Rosewill Blackhawk Mid-Tower Chassis Review

[PAGETITLE=Introduction][Top Ad] Seeing as how I obsess over hardware most of the time while I'm awake, I tend to visit a large number of online retailers to see what is on the market and for what price. If you're like me, chances are you've seen Rosewill products of just about every type on a major hardware retailer's website. Luckily I've been "in the game" long enough to see the company begin launching products aimed towards the enthusiast crowd, and that includes cases. I've wanted to try one out for a while to see how they stack up with some of the more popular brands, because choice is never a bad thing. The time has come and we have the Rosewill Blackhawk on the review table today. As the name suggests, the Blackhawk is black inside and out. It features a steel body with plastic accents and supports micro-ATX and ATX motherboards. The review sample that we received is a refresh with USB 3.0 support added. From the start, some may compare the look of this case to another popular case from another manufacturer, so it'll be interesting to see if the Blackhawk offers any features other than what its competition does. From top to bottom the front panel features a metal mesh to help with airflow. At the very top are four 5.25" drive bays with the bottom doubling as a 3.5" bay thanks to a converter. The rest of the front is taken up by the ventilation area for two 120mm blue LED fans. There is also room for a third 120mm fan, but that will be covered shortly when the panels come off. Both of the included fans are powered by 4-pin Molex connectors. The left side allows users to show off their components thanks to a large, smoked, right arrow-shaped window. Directly behind the window is a 120mm non-LED fan with a 4-pin Molex connector. A fan in this area will help to supply components with fresh air to drive down temperatures. Around back starting at the top left is the motherboard I/O opening. To the right are three holes with pre-installed rubber grommets where one is for the USB 3.0 cable that runs from the top panel to an open port on the motherboard I/O. The remaining two holes can be used to run hoses for a water cooling setup. Below these is a second 120mm non-LED fan powered by a 3-pin connection to exhaust warm air out of the case. Continuing down are eight vented PCI slot covers, a small vented area to the right, two more water cooling holes below and the opening for the power supply at the very bottom. The right side has a mounting area for an optional 120mm fan directly behind the CPU to help reduce temperatures further by cooling the backside of the socket and surrounding area. Due to space restrictions, only fans up to 18mm thick will fit, so standard 25mm thick fans are a no-go. Moving up top at the front finds the I/O connections. From left to right there is the USB 3.0 port that connects directly to the motherboard I/O as mentioned earlier, the first pair of USB 2.0 ports, 3.5mm headset and microphone jacks and a second pair USB 2.0 ports. On the right are the reset button with the hard drive activity LED above and the power button with the power LED above it as well. With the exception of the area directly behind the I/O, the rest of the top features the same mesh as the front panel, but this time it hides a 140mm blue LED fan powered by another 4-pin Molex connector. Behind the I/O area is a hot swap SATA drive bay. Assuming the motherboard supports AHCI, a 3.5" or 2.5" drive can be added and removed on-the-fly when needed. Rosewill included a handy cap to cover the data and power connections when not in use to keep dust and dirt out. With the case flipped over, the rubber pads attached to four molded plastic feet can be found. These lift the case up off the ground to help with ventilation for the power supply and optional bottom fans while absorbing any vibration and stopping slipping and sliding. Both areas feature filters to help keep dust out of the system and are removed by flexing the mesh so it slips out from under metal fingers. On either side of the filter for the fans are thumbscrews that can be removed if the bottom section of the hard drive cage needs to be taken out. The outside the Blackhawk offers fairly traditional styling by today's standards with some extra expandability in the form of USB 3.0 and hot swap bay on the top panel. It's time to have a closer look at the interior to see if it holds any extra surprises. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Interior] Removing the front panel gives a good view of the two front fans. As mentioned, there is room for another optional fan but only if three of the four 5.25" drive bays are not used. The bottom three bays have break away but reusable covers behind the front panel and an extra fan can be mounted to them. These can be moved around so that the bottom bay can be used and the fan mounted above it, but if two devices are needed there will be no room. It's hard to see in the photo but there is a fine metal mesh behind the entire front panel to keep dust out of the system. Swinging back around to the left side at the bottom front is the hard drive cage. This cage is broken up into three, two tray sections and each section features plastic trays that can accept 3.5" or 2.5" drives. If an alternate drive cage configuration is needed due to an extremely long video card, for example, there are five possible configurations. The top, middle and bottom sections are all removable giving users the ability to tailor their setup based on the components being used. Above the hard drive cage are the four tool-less 5.25" drive bays. As mentioned, the bottom bay comes with a 5.25" to 3.5" converter but all four have the same method of securing 5.25" devices in place. The bottom of the case has space for two optional 120mm or 140mm fans to be mounted in front of the power supply, however if two fans are to be installed the bottom section of the hard drive cage has to go. Oddly enough, the official specifications make no mention of a second fan being possible but the screw holes are clearly there. The power supply area at the very back has a Velcro strap that goes around the unit to help keep it in place during transportation. When installed, the unit rests on four small foam pads and the same foam can be found around the rear opening to help absorb any vibration. Up next is the motherboard tray that allows for some tidy cable management thanks for the areas with pre-installed rubber grommets down the right side and at the bottom. Data and power leads can be fed through these to keep the inside looking clean and leave airflow unimpeded. The tray also features is a large cutout to help with the removal and installation of CPU coolers that feature a backplate and there is also a smaller cutout in the top left corner for the fan and 12V power leads. From the factory the Blackhawk comes with the motherboard standoffs pre-installed for ATX motherboards. The rear of the interior showcases the tool-less PCI slots. The rest of what is found here was mentioned earlier when looking at the exterior but this time around there is a better view of the USB 3.0 cable that runs from the top panel. The top of the case has the 140mm fan but there is also room to mount another optional 120mm or 140mm fan for extra cooling. The back of the motherboard tray shows off most of what can be seen from the other side. The data cables have been secured at two points next to the cable management areas to keep them snug and tight. There are also metal loops in various places to help keep hidden leads in place. This is great because there is very little room to tuck cables. With just under half an inch or over a centimeter of clearance, some creative cable management may be needed. One thing I wanted to show so it isn't missed in the overall shot are the three thumbscrews that help hold the three sections of the hard drive cage in place in conjunction with the two found on the bottom of the case: Included with the chassis is a bag of hardware that comes in an overly large cardboard box. Inside are the manual, two cable ties, a speaker, a metal loop that allows for the left side panel to be locked and a bag that contains extra motherboard standoffs, screws for the motherboard and power supply, screws for 3.5" hard drives and 5.25" devices and screws for 2.5" hard drives. So far the Blackhawk looks like a winner to me, so it's time to see how the case fares during the build and how cool it keeps our overclocked components with its large number of included fans. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Installation & Testing] The motherboard installed without any problems and when it came time for the power supply, the unit slid into place nice and flush. However, the review sample was missing one of the foam pads that it would rest on. There were also problems with running leads through the nearest opening in the motherboard tray - I could not keep that rubber grommet in place no matter how careful I was, likely due to the sharp angle that the leads needed to be run at. This put extra strain on the grommet and it pulled away from the motherboard tray. Even without cables run through the opening I couldn't get the grommet back on for some reason, so after 15 minutes of trying it was pulled from the system. Hard drive installation was easy enough with 3.5" drives simply snapping into the tray and held in place by metal pegs surrounded by rubber to help absorb vibrations. A 2.5" drive used for demonstration was installed using four of the included screws to secure it from the bottom. To ensure nothing is overlooked during a case review I always test out each feature, even if it isn't required during the build process. One such feature is the sectioned hard drive cage. To remove all sections there are the two thumbscrews on the bottom of the case and three more behind the motherboard tray. On the left side of the drive cage are four standard screws holding the top two sections in place along with another six that...

Rosewill Blackhawk Mid-Tower Chassis Review

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