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The full tower Aerocool X-Predator Evil Black Edition is an impressively designed, aggressively styled chassis, which not only looks fantastic, but delivers a broad, capable feature set to the gaming audience.
When we look closer, the underlying structure of this case is the same as we found on the Akasa Venom Toxic Chassis with only the colour scheme, and the front and top panels of the chassis being different. The Akasa Chassis however was more suited for watercooling due to the difference in design of the top panel.
As you would expect with most chassis available today, the X-Predator features several tool-less mechanisms to aid with mounting 5.25″ optical drives, and it offers 10 PCI Slots. Up to 6 x 3.5″ or 6 x 2.5″ drives (or a combination of both) can be installed into this chassis, although they do require a few screws to hold the drives in place.
The chassis also features USB 3.0, but we would have expected it to have a motherboard header and not a USB 3.0 cable. In terms of graphics cards, anything up to 330mm in length can be accommodated.
In terms of build quality, the X-Predator is very good although not quite excellent as there is a little bit of flex apparent in the side panels. Also, the rubber grommets in the cable routing holes fall out too easily, especially considering you need to push cables through them.
The thermal performance of this chassis is good; it performed slightly better than the CM Storm Stryker Chassis we reviewed a few months back, especially when the top of the chassis is in the open position. However, it's quite a way off the performance of the BitFenix Shinobi XL, and this is due to the less efficient 230mm Aerocool fans.
As we explained on the acoustical performance page the BitFenix Spectre 230mm fans produce over twice the airflow per minute while generating less noise. If we replaced the Aerocool fans in the X-Predator with the BitFenix equivalents we suspect the Aerocool chassis would perform as well, if not better than the competing case. Sadly this is not how people will buy it however.
The acoustical performance is a similar story, it is louder than the BitFenix Shinobi Xl at full speed. As the thermal performance is also inferior you would need to install more fans to increase the overall airflow.
The ideal airflow solution would be to replace the Aerocool fans in this chassis with BitFenix Spectre 230mm fans and then install several additional Be Quiet! 140mm fans. This configuration would cope with an ultra high end, overclocked system build.
Overall this case is very good, but it really is let down by the substandard AeroCool fans the company have decided to use.
The Aerocool X-Predator Evil Black edition can be purchased for £110 from OCUK, offering reasonable value for money. The BitFenix Shinobi XL is normally priced at £120, with a recent price reduction to £105. Also the Akasa Venom Toxic retails for £120 but comes with an extra 140mm fan. Both of these competing options are a better choice to us, however if Aerocool could drop the price by £10 then it would score higher.
Pros
- Interesting design
- Potential for impressive cooling
- Plenty of space for even the largest motherboards
- Features a two-channel fan controller
- Easy to install any system
Cons
- Side panels a bit flexible
- Rubber grommets fall out too easily
- BitFenix Shinobi XL performs better out-the-box
Kitguru says: A good case design let down by weak fans. If they could drop the price a little it would be more competitive.
