Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra Case Review: Were It Not For Competition
by Dustin Sklavos on March 28, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Rosewill
- HPTX
- ATX
- XL-ATX
Conclusion: Thermal Performance at Any Cost
The brute force approach to cooling that Rosewill has taken with the Blackhawk Ultra case is almost kind of awe inspiring. They've essentially thrown so many fans at the cooling problem and offered such flexibility in arranging the cooling system that it's hard to really beat them on that front. This case moves a tremendous amount of air, and when you install a very high end system in it, the power of all of those fans becomes apparent.
I also have to credit Rosewill for producing a case that's actually pretty conservative in a lot of the right ways. The things you'd expect to be really obnoxious turn out to be less so: the red LEDs in the fans are actually pretty muted, and for having eight fans with no throttle, the Blackhawk Ultra could've been a lot noisier. If you want to see how cooling can go horribly wrong, go back and look at the Cubitek HPTX ICE's results. They also know how big their case is, and amusingly enough, they include casters you can install in the bottom of the case so you can roll your giant computing beast wherever you need to.
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So if the Blackhawk Ultra is nigh unstoppable on the thermal front, why doesn't it get a glowing recommendation? For starters, it may be quieter than I expected, but that doesn't mean it's actually quiet. That wouldn't be a problem if the case was competing in the same market the Thor v2 does, but it's not. My mantra has been that once you get past $150 you should be expecting both excellent thermals and great acoustics, not one or the other. You're paying the premium so you don't have to choose. The lack of fan filters also means the Blackhawk Ultra is going to be high maintenance.
There are really a couple of flies in the ointment here. First, unless you need the form factors the Blackhawk Ultra supports (or you really want to be able to roll your case around), the case is essentially beaten on two fronts. You can get basically the same case, but cheaper and in some ways better, by buying Rosewill's own Thor v2 for $40-$50 less (ignoring frequent discounts from sales.) At the same price point, the Blackhawk Ultra is hanging out in the same neighborhood as NZXT's Phantom 630, and outside of a couple of degrees of raw thermal performance, the 630 is in most ways a superior case. Even with its fans turned all the way up, it's measurably quieter than Rosewill's case.
Ultimately I can see why the Blackhawk Ultra is selling well and reviewing well. Users who want a beefy rig for a decent price will take one look at the brute force cooling of this case and click "Add to Cart," and when they get it, by and large they probably won't be disappointed. Yet this is precisely why comparative reviews are important; the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra looks fantastic on paper, but there are demonstrably better cases out there.
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lwatcdr - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link
You see I feel the opposite. I would like to see more cases with just optical drive bays. It is easy enough to put in adaptors for any drive you want. What I really want is an ITX or mATX case with just 4 optical bays. I can get two 2to3 hotswap bays and make a NAS then. I would take six bays as well as then I could use two 3x5 bays and build a 10 drive NAS. In a way I do agree that we need more extreme cases. I would like to see some with no optical bays, some with only optical bays, and some with a mix of bays.lwatcdr - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link
I do not think that the Blackhawk competes with the Phantom 630 but with the 820, the Switch 810, and other cases that support E-ATX and larger motherboards. The 630 is a great case but is a good bit smaller. If you want to do a build a really complex water cooler loop system, or run a quad SLI system then you need a case like the Blackhawk. The 630 is a great case but not really in the same class as the Blackhawk. The Switch is and frankly maybe the better case for a lot of builds.The one place that Blackhawk and it's twin the Xigmatek Elysium really shine is if you want a dual CPU workstation. They have the cutouts to support dual CPUs. That is also probably why they have such conservative looks. If you are going to build a dual 2011 system with a Quadro card and maybe a Tesla card or two then you really don't want it to look like a transformer. Lots of space and cooling for a really large system for a really low price.
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.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.
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.
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.Ammohunt - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
I would like to see this case built with every fan position filled.