This is a chassis built for storage fiend as well as a gamer. You can fully see the three removable tooless hard drive bays and the three upper 5.25" bays for ROM drives. In case you didn't do the math, that's also space for twelve hard drives.

4 Removable Trays x 3 Removable Bays = 12 Hard Drives

Once you've removed the plates holding the bay in place via the front Bezel, the trays slide out. Keep an eye out for the two black tooless rails that make it possible to slide in and out. They fall off very, very easy and you don't want to lose any.

Empty Bay

Tooless Rails

The accessory boxes contain more tooless black rails for more mounting many more drives. There's also wire twists, zip ties, motherboard parts, and what not. Either way, there's plenty of extras bundled to pack this chassis tight and then some. Let's check for any installation and cooling issues.

Installation & Testing:

The chassis is so roomy that you can use any CPU cooler (that I can find at FrozenCPU, Performance-PCs, and Newegg) and computer component without worry that it won't fit. It doesn't matter how many Zotac GTX 260 AMP2 Editions you want to use, it'll all fit!

Installing the PSU, motherboard, ROM drive, and hard drive was all pretty much uneventful. Each of the three hard drive tray assemblies are tooless and slide out through the front. You'll have to remove some plates to slide them out which is a bit redundant. After working more with the chassis, I think it'd be a bad idea to install just one center plate. If they were black, it'd be even better.

Supports ATX, e-ATX, & Skull Trail! (m-ATX as well, but why?)

The only minor issue that one might have is installing hard drives in the black plastic trays. Granted, they're pretty flexible. But, depending on your hard drive, it could be a little tough getting the hard drive in without scratching it up. It's easier putting two tabs in one side of the drive first, then slide the drive down till it slips in to place. You'll be happy to know that none of the trays distorted, cracked, or broke, so they do work.

No Tools Needed

Fits Just Right

The hard drives fit pretty well once you get the black tray on. The black trays are also easier to put in and pull out with a drive installed because they don't flex so much, thus working against you. I found it easier to leave the drive bay in while installing the trays. It can be a little tricky holding the black rails on the bay and you don't want to accidently drop the drives.

Standard & Aluminum Drive Trays

Drive Installed

Does it matter that there are five 180mm fans drawing cool air in to the chassis while only two 180mm fans expelling warm air? Not really, as long as the incoming fans aren't running full speed with the top two only half speed. Thermal dynamics are also in favor of most any chassis with venting at the top. Since warm air naturally rises, the two top exhaust fans automatically have help. Plus, the rear of the chassis is vented enough to allow even more warm air to escape.

Just to see how the chassis works, an inside temp was taken before placing a heat gun inside on low. This more than simulates a rather extremely warm system inside the chassis.

The internal temp was at 20 C just sitting there which matched the ambient room temp. Once the heat gun had the internal temp at 60 C, the case was powered up leaving the fans set to low which produced about 15 dB of fan noise. The temp dropped to 38 C in about a minute.

Repeating the same test again, the case fans were turned up to full speed which dropped temps to 33 C in about 30 seconds. There was about 30 dB of fan noise produced pretty much all around the case. That's not exactly as loud as expected. A lot of that has to do with the size of the fans which don't have to work hard at all to move a huge amount of air like smaller fans.

Finally, two rear 120mm 72 CFM case fans set to expel air from the chassis were installed. Again, each test was performed. With the fan speeds on low, the case kept temps to 29 C on low and test two resulting in a 25 C internal temp on high.

Ready	Blue	Green
Red	Variable	Another Variable

And to see what kinds of light shows one might or might not enjoy, here are the settings. And yes, some of them are sitting next to my Christmas tree because the colors matched. The LED lights at least produce deep, rich colors rather than faded variations like countless other cases offer.

Blue, Greed, Red, or Variable Colors: Take your pick!

At present, the XClio 1000 Enclosure can be found for $269 at Newegg with shipping pushing it to the $300 limit. That's one hefty premium for a non-aluminum chassis and plastic bezel. That price might drop now that someone else up in Canada is selling the case for $239 plus shipping. Honestly, this is the biggest issue I think most users will have with the enclosure at present.

Conclusion:

The two extra rear fans do in fact improve thermal dissipation. However, given the temps without them, they aren't necessary. Unless you are running the case full of video cards with passive heat sinks along with twelve hard drives constantly spinning 24/7 along with a heat gun, you have nothing to worry about. Just the same, it would have been nice to see XClio go ahead and include two more fans of almost any sort. Though cooling is fantastic, two more fans would make it simply, perfect.

The hard drive trays are a new concept to this test bench. They'll require a little dexterity when installing a drive. Some correctly placed leverage makes it pretty simple after installing the first one. Besides that, they're two trays with aluminum heat sink trays which install in a more traditional manner if you like to keep it simple. The amount of storage whether it be hard drives or ROM drives is exemplary. One could add drive after drive topping out well above 15TB assuming your drive of choice is a 1.5TB monster. There's just so much room for expansion and growth that it gets an "A+" in this respect.

Looks Better In Person

The bezel design has me on the fence. I like something unique as much as the next enthusiast. But, if something looks or feels a little on the weak side, it just seems counter productive. Personally, I can easily work with what designers did with the individual doors and fans. But, the front tray vents are too flexible and just don't fit very well. Again, it doesn't take much to knock it off center and no one likes a sloppy vent. And the aluminum plates behind the vents block the bulk of any air that could make it through. My advise is to remove them soon as you get the case and I think you'll be very happy.

The XClio 1000 Enclosure produces the largest light show of sorts I've ever seen on a prebuilt case. You have four choices in colors for each set of fans. There's red, green, blue, and chameleon where the fans change through various shades of purple, white, yellow, or what not. It practically out does my controllable lights on the Christmas tree. (No, you can't put this case on top of the Christmas tree...or can you?)

Hopefully, the real life pictures have shown the XClio 1000 Enclosure in a better and correct light. It's a very functional and thermal friendly case which will further draw performance users like gamers. The great thing about the XClio 1000's light show is that it can be completely controlled which includes being turned off. You can enjoy the thermal performance of the fans and not have to have LEDs lighting up the room. Gamer's or enthusiasts will either love or hate the the look. But, with so much control and storage, it's appealing to file fiends. Now, if only something can be done about the price...