New case - Xclio Nighthawk

[Rob_B]

I got fed up off my mATX case, cheap rubbish & dodgy no-name PSU so I decided to change.

I got the Xclio Nighthawk from Scan for £25.84 on Today Only & I'm very impressed! Transplanted my PC into it & it's running fine, few degrees cooler as well (not suprised considering the fans!)

So...here it is in all its bashed box glory!



Now some pics to give an overall look of the case...



180mm blue LED side fan...



and another 180mm blue LED top fan for venting out. Top has 2 x USB, eSATA, fan controls for the top/side & the front fans plus the usual audio sockets.





Now in comparison to my old mATX case with it's amazing cable management



Plenty of room to fit my stuff & hide some cables in here!



More drive bays than I will ever need, cages can be moved to clear a space at the top/middle/bottom or just be removed altogether.



2 x 120mm fans behind the front door, easy to open out which makes a nice change! Filtered too!



et voila!







Good weight to it, build quality is pretty good. Cable management options are pretty decent, could do with a bit more space around the opposite side panel but that's my fault for rushing a little so I'd imagine it'd be ok for most people.
I like how the main chunk of cables were already sleeved & routed through the back.

Note no filter on the fans at the side/PSU, would be nice to at least have one on the PSU vent at the bottom especially as it has to sit on my floor as it's too tall for my desk!

Scrwless drive catches are a nightmare though, I'm not sure if all are as annoying & fiddly as these but it took some clipping on. The HDD brackets are even worse, a real tight fit but I'm at least sure they are going anywhere!

Fans aren't the quietest I've had & considering there are now 4 instead of my previous 1 I do notice the hum but I no longer have the high pitched whine of the 60mm & the cheapo PSU fan so I'd still say this case was an improvement. LEDs can be turned off/on for the top & side fans via little barely noticable buttons on the fan surrounds (external).

Overall I'm VERY impressed for £25 (inc delivery thanks to Scan)

Would have like to see a black interior but I can't really fault it too much for not having that!

AMD X3 435 @ stock
3 x 2GB DDR2
850 NorthQ modular PSU
Asus M3N78-VM motherboard
Idle = 36C CPU, 29C motherboard


Rob

[Terbinator]

My mate has a similar case to this with a side fan - if you plan on getting a tower cooler at some point its highly likely (depending on size) that it will conflict with the side fan. We had to cut the fan off to fit the Akasa Freedom Tower cooler in his case!

[Pob255]

Have to agree with Terbinator here, side panel fans over the cpu are a and also a major soruce of dust entry.
I remember looking at this one before, I wish they had put the 180mm in the front and the 120mm's on the side, that way you could remove one of the 120mm to fit a tower cooler and you can get filters for 120mm which would fit on the side vents. I don't know of anyone who makes a 180mm filter.

[kmac]

Very neat cabling there Rob

[Rob_B]

Ta first case I think I've ever actually managed to do it on! Am pretty chuffed with it myself.

I'm not likely to upgrade to a large HSF so clearance isn't an issue for me, if I did then I'd remove the fan & the front 120mms + the top fan should still be plenty enough airflow

[TAKTAK]

Looking good

[yoclick]

Looks nice mate, especially for the price! Could you tell me though how many 3.5" and 5.25" drives you can store in it? Looks like it could be used as a cheap NAS case.

[Rob_B]

I'd say 3x5.25" drives + 8x3.5" looking at the spaces but the specs say...

4 x 3.5" External
3 x 3.5" Internal
3 x 5.25" External

[Pob255]

don't know what thoes specs are on about, you can see it's got 2 cages which each hold 4 drive trays, if you don't mind loseing the top 3 5.25" drive bays then you could fit a 3rd cage for 12 drives total.

However I can see a problem, not for a NAS but for a gaming pc, thoe cgaes stick in a good distance, going to the edge of the motherboard so tey are going to interfere with long graphics cards.

That case could do with an extra inch in length.

I do love the glowy corners of the bezel.

[Rob_B]

Cages can be moved, there a are 3 spaces to move them to (with the bottom two already filled)
You can mix & match so you could just remove the middle one & still have 3x5.25" + 4x3.5"

[Pob255]

BTW What case is your old mATX one?

[Rob_B]

A no-name one from ebuyer (incl 200W PSU)

[Rob_B]

Back on Today Only for under £30

[DavidM]

Only for about another hour however...

[cub1061]

Nicely done m8.

What is the noise level like all the fans going?

[Rob_B]

Compared to what? A low whooshy noise if all fans on low. Might just kill the side or front fans as I think it's be a bit quieter & still get decent airflow.