Intro

How many of you remember back in the day when punching a hole in the side of your case and adding a fan was extreme? A few brave soles even went as far as grabbing a can of Krylon and spiced up the exterior. Times have definitely changed. Now, in order to stand out from the crowd, a modded case must be ascetically pleasing inside and out, and the mods must be clean in execution, add function, and be affordable. Xoxide is striving to hit those marks with their SS Warrior aluminum case.

The Xoxide SS Warrior is a follow-up to their more expensive and hugely popular LL Warrior case. Unfortunately, a lot of us guys who spend our hard earned cash on frivolous items like food, clothing, and shelter can’t afford a high-end case like the LL Warrior. Xoxide recognized this and attempted to duplicate the LL Warrior with some changes to make it more attainable for the average computer aficionado. How well did they accomplish this feat? We'll find out below.

Contents

The Xoxide arrived in a box. Cool. As you can see, it is clearly marked that this case is an Eagle MSR4610 EPD-SL, which is manufactured by Sky Hawk. The MSR4610 is what Sky Hawk calls a “mini-server” aluminum case, but it is actually a mid-tower. The EPD-SL means that it comes standard with 3 case fans (before Xoxide gets hold of it) and front multimedia ports. The case was wrapped in plastic and had two full-length pieces of Styrofoam on the face and back to hold it in place. Although this case arrived without any damage, I would like to see Xoxide add some type of side protection to protect against those disgruntled UPS employees.

The case came with the obligatory bag-o-screws, all the cables needed to hook up the front ports, a couple of zip ties, a 3 to 2 pin power LED adapter, and some cable hold down clamps. The ends of the cables are not protected with covers and look like they could break pretty easily with enough handling.

The Case

The SS Warrior case is almost a replica of the LL Warrior case, which uses the more expensive Lian-Li platform. Is there a difference? Oh yeah...the Lian-Li is manufactured using a method that forms the aluminum; the Sky Hawk case is made using a mold process. The method that Lian-Li uses results in stronger, more compact aluminum, and all holes and ports are cleanly punched out. The mold method that Sky Hawk uses allows air into the mold during the process that makes for a lighter case, but it is less durable and has less strength. It also has a slightly rougher surface than the Lian-Li has. Lasers are used to clean up the holes and ports on the Sky Hawk case, but they didn’t do a real good job on my review rig. In the front and back vent holes there were a lot of bits of metal still hanging around the holes. This is easily fixed using a small round file, but this shouldn’t be necessary. Obviously, the method that Lian-Li uses is the better way to make cases, but it is more expensive to do. Hence, the premium price the LL Warrior gets using the Lian-Li platform.

The SS Warrior case is completely anodized inside and out, and no matter how much I handled it there was no evidence of fingerprints. An advantage of the more porous mold process that is used to make the SS Warrior case is that it will accept dye much better. I didn’t try this myself, but for you modders that like aluminum but want it in chartreuse, the SS Warrior will work for you. I’ve always heard that one big advantage of aluminum vs. traditional steel cases is the cooling effect that aluminum has; that heat generated inside the case is expelled through the aluminum and the case itself acts as a big heatsink. I have some numbers later on in the review to see how true this is with the SS Warrior. A real nice attribute of aluminum cases is how lightweight they are. The weight of the SS Warrior without a power supply is less than 13 pounds so it is easily transportable to your local LAN party.

Something that immediately caught my attention was the fact that all major parts are removable using thumbscrews. All manufacturers should adopt this practice. There is no manual that ships with the SS Warrior, but there is a single page foldout that explains how to take the case apart and put it back together. Don’t construe this the wrong way, but I was impressed that it seems to be written by somebody who is familiar with the English language. So many manuals and instructions are literally translated from the country of origin and it can result in some hilarious sentence structures. The included schematic of the case is unnecessary, and there is barely any mention at all of the multimedia ports and no instructions on how to hook them up. There is a diagram on the USB ports pin assignments, but that’s it. This is not a problem for semi-tech savvy folks, but I bet Xoxide gets plenty of phone calls to tech support from sub-tech savvy customers who are stumped on how to connect the multimedia ports.

Here is the left door of the case. After removing the two thumbscrews that hold the panel in place, all you have to do is tug on the plastic finger ring to get the door to release. Both doors have a plastic ring on them to make taking them off easier. I have seen mods similar to this done with a on some user’s cases, and it is nice to see an OEM adopt it. Metal should have been used instead of plastic though; I don’t think the plastic will hold up under constant tugging very long. Xoxide cut two very precise holes for 80mm fans. I really like the molding that they used around the holes, but there is a gap where the ends of the molding meet. The plastic spacers that are used to reduce fan vibration noise are a nice touch and add to the look of the fans. They also re-labeled the face of the two CRE Air 80mm fans with their own Xoxide label. Both fans come with a 4 pin Molex connector, but there should also be at least 2 Molex Y splitter cables included with the hardware. The two front fans and two side fans can be plugged together, but it still takes 3 connections from the power supply to run all 5 fans.

The window is not the SS Warrior’s best feature. There is some rippling and curving on the molding on the outside of the panel. The inside of the window is just ugly. They used some sort of black caulking on all four sides to adhere the window directly to the aluminum, and the window itself is just a big square. This allows for a space between the molding and window that could interfere with case cooling and dust management. On the right side of these pictures, you can actually see the green line from a marker where the window was supposed to go. Guess whoever cut it must have had a liquid lunch that day. What Xoxide should do is use a channeled molding and fit the window into the channel. As it is, it looks OK from the outside, but hardcore cooling folks will want to use a filler to close the gaps. The SS Warrior case (or any other case) is at a disadvantage here when an extreme modding site doing the review.

The back of the case is standard with all the necessary ports present. A note of caution, the metal with the ports in it is so thin that it is almost like aluminum foil. I had to be extremely careful when pulling the metal tabs off to open the ports because the metal would bend when I lifted the tabs out. One of the first things I would do is take a Dremel to the exhaust grill, because the small holes are pretty restrictive. The grill shape reminds me of an iron cross, I’m sure it wasn’t intentional but it looks pretty cool. I like the fact that there is a removable faceplate for the power supply that is reversible, which means you guys who have power supplies with multiple intakes no longer have to suck air from the top or re-drill the mounting holes. Any power supply should work fine in this rig, but mine didn’t (more on that later).

The bottom is standard fare also. The feet have 90 degree movement so you can stabilize it, but they are made out of a thin plastic. How much more expensive would it be to produce feet that won’t break the first time your drunken buddy bumps against it? The feet are easily removable and can be swapped out with casters or rubber feet (not included). There are plenty of holes on the bottom for the PC speaker and a couple other areas where you can add cable tie-downs or use as a drain if you blow a hose in your water rig.

The front faceplate is easily removable with a slight tug at the bottom. However, it wasn’t as easy to replace. The IEEE1394 and joystick port didn’t line up perfectly with the holes in the faceplate, so I had to apply pressure with one hand and use my fingernail to adjust the multimedia card until it lined up with the holes. This happened every time that I pulled the faceplate and then went to put it back on. I checked the multimedia card and it was seated properly, but there was always a slight variance in the alignment of the card and the cutouts on the faceplate.

The SS Warrior has 6 3.5 inch bays and 4 5.25 inch bays. Of the 3.5 bays, two of them are accessible from the front, and all 4 5.25 inch bays are accessible from the front. The internal 3.5 bays for your hard drives are located directly in front of the two front intake fans. The two front Power Logic 80mm fans are the only ones with a filter. I am really surprised that Xoxide didn’t add a filter to their two side fans. At least your hard drives will remain clean. The filter covers come off easily by pressing the tabs on the side. The placement of the front fans will ensure that any hard drive array you place there will remain clean and cool. They were also thoughtful enough to cut a channel into the bottom of the hard drive rack that allows your multimedia cable to run under the hard drives straight to the back of the multimedia ports. The power and hard drive activity LED’s are small, but sufficiently bright. Green is used for power and red for HDD activity. The multimedia ports includes an IEEE1394 port, a joystick port, volume control, sound in, out, microphone jacks, and two USB ports. I was disappointed that there weren’t any adapters included to hook directly into the extra motherboard USB and Firewire internal ports, the only way to activate the front ports is to use the multimedia cable and run it out the back of the computer.

The inside of the case is also anodized as I mentioned before. All the edges are rounded and everything is easily accessible except the two topmost 5.25 bays, it will take a little dexterity to install cables to equipment in those bays without removing the top. There is a brace on the top that provides support to the sides of the case that will work nice to route power supply cables out of the way. The hard drive rack has a plastic covers on the top edges to ensure no fingers are harmed. The entire interior is smooth and reflective; it will shine nicely with lights installed. The PCI slot covers also come with thumbscrews, a nice touch. The included motherboard connectors are the standard power, reset, power LED, HDD LED, and speaker.

One of the best, if not the best feature of this case is the removable motherboard tray. It allows you to install your CPU, RAM, and all add in cards prior to installing them in the case. For those of you who switch out heatsinks often, this is a godsend. You can see here the tray removed from the case. The piece of metal along the top is a brace to stabilize the mobo platform; you won’t see this brace on Lian-Li cases. Again, it’s an advantage that the stronger press method of production has over the mold method. The tray has fittings for ATX, M-ATX, and Xeon ATX motherboards, and it would be real easy to drill out the holes for any other form factor you might need. I removed the four thumbscrews on the back of the case and the entire motherboard tray and back plate easily slid out.