Aerocool delivers a budget case with a mid-range price... whoops. There's something wrong with that thought.
We try not to make fun of the horrendous English we see in some ads and on many websites. In our business, it's inescapable - pointing it out at every opportunity is rude. But the press blurb for the Aerocool's BX-500 case is just too... appropriate to ignore.
"The combination of aluminium and metal mesh, eludes 'Class' and 'Elegance'."
Elude. Meaning to escape or avoid. So, apparently, the BX-500 avoids class and elegance - is Aerocool making some kind of Freudian slip, here, or is there more to the case than meets the eye?
Well, annoyingly... it's a pretty average case. Externally, the front metallic mesh panel is austere, highlighted only by two brushed aluminium strips that run from top to bottom - small enough that we almost missed them. The top panel's a little bit more interesting, with a solid power button, and push-to-open panel concealing a wealth of IO options, including four USB ports.
Behind the IO panel is a small recessed bay with a foam bottom -a handy tray for storing spare screws and small components without causing any rattle or vibration. The rest of the top panel is a mesh insert. The left-hand side-panel is similarly meshed, though not filtered, with space for four optional fans, and there's even a smaller mesh insert on the right-hand panel behind where the CPU mount would be - and the option to install yet another fan.
The rear panel's a touch ugly, being bare metal, and features four water-cooling grommets made from poorly formed rubber. It's... not inspiring.
Aerocool makes the bold claim that this is the ultimate case when it comes to cooling, and with the capacity to install up to ten fans there's something to that claim. But there's only filtering on the bottom of the case and the front, and with that much airflow you're asking for long term issues with dust build-up on important cooling components. Airflow is only half the battle when it comes to keeping a build running smoothly - clogged fans and gunk covered heatsinks are going to kill your gear surely as lack of moving air.
The rest of the rest of the internals are a similar mixed bag. Everything's untreated metal in here and some of the surface seem a bit rough and unfinished. Aerocool's gone the tool-less route for pretty much everything, too, but has managed to choose the worst of all possible options for both the external bays (a breakage prone slide mechanism), the HDD cages (pinch-in-pinch-out caddies that have zero vibration dampening), and the expansion bays (gripless push-button jobbies that can barely secure the pre-installed blanking plates, and that we certainly wouldn't trust to anything like the size of modern high-end cards).
On the upside, the interior is roomy enough, and with clips for cable runs there's at least a nod to making sure you've got unimpeded airflow. The space between the mobo plate and the side panel is a bit tight, though.
Arguably the best innovation in the case, however, are the two sets of PCB mounting fan plugs and molex adapters. There's nothing worse than trying to stretch fan cables to the often arbitrary mounting points on various mobos - this solution means the cabling's not only neat and out of the way, but makes swapping out an old board that much faster and easier.
Oh, and the included fans feature orange LEDs, which you'll either love or hate. We leave that up to you.
It's a mixed bag, the BX-500, and we can't help but think Aerocool really does have it right. At an asking price far in excess of the similarly specced ThermalTake BlacX, this case isn't really all that classy, nor all that elegant. If you really must have a metric buttload of fans whirring away in your case, then this might serve, but the truth is you'll find better gaming boxes for less money without expending too much effort.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012