Aerocool Strike-X Advance Black Chassis Review

1. Introduction2. Aerocool Strike-X External and Bundle3. Aerocool Strike-X Internal4. System Installation5. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Acoustical Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Aerocool are not that well known in the United Kingdom, however we reviewed their X-Vision Fan Controller at the beginning of the month. Recently they have been expanding into the European and UK markets and their products are available from retailers including ARIA and Overclockers UK.

Aerocool have a sub-brand, Strike-X – much like Cooler Masters' CM Storm brand, which is aimed towards the gamer end of the market. The Strike-X sub-brand currently incorporates, three cases, a fan controller, two power supplies and it will soon also feature speakers and other peripherals.

The Aerocool Strike-X Advance is fitted with 3 x 120mm fans and a single 140mm fan. It also has support for USB 3.0.

Features

• High performance “Mid-Tower” for gamers and enthusiast.
• Aggressive “X” concept design case – a gamers’ dream.
• Supports longer high-end VGA cards up to 295 mm.
• Supports 9 x 5.25″ bays and maximum 6 x 2.5″/3.5″ HDDs (internal) with HDD convertor bracket.
• Anti-vibration pad included to dampen PSU vibration.
• Each HDD bracket can mount a 12cm fan to cool HDD individually.
• “Easy-install” screw-less kits for the 5.25” devices.
• 1 x USB2.0 + 1 x USB3.0 and Audio/Mic ports are easily accessible from the top of case.
• CPU hole is pre-drilled on the Motherboard for easy access to cooler installation.
• Cable management holes are pre-drilled with high end rubber protection.
• Dust filter included to prevent dust entering from the bottom of case.
• Supports water-cooling.
• Supports 1 x SSD.

The Aerocool Strike-X Advance has been packaged in a very striking box, with a fiery red theme. It certainly gives a bold first impression.

The back of the box is much the same as the front but does give a slightly different view of the chassis.

The packaging includes 2 styrofoam blocks at either end, as well as a transparent plastic cover for the case.

After taking the case out of the box we can see Aerocool's striking X-shape designs. The front features two red LED strips on either side while the remainder of the front is mesh.

The left-hand side of the chassis has an X-shaped mesh grid instead of a transparent window that we would normally see. A clever way to allow you to see the components inside the case while providing excellent ventilation. A 120mm fan can also be fitted onto this side.

The right-hand side of the case is plain, with no windows or fan positions.

The top of the chassis also features the very striking x-shape mesh design, this time featuring a fan on the other side. We can also see on the top, there are 1 x USB 3.0 ports, 1 x USB 2.0 ports, an on/off switch, a reset switch and the headphone/microphone sockets.

The back of the case features some bright red expansion slot covers, which are also made of a thin mesh. We can also see that both the side panels of the chassis have handles to aid with opening the case, although these sides do unfortunately slide and are not hinged.

The bottom of the chassis features feet very much like the Thermaltake Level 10 GT. These rotate by 90 degrees allowing you to improve the stability of this case. There is also a large mesh panel to aid airflow into the power supply and the rest of the chassis.

A 140mm fan can be fitted on the bottom of the chassis, next to the power supply.

The bundled accessories includes all the standard screws, a user guide, a handful of cable ties, a 3.5″ mesh front panel, and a collection of HDD trays.

Turning to the inside of the chassis, we can see more of this striking red theme. Each of the 5.25″ bays has a tool-less mechanism with a bright red X on top, which is twisted 90 degrees to lock in/out of place.

At the back of the case is 7 PCI slots, as well as a red 120mm fan.

At the top of the chassis we weren't surprised to find another fan … this time a slightly larger red 140mm model.

Looking towards the front of the chassis we can see there are plenty of cables, as well as two more 120mm fans at the front.

Turning to the other side we can the tool-less mechanism is on both sides of the chassis, as well as a small CPU-cutout. There are also plenty of holes for cable tidying, although it seems there is limited space behind the motherboard tray.

Taking the front of the case off, we can see the front fans are also red and are branded by Aerocool themselves.

Once we had removed the front of the case, we found that there was a power cable …. which powers two LED's in the red strips on either side. The whole of the front of this case is made of mesh and so we expect good thermal performance, however this probably will compromise acoustic performance.

First off we installed a power supply, this time an Antec TruePower 650W.

We then went to install a Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB Solid State Drive. Each 5.25″ tray can cater for both 3.5″ drives or 2.5″ drives, although the screws included by Aerocool don't fit the SSD's – this is however quite common. 1 x SSD can also be installed at the bottom of the 5.25″ bays, but this is slightly more fiddly.

Installation of the solid state drive is ever so easy, although it does stick out a bit more than expected from the tray. Each tray can also fit a 120mm fan on the underside, which is great for conventional hard disk drives, and this could prove to be a useful addition.

We then installed the motherboard and CPU cooler. At this point we had to plug in a 4-pin power cable before screwing down the motherboard as we were limited on space at the top of the chassis.

We then installed a graphics cards. As you can see, there is a still a good amount of space showing that this case can cater for much larger graphics cards.

Finally, we connected up the test system. We found we very limited on space for cable routing, and we very surprised to find that the left-hand side panel would not fit properly as it conflicted with our Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler – which is by no means the largest CPU cooler out there.

The side panel did fit, but with a bit too much perseverance and force involved, another few mm clearance would have been perfect for this particular build.

Today’s test system will give us a good idea of how well this case works in terms of thermal and acoustic performance.

Processor: AMD Phenom X4 965 Black Edition @ 3.9 GHz.
Motherboard: ASUS M4A785TD- M Evo
Cooler: Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler
Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1800MHz
Graphics Cards: XFX Radeon 5450 HD (GPU @ 700 MHZ, Memory Clock @ 650 MHz)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower 650W
Boot Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB

OS: Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit
Pyle Digital Sound Level Meter PSPL03

We are using the default fan configuration, which includes 2 intake fans at the front, and 2 exhaust fans, one mounted at the top and one at the rear.

While we have switched to a different graphics card from previous tests, the rest of the components are the same. At idle, the temperatures were a little higher than we'd expect but this was all due to our room temperature being 5 degrees warmer than normal. As such, load temperatures are very impressive as the processor only hit 54 degrees, even in these conditions.

The motherboard temperature also hardly increased – even with the processor and graphics card pumping out considerable heat. This highlights that the 4 fans are providing good airflow and extracting hot air and replacing it with cooler air very efficiently.

Today, to test this chassis we have set our Sound Level Meter one meter away from the case.

We then temporarily turned the two Akasa Venom Voodoo fans off, which leaves us with only the included case fan and very little noise from the power supply fan.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

This sound level output for a case that has 4 fans is excellent, and considering the thermal performance we are certainly very impressed.

The Aerocool Strike-X Advance Chassis is a well-designed chassis that incorporates a wealth of features, many of which you might expect to see on a high priced chassis.

It features tool-less mounting for all 5.25″ bays and up to 6 x 3.5″ hard drives can be installed (or 7 x 2.5″ drives). Each drive tray can support a 120mm fan giving you the ultimate cooling configuration. The chassis also features USB 3.0 and can cater for graphics cards up to 295mm in length.

The aesthetics of the AeroCool Strike X Advance are excellent … we really do like the X-shape design as it stands out in a crowded marketplace. The front light strip on either side of the chassis and the LED lit fans are an added bonus that do help to bring this chassis to life.

The build quality of the Strike X is good, but not excellent, and we feel that there is some room for improvement.

In terms of thermal performance, and despite the hotter room conditions, the Aerocool Strike-X excelled, maintaining the processor at 54 degrees, even when overclocked at 3.9 GHz. This is due to 3 x 120mm fans, and a 1 x 140mm fan being included, as well as most of the side and front panels being made of mesh.

This is brilliant ‘out of the box' performance, and it still has room for improvement as several more fans can be installed.

The acoustical performance is usually compromised when the chassis features an array of mesh panels, due to the lack of sound proofing. We were therefore very surprised when we first turned this chassis on and recorded a reading of just 32 dB. This performance would put other chassis designs to shame.

However, there were a few problems with this case. Firstly, the space given for a processor heatsink is just not enough, even for the modest Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler. It meant it was extremely fiddly to install the side-panel of the case – technically, you can install another 120mm fan on this side panel, but there just isn't the clearance.

Additionally, there is little room between the top of the cooler and the top of the chassis. This is limiting, as many of the largest heatsinks just will not fit into this chassis. Interestingly, a Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler would fit as it is 3mm smaller.

Lastly, there is also very limited space behind the motherboard tray which can cause issues when routing cables, making it substantially more difficult to keep the system neat and tidy.

The cost of the Aerocool Strike-X Advance is only £51.54 from Aria. As such the case offers great value for money as the thermal and acoustical performance out of the box is brilliant. Unfortunately, it just has a few flaws which let it down quite a bit, and as such we feel the score needs to be reduced.

Pros

• Strong thermal performance.
• Very quiet.
• Looks good.
• More fans can be fitted.

Cons

• Not enough clearance for some processor heatsinks with the side panel.
• Lack of room behind motherboard tray.
• Build quality isn't quite as good as it could be.

Kitguru says: Great out of the box performance, but restricted space could cause problems with some CPU Cooler's.

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