Xoxide X450
Aluminum Mid-Tower Case Review
Date : Monday, 17 February 2003
By : Stygian
Provided By : Xoxide Modifications
Introduction
Xoxide continues to expand its line of modified cases available to the public. They're simply not content to rest on their laurels as they have consistently conjured up new and improved designs. They're not just active on the design front either; their excellent service and support has earned them an excellent reputation at ResellerRatings.com and their X-Hour and Xoxide Rewards program have proven to be innovative ways to increase their exposure. The last review of a case I did was of their LL-61 Warrior, and while it proved to be an effectively designed case, its price was quite steep for some people. But those same people will perhaps still want a case that is not only aluminum, but looks great and is well-built. There are many advantages to the aluminum case: Heat can be dissipated better, they are easy to transport because of their light weight and they generally look nicer. Today, Xoxide answers the call of the budget aluminum case aficionado with their X450 Aluminum Mid-Tower.
Specifications
From the picture above, this case looks very flashy. But we all know that looks can be deceiving. The X450 is available in either a silver or black theme, and the one I'll be looking at today is silver. The drive configuration is similar to what you'd find on most mid-tower cases nowadays. Four 5.25" drive bays provide ample space for most people's devices, though you could easily fill them up with a DVD, CD-RW, Baybus-type device and a LCD/VFD of some sort. But in that case, I don't think your system would be classified as "deprived". A total of six 3.5" drive bays is also quite a lot. One thing that immediately caught my attention was the lack of fan placements in this case. There is one 80mm up front, one side panel mounted 80mm and one thin (15mm) 60mm fan at the rear for exhaust. That's it; there are no more stock places for fans. I would have liked to see at least the rear fan to be a standard-size 80mm rather than a thin 60mm fan normally seen on small heatsinks. Xoxide claims that "due to the aluminum structure, the case is in need of less cooling fans than the X300 to stay chilled", but we will see if this is the case. (Haha, "case", get it? Okay, lame pun...)
The first thing you undoubtedly will notice about this case are its looks. The plastic front bezel is silver coloured, to match the brushed aluminum look of the exterior of the case, and the drive bays along with almost all of the front bezel are covered with acrylic(?) pieces. The acrylic has a bluish tint to it, and this is evident when it is viewed from the side. The two bolt heads visible on each 5.25" drive bay cover hold the acrylic to the plastic faceplate, and are very well-polished adding to the overall look. This case is also *very* light; 9lbs is nothing for a case, and I was very surprised at how easy it was to pick this case up. Definitely something to consider if you're looking for a LAN party case.
 The (silver) X450. |
 Front view; plastic sheet protects the acrylic faceplates |
 Side view; nice window design. |
The window on the side also has a bluish tint to it, and would be ideal for a blue cold cathode. However, other colours such as green, I found, worked very well. In fact, for some, a green colour would provide a nice contrast to the bluish hue of the entire case. The side panel has seven pieces cut out from it in a symmetrical shape, and the one-piece window is simply bolted over these cutouts. A clear-fan is placed right in the centre of the window design, and chrome-wire grill finishes off the impressive look. This clear fan can be upgraded to a quad-LED fan of your choice, if you so desire, as such a fan would work quite well with the design seen here.
 Rear view; no PSU included. |
 Handles on side panels. |
 Removing the plastic protective cover. |
The rear of the case shows that this case comes with no PSU. Not a surprise these days, as it allows the price of the case to be kept lower, and also allows the consumer to pick what PSU they want to use, rather than being stuck with a cheap unit, or being fed an expensive one that is more than what they need. There are four thumbscrews provided standard with the case, two on each side to hold each side panel in place, and they simplify access. Nowadays, thumbscrews are becoming increasingly common as the industry addresses the needs of the case modders and other enthusiasts who are always playing around in their cases. The side panels also have a little thumb-handle on each side, to facilitate in the removal of the panel.
 The reset button is just below the central power button. |
 Front panel access for USB, audio. |
 Plastic-spring latch holds cover in place. |
 Standard case feet. |
There is a clear plastic protective sheet covering the front acrylic to prevent it from being scratched during shipping or removal from the box. It's similar to the sheet you find protecting displays on electronics, and it's easily removed. This was a nice touch by the manufacturer to make sure the nice-looking front of the case remained that way when it reached its destination. The Power, Reset and LEDs are located towards the bottom of the case and are bordered by a shiny, plastic bevel. The HDD LED is red, and the power LED is green. The front USB ports and audio jacks are covered by a plastic door that is held in place by a plastic-spring latch. Front USB is always nice, but I felt the latch holding the door in place was little fragile, and felt it was prone to breakage.
<< Back to Reviews Page | Accessories and Getting Inside >>
Accessories and Getting Inside
There's nothing extraordinary to speak of in the accessories. A small baggie of screws and standoffs, the necessary, is included as well as two slot covers, a diagram of the case and a converter for motherboards which have a different pinout for the power LED. The slot covers are included because this case has the kind of expansion covers which must be twisted and broken off. I simply hate these kind of slot covers, and while the two removable slot covers and included here, I'd much rather have them all be removable/replaceable. Additionally, it would have been nice if a few tie-wraps were included, to help aid in cleaning up the wiring.
 The ATX I/O, diagram, 2 slot covers, bag of screws/standoffs and power LED connector-adapter. |
 Thumbscrews for side panels. |
 Side panel slides back a bit, then easily comes out. |
Access is very easy for this case. The two thumbscrews per side panel are easily removed, and then the panels can be slide back a bit, with the use of the small handles, and then they will come out. The window is held in place by eight screws, and by the screws holding the clear side fan in place. No moulding is used, but the window still looks very nice from the outside. Additionally, the window's corners are rounded so there is no danger of injuring yourself while working with the case. The side panel is very light, even with the window and fan on it. At the same time, however, they also feel very flimsy, and would seem to bend easily. The top is riveted on, and seems to provide an integral part of the case's structure.
 Window bolted into place. |
 Side internal view. |
 Internal drive bay view. |
The inside of the case reveals a non-removable motherboard tray and four internal 3.5" drive bays. These internal drive bays are all mounted in front of the front 80mm intake fan so your HDD will have airflow over it to keep it cool. The edges of the case are folded back against themselves to prevent sharp edges from being formed, and protecting against cuts. Again, just from the feel of the metal comprising the drive bays, this case appears to be less sturdy than I would have liked. The lower internal front shows the four places for mounting a HDD.
 Back of the inside. |
 Lower internal front; HDDs mounted in front of 80mm intake. |
 Front panel connections; Speaker/Mic on the left and USB on the right. |
The rear of the case shows where the 60mm fan is mounted. There's nothing too interesting here, but you can also see the supports for the PSU. The front panel connections for the audio jacks and USB ports are separated into individual pins, which makes them a pain to connect but they connectors are separated this way because each motherboard may have a different pinout, so it will be necessary to consult your motherboard's manual to figure out the right way to plug in the connectors. The motherboard connectors for power, reset and the LEDs are standard fare, along with the provided ATX I/O.
 Power, Reset, and mobo connectors. |
 ATX I/O in place. |
 Slot covers must be ripped out and are not replaceable. |
I did have a few gripes with this case, and here's where they start. Firstly, the slot covers must be twisted and torn off, so they are not replaceable, and additionally, the process of removing them is troublesome. Also, before you can install an external drive you must twist and tear out a metal drive cover that is not replaceable. If you'll notice, I hate having to twist and tear out stuff from a case. Lastly, the front bezel is a little difficult to remove, making the process of twisting out the metal drive cover even more hard.
<< Introduction | Installation >>
Installation
As mentioned before, the side panels are easy to remove thanks to the thumbscrews used to hold them in place. However, the motherboard tray is not removable, so you'll have to directly mount your motherboard into the case. You'll probably want to put in the DIMMs and perhaps the CPU and heatsink before you mount the motherboard, as such things can be hard to install once the motherboard is in the case. The brass standoffs included are pretty standard, and you'll have to check on your motherboard to see where to install them onto the tray. Expansion card installation is a little tricky, as you'll have to rip out the slot covers. I really detest these kinds of non-replaceable slot covers.
 Brass standoffs. |
 Standoffs installed. |
The brass standoffs hold the motherboard securely in place, and I didn't have any problems with the layout of the motherboard tray, that is, it didn't have any non-standard standoff spots. Once the motherboard was installed, I proceeded to install the PSU, but came upon a little problem... I had to install the PSU upside down! The screw hole layout of the case just would not line up when I put in the PSU right side up, that is, with the bottom vents facing the CPU area. This isn't a big deal, but it may affect the cooling ability of the PSU, as the vents now face the topside of the case, not towards the CPU area. Thus, the PSU will not be able to suck air away from the CPU area. I have no idea why the case manufacturer chose to implement this layout.
 Can be hard to get in the top screws for the drive in the top bay. |
 Plenty of room for HDDs. |
 PSU is installed upside down! |
HDD installation is pretty straightforward. With four HDD bays, you'll have enough room here for a nice ATA-RAID setup, and the front 80mm fan is right there to provide cooling for the array. For external drive bays, you'll first have to tear out a metal cover, and then remove the drive covers on the bezel. The drives are then slid in from the front and are screwed in with ease. Looking at the drive bay covers, we see that they are simply standard plastic ones with the nice transparent blue faceplate attached to the front. For the 5.25" covers, the transparent cover is bolted on, while for the 3.5" covers the transparent part is clipped on.
 Drive covers removed. |
 Transparent part lies overtop of the plastic drive cover. |
 Screwed onto 5.25" covers. |
There are no drive cages for this case, so all drives are directly mounted to the chassis. I would have liked to see this case have more modular parts, like a motherboard tray or at least a drive cage for some of the 3.5" drives. This is because having to directly install all the parts can be tricky sometimes, especially having to install a PSU into the case when a motherboard is in place. However, I didn't find it too troublesome with this case as there appeared to be enough room to get the job done.
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Cooling and Mod Possibilities
While this case only has places for three fans, stock, its aluminum nature is claimed to provide it with better heat dissipation and in addition, there is some potential for adding additional fans. Firstly, the front 80mm intake is held in place by a standard plastic fan cage that is easily removed should you wish to put something in that is more powerful (and possibly more noisy) than the stock fan. However, the only intake vent for this fan is a hole underneath in the front bezel - a vent hole that will probably blocked a bit when this case is placed on a carpeted floor. There are no vent holes in the front of the bezel, but vent holes in the front would probably disrupt the appealing look of the case. The 80mm fan used here isn't too noisy, nor does it push too much air.
 Front 80mm fan. |
 Front 80mm fan and its cage. |
The only mod I could think of here is to punch out the 80mm grille in the front chassis to open up a bigger airway for the fan. I don't think you'd be able to do much work on the front bezel to help airflow without ruining its look.
 Front fan grille is just stamped in place. |
 Intake vent on bottom of case. |
The rear 60mm fan is a thin (15mm) unit and is nothing to speak of. It's more of a spot-cooling fan than an exhaust fan, in my opinion, and the fact that it's mounted in front of a punched-out fan grille doesn't help its ability to push out air. It would have been far better to include an 80mm fan here, but unfortunately, the indentation/recess at the back of the case at this position prohibits you from even (cleanly) adding a place for an 80mm fan here.
 Rear 60mm fan. |
 Vent holes. |
The side fan is a clear, blue-hued 80mm fan that by default is set to exhaust air. It's mounted right at the centre of the window design, and looks great with the window. The fan is very cleanly mounted, and there are no rough edges around the window where the fan hole is. The 80mm fan here isn't too noisy or powerful as well. It would have been nice to have a switch option to control the use of this fan, but considering that there aren't many other fans in this case, you'll probably want to leave this fan on at all times, anyways. Additionally, putting washers between the fan and the window would have been a nice option, but this may be a moot point anyway, since the fan isn't loud to begin with.
 Fan is set to exhaust. |
 Very cleanly mounted. |
 No rough edges. |
The window is professionally put in place, with all of its corners rounded for your protection. It's simply bolted into place over the cutout design on the side panel, a simply design which works well and produces a nice result. However, the design of the window pretty much prevents you from adding any other blowhole fans to the side of this case. In fact, the only other place I can think of that would be ideal to add a fan to, would be at the top, just behind the 5.25" drive bays, for a chimney fan.
 Window is bolted into place. |
 Corners rounded nicely. |
 Both fan and window have a blue hue. |
Such a chimney fan would be ideal given that the PSU being mounted upside-down turns its vents away from the CPU. I'd say an 80mm fan could be mounted there, with some work. Because the top of the case is riveted on, you'll have to either take out everything from your case or take off the top using a drill beforehand. A little complex, but altogether not too hard.
 PSU mounted upside down so the vents don't face the CPU... |
So how did the case fare in terms of cooling? With all the stock fans on, the case temperatures were about 4 degrees Celsius above what the case temperatures were with all the fans off and all of the covers off. This was with a celeron 1.0GHz, so with other hardware the temperatures may be different. These results weren't bad, but I feel they could've been better with a more robust cooling setup.
<< Installation | Conclusion >>
Conclusion
The X450 impressed me with its looks and easy access. Its design is simple but at the same time appealing. The silver colour works well with beige parts so it's not necessary to paint your drive's faceplates to get a good look. Its light weight and good looks make it ideal for a LAN party case, and it's sure to catch attention. However, I do wish that it had better cooling options - three fans, one of which is only a 60x15mm, is simply not enough, IMO. However, the resulting case temperatures were not atrocious, but they weren't fantastic, either. Additionally, the chassis of the case, being made out of aluminum, isn't as strong as I would have liked it to be. I did not like the fact that the PSU had to be mounted upside down, nor did I like the tear out slot covers. However, despite these gripes it was still fairly easy to install a system into this case, and get things to look good. I can recommend this case to you if you are in need of a decently priced case that still looks great.
 All put together! |
 With a green CCFL - nice! |
Pros
Cons
A big thanks goes out to Xoxide for providing this case to me for review! Check out their site if this case has interested you - they have options for adding a CCFL to this case, which looks absolutely great! They also have a variety of other cases, one of which is sure to catch your interest.
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