than having a case with a solid motherboard tray.  

The card slot covers have nice thumbscrews on them instead of screws, but you will still need a screw driver to get them on and off.  The two black openings you see above the card slots are two grommets that are placed  in the holes to keep from damaging any water cooling tubing that might be ran through them.

Here you have the rear opening for a 120mm fan which in my opinion Xclio should have installed with a matching blue LED fan like the others since some people may find it hard to find a matching fan like the ones used in the case.

As you can see the power supply opening had a resting pad at what would be the front of your power supply once it is installed. It is simply things like this that make a good case good or a bad one terrible. 

Here is another quirk that kind of bothers me, not bother like a kid brother always wanting to pal around with you even when you're on a date with the hottest girl in school, but bothers me in the since that a teenager can't give me the correct change when I give him a twenty dollar bill. 

I just can't understand why you would design a case where you have to open up the front of the case to install or remove a hard drive.  I have case that are far more complex than this one and if you are smart enough to install the drives prior to all the rest of the hardware there is no issue.  (rant off)

Notice the opening on the fans located at the top of the Blackhawk, it appears that at one time this case or one similar in design has far large fans installed.  They look very similar in size to the 250mm fans on the side-panel.

Here is one of the 120mm fans removed from the front of case and you can see that it has a small connector on that mates to one on the inside of the front bezel, this is where the fan gets its power from.  

Here you can see the 250mm fan that resides on the side panel of the Blackhawk.

This photo shows the fold open edge panels that are used for removing the bays covers as well as removing the fans so that you can install the hard drives for your system. 

The accessory sack that has the word Xclio in gold lettering has numerous drive rails of the short and long variety, hardware package and a well throughout user manual.

Pretty Lights and the Final Assembly

Here we have the system fully assembled and as I stated this is still plenty of room for the normal person to work inside the case and hookup wires of plug in connectors or even remove the motherboard should that task ever arise.

Here you can see where we have routed the system wiring through one of the holes and that way we will be able to place the  side panels on each side of the case.  One bit of information, if you are planning to purchase this case as are going to use a CoolerMaster V10 cooler, think again since the cooler hit the fan and will not allow the side panel to fit on the case. 

250mm Side Fan	Light Bar on Control Panel
Top Duel 120mm Fans	Front Duel 120mm Fans

Conclusion 

The Xclio Blackhawk Supertower has a large number of very nice features and the one that I would have to rate at the top of them all is the systems ventilation.  If you install all of the fans that the case will hold there is no reason that any processor you install in it should not run cool.

With good there is always some bad or perhaps better to say just things that I would like to see changed.  The first thing would be the way hard drives are installed and removed from the case.  The method by which you do it currently  leaves a great deal to be desired and the fact that you must plug and un-plug the fan to remove them prior to the drive change will turn a large number of people off, especially those that are not computer literate. For this reason we can not give this case our top award, but we can give it a well deserved Silver award.

A special thanks to Xclio for there support and review sample.