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

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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