Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra Case Review: Were It Not For Competition

by Dustin Sklavos on March 28, 2013 12:01 AM EST

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Introducing the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra

We've long maintained that Rosewill's Thor v2 is one of the best deals floating around for enthusiasts. In that enclosure, Rosewill has a product that's fairly feature rich, quiet, and offers stellar performance. Yet the Thor v2 isn't the flagship of their enclosure line, but today we have that flagship in house. Given its predecessor's stellar performance, expectations are pretty high for the Blackhawk Ultra.

This case is huge, enthusiast class through and through, but it's far less ostentatious than the Thor v2. Our rep at Rosewill has repeatedly cited the Blackhawk Ultra as a bestseller and consistently highly rated enclosure, and it's not hard to see why users might buy it without a second thought: in every sense of the word, this case has a lot of fans. Just about anywhere Rosewill could put a fan, they did, and you'll see when I start breaking it down exactly what I mean.

Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra Specifications
Motherboard Form Factor		Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX, XL-ATX, HPTX
Drive Bays	External	4x 5.25" (5.25" to 3.5" adapters included)
	Internal	10x 3.5"/2.5"
Cooling	Front	2x 140mm red LED intake fan, 2x 140mm intake fan (behind drive cage)
	Rear	1x 140mm exhaust fan (supports 120mm)
	Top	2x 230mm red LED exhaust fan (supports 2x 180mm, 3x 120mm/140mm)
	Side	1x 230mm red LED intake fan (supports 9x 120mm) 1x 120mm/140mm fan mount behind motherboard tray
	Bottom	1x 120mm/140mm fan mount
Expansion Slots		10
I/O Port		4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic
Power Supply Size		ATX
Clearances	HSF	170mm
	PSU	220mm
	GPU	404mm
Dimensions		9.45" x 25" x 25.99" 240mm x 635mm x 660mm
Weight		36.6 lbs. / 16.6 kg
Special Features		USB 3.0 via internal header Hotswap SATA bay Secondary power supply bay Internal fan hubs
Price		$179

Rosewill cites the Blackhawk Ultra as supporting the Corsair H100, which is almost like saying something might explode in a Michael Bay film. The reality is that the Blackhawk Ultra has very healthy radiator support, and a lot of that is due to the substantially increased height as a result of the secondary power supply bay at the top of the case. This bay is blocked off initially, and you'll have to remove one of the 230mm fans from the top to use it.

In keeping with the Thor v2's design, though, it's interesting to see just how much mileage Rosewill is willing to get out of these enormous 230mm fans. Suffice to say that cooling shouldn't be a huge issue, but at eight fans installed stock, it's easy to suspect the Blackhawk Ultra will have trouble with noise. That trouble may be compounded by the one feature the Thor v2 has that the Blackhawk Ultra lacks: a fan controller. Rosewill opted instead for a pair of fan hubs inside the enclosure that support five fans apiece, and the whole thing comes wired and ready to go for the most part.

In and Around the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra

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SunLord - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link
I have this case which I'm setting up to run a water cooled Dual Opteron server. This case is perfect for crazy large water cooled builds. As you can easily run 1 200MM on top, 1 3x140mm on bottom, and 1 140mm radiator on the rear with little trouble. You also can in theory fit in a 2x140MM radiator on the side of the hard drive cage but it's a bit of a pain as the case isn't meant mount one there. You also have the option given all the hose holes to use external radiators. Reply
JonnyDough - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link
Honestly, two big fans directing air through filtration from bottom to top is all you really need to properly cool a case. I still think that the modern redesign of the old layout has a long way to go. How these companies situation the goods inside the case could use some re-evaluation.

It would be best served towards the front bottom of the case, below the drives for cable routing. The PSU needs to be a source of filtered cool air INTAKE. The out other intake needs to be filtered air through the bottom rear of the case flowing directly into the video card. If you want, an optional third intake can be window mounted with direct ducting to the CPU cooler.

The top of the case needs one giant quiet fan in the middle to expel hot air. Hot air rises, so it will rise to the top naturally and be expelled from the case by the fan. Positive air pressure is not necessary as long as the rest of the case is sealed up and the only intake possible is through the filters. Reply
lwatcdr - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link
I think you underestimate the value of positive case pressure.
1. It is pretty impractical to seal a case so it can only intake air from filtered sources. USB ports, side panels, and other ports and connections are almost never air tight.
2. Higher air pressure means that you have denser air which means more mass to carry away the heat. Of course just to make life hard when you compress a fluid like air you heat it. Light positive pressure supplied from filtered intakes. Reply
sulu1977 - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link
What I want to see is a case with a filter so that no dust or insects can get inside. Also most of USB ports should be at bottom of front panel, behind a simple hinged cover. Reply
Ammohunt - Thursday, April 04, 2013 - link
I would like to see this case built with every fan position filled. Reply