XCLIO 6030 Plus Enclosure

Introduction:

    In this review I will be going over a new enclosure from XClio called the 6030 Plus. Xclio  offers several different styles of enclosures along with a line of power supplies. The 6030Plus is an all black enclosure with a large side panel intake fan. How large of a fan you ask? How about 360mm big. This large fan should push hot air right of the enclosure and do so with low RPM's which mean lower noise. Also when things are on the cool side a built in fan speed controller is also included.

Specifications:

Packaging:

Retail box

Side view

Protection

    The 6030Plus arrived in a plain white box with the XClio logo on two sides and the the model number on the two smaller sides of the box. After removing the enclosure from the box the softer foam packing material is used for protection along with the plastic bag.

Exterior:

3/4 View

Front

Power/Reset

Front I/O

    The exterior and frame of the 6030Plus is constructed from lightweight steel and isn't as heavy as some other steel enclosures. The front bezel which is made up of plastic has four 5.25" and two 3.50" external bays on the upper half. The lower section has the power and reset along with a circular mesh opening. Around this opening is a clear ring that glows blue when the power is turned on. On the left side of the bezel is the front panel I/O connections which are two USB ports and Audio connections.

Fan panel

Fan controls

Rear panel

Right Panel

Moving around to the left side panel you will notice it sticks out quite a bit. Under this bump out is a single 360mm fan with some blue LED's to accent the grill work on the bump out. Incorporated in to side panel fan assembly is a power button to turn the fan on and off and a variable speed control. The rear panel is the typical layout of an older enclosure with dual 80mm opening up top. The right side panel has no distinct features to it.

Interior:

360mm fan	Inside view	Optical cage
HDD cage	PCI Expansion	PSU Opening

    Access is gained by removing two thumbscrews and removing the side fan panel. With the panel off you can now see the true size of this large fan. I'm sure one question everyone has how loud the fan is and will we go over that later. The internal layout is not all that impressive and is something found on lower end enclosures. On the website the pictures show tool-less clips and non were provided with my review sample. The drive cage structure is a one piece design with five internal hard drive bays. The PCI expansion have the metal covers that need to be bent and broken off. Also only one PCI expansion cover was supplied.

Installation:

Optical Installed	HDD Installed	PSU Installed
Gear installed	360mm Fan glowing	All Done

    Well the install on this enclosure will take some more time since nothing is tool-less so we have to go old school on the install. Like always I pop in the optical drive first and then the hard drive and route my wires towards the motherboard. Next I install the motherboard and then the power supply and make all my final connections. Time to fire up the computer and listen to the fan. The fan on high was really quiet and hardly noticeable and on low was noticed at all.

Conclusion:

    Although I like the concept of the XClio 6030Plus I'm not happy with the actual enclosure itself. The quality of the enclosure itself was poor at best. For the tool-less clip mystery the answer found on the website and the answer was "TOOL-LESS CLIPS FOR EASY INSTALLATION (OPTIONAL)". OPTIONAL these are cheap plastic clip and they shouldn't be optional in a enclosure like this.

    The fan on the side panel is great idea an does work on getting out all the hot air within the enclosure and does this quietly. The designed look of the grille is pleasing to the eye and the blue glow of the LED's add to this effect. I would like to thank XClio for sending this out for VH to review.

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