Aerocool X-Predator Evil Black Edition Gaming Chassis Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Aerocool X-Predator External4. Aerocool X-Predator Internal5. Aerocool X-Predator System Installation6. Testing Methodology and Performance7. Acoustical Performance8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

Aerocool have been working hard to grab a percentage of chassis sales in the UK market and today we are analysing their Aerocool X-Predator Evil Black Edition Gaming Chassis. This is a full tower case loaded with features ideal for the target audience.

The X-Predator is aggressive in its design with a focus on maximum airflow to cope with high end enthusiast grade components.

The X-Predator range features 6 cases; the Evil Black Edition, Black Edition, White Edition, Green Edition, Evil Blue Edition and the Devil Red Edition.

Specifications

• High Performance “Super Tower” for gamers and enthusiasts.
• Solidly constructed chassis – The chassis is solidly constructed with 0.8mm and 1.0mm SECC Japanese steel.
• Unique and Attractive Internal Color Combination –  The XPredator “Evil Black” edition is beautifully finished in Black/Orange combination
  
• High-End Graphic Card Support (up to 330mm)
  
• High Expandability and Supports E-ATX and the latest XL-ATX MB – such as Gigabyte's latest GA-X58A-UD9 Motherboard
• Supports – 6 x 5.25″ external devices, 6 x HDDs (3.5″ or 2.5″) and 1 x 3.5″ external device (with the converter provided) such as a Floppy drive or a Card Reader.
• Ease of Installation – The XPredator case includes an array of advance features to enhance every stage of build. New innovative 5.25″, 3.5″ and PCI slot screw less designs make installing and swapping components an effortless process.
  
• Easy Access Top I/O Ports w/ USB3.0 support – 3 sets of USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 Super Speed USB, Audio/Mic (AC 97 + HD audio) and E-SATA ports are located on the top panel for easy access.
  
• Smart Cable Routing and Management – Cable routing holes are pre-drilled on the MB plate so users can hide cables and wires behind the MB tray. These pre-drilled holes are also protected by high quality rubber to prevent damages to the cables.
  
• Dust Protection – Includes removable bottom PSU dust filters to prevent dust entering your computer.
  
• Water-cooling Support – Quad water-cooling holes are pre-drilled to support water-cooling systems.
• High End Cooler Support and Assembly – CPU hole is pre-drilled on the MB plate for simple cooler assembly and removable. The chassis can also support High End coolers up to 190mm in height.
  
• Beautifully finished Transparent “Grey” Side Window with the option to install 4 x 12cm or 14cm fans !!
• Superb Airflow and Performance – The XPredator case comes with 1 x 23cm Quad Orange LED front in-take fan, 1 x 23cm top exhaust fan, 1 x 12/14cm back exhaust fan (optional), 1 x 12/14cm bottom in-take fan (optional) and 4 x 12cm/14cm or 1 x 18/20cm in-take side panel fans (optional). In addition, 2 sets of fan controllers are provided to control these fans.

The X-Predator Evil Black Edition ships in a box that is certainly going to stand out in a retail store environment, featuring a mutant scorpion on the left, as well as three product pictures.

The back of the box takes it one step further with the product picture merging with an ever larger scorpion.  The box also lists the featureset in the bottom left-hand corner. This packaging is certainly bold and different, and while it may not appeal to all tastes it does stand out in a crowded marketplace.

The internal packaging is much the same as any other case, featuring two Styrofoam blocks and a transparent protective cover.

Included with the X-Predator is a box of screws and cable ties. Aerocool have used a very simple diagram to show you which is which.

There is also a User's Manual, which shows you how to install 5.25″ drives and 3.5″ drives, as well as showing you a diagram of how to use and set-up the fan controller.

The Evil Black Edition features a lovely orange interior which you can see through the transparent window. There is also orange mesh on the side and front.

The window-side of the chassis can fit 4 x 120mm fans or even 4 x 140mm fans, which is rather impressive.

The front features 4 orange mesh strips with the remainder black. Aerocool's Performance Gaming System label features on the front.

The top of the Aerocool is certainly bold, and features a fan controller with two channels, 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 and an eSATA port, as well as the usual headphone and microphone sockets. There is more orange styling this time featuring Aerocool's logo.

The back of the chassis features some stunning Orange PCI covers. These are made from mesh to aid with ventilation. A 120mm fan can also be fitted at the rear, with a full 4 watercooling holes, although one will be used for the USB 3.0 cable.

On top of the chassis is a little slider which raises the slits across the top, allowing for increased ventilation. The right side of the case features a plain panel.

The bottom features four large feet raising the case up nearly an inch. There is also a dust filter for the power supply which slides out towards the rear of the case. You can also see there is space for an additional 120mm fan at the bottom of the chassis.

The interior features a bright orange motherboard tray, which contrasts against the predominate black scheme. The 6 x 5.25″ bays feature a simple push and slide locking mechanism.

Looking towards the rear of the case we can see they have incorporated a tool-less mechanism for the PCI slots, which is also orange. A 120mm exhaust fan could also be fitted here at the rear.

The tool-less mechanism uses a simple locking-lever system, which when you release it springs the PCI cover's across the case. Once you have secured a graphics card or similar in place you just push the lever towards the card until it clicks.

The 3.5″ bays are mounted at 90 degrees to that of the 5.25″ bays, and feature a very simple tray design. There is also a good collection of cables, including a USB 3.0 cable, 6 fan cables as well as I/O cables that you plug into the motherboard.

At the top of the chassis is a 230mm fan by Aerocool. There are also several sets of holes, which can cater for various fan and radiator configurations.

At the bottom and sides of the motherboard tray we found a series of cable-routing holes, with rubber grommets. Unfortunately, the rubber grommets do fall out of place quite easily and you have to hold them securely when pushing a cable through.

From the left-hand side of the chassis we can see behind the motherboard tray, which does feature a cut-out for a processor backplate. The space behind the motherboard tray should be adequate to route power supply cables out of sight.

We then removed the outer shell at the front, to highlight the front 230mm fan. Aerocool have also included a 3.5″ to 5.25″ adapter, making it easy to install a Floppy Disk Drive or Card reader.

Taking the top of the chassis off we can easily see an array of holes, allowing for a 240mm radiator to be fitted. It's a shame they didn't alter the design slightly to allow a 360mm radiator to be fitted however there isn't the clearance at the front of the chassis.

First we installed an Akasa Venom Power 750W power supply at the bottom of the chassis.

The 3.5″ trays can cater for either 3.5″ or 2.5″ drives; as such we fitted a Kingston HyperX 3k 120 GB SSD easily enough. Aerocool have even included the right sized screws for both 2.5″ drives and 3.5″ drives.

You then just slide the trays in until they click in place – we also fitted a 3.5″ 160 GB Maxtor Diamond Max 20 drive. Our only comment being, that this seems to be quite a tight fit, and we suspect not much air will be able to circulate around a 3.5″ drive if you use consecutive bays.

We then proceeded to install a motherboard and cpu cooler. Our Micro ATX board certainly looks small in this chassis and it can easily cater for ATX and even EL-ATX boards with ease.

We finally installed a XFX Radeon 5450 HD graphics card. This case can cater for graphics cards with a length of up to 330mm.

Connecting everything was extremely easy as there is plenty of space inside the chassis to work with. We managed to route most of the cables exactly where we wanted to keep the system tidy. Only the thin rubber grommets caused us problems as they just fell out of the holes every time you tried to push a cable through.

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 PSPL25

We are using the default fan configuration, which is just 1 x 230mm intake fan at the front, and 1 x 230mm exhaust fan at the top of the chassis. As the top of the chassis can be opened or closed we took two sets of readings. Both fan controllers were set to full speed for these tests.

The first conclusion we can draw from these results is that there clearly a noticeable difference in ventilation between the top of the chassis when the vent system is open and closed. With the top of the chassis open, all system temperatures were reduced. Graphics card temperatures were reduced by 4 degrees and processor temperatures were reduced by 5 degrees.

While this is not a huge margin it is certainly noticeable and in some instances may allow the processor cooling fan to spin lower, generating lower noise emissions.

The overall thermal performance is quite good, but not a challenge to the market leaders. That said there is the provision to connect another five fans.

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 acoustic test was performed with the top of the chassis open so we can see the noise generated when the case is in its maximum performance mode. We did repeat this test with both fan controllers turned to their lowest setting to give a minimum and maximum sound level output.

Considering the Aerocool X-Predator only features 2 x 230mm fans which at full speed only rotate at 750 RPM – we were surprised that the sound level output was this high. While it is not extremely loud, it is noticeable and a little louder than we'd like for every day operation.

Even when we turned the fans down to their slowest setting, we could still hear the chassis from the other side of the room. While its out-of-the-box performance isn't bad, we would expect better.

For comparison, the BitFenix Spectre 230mm fans produce 115 CFM airflow while emitting only 20 dB noise while the Aerocool 230mm fans used in the X-Predator chassis deliver only 49 CFM for 27 dB. The fans are clearly not the highest grade, which is disappointing.

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.

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