Gadgetory

hey guys we are back today we're looking at a photo from B Phoenix the shinobi XL they have taken they're quite popular mid towers the shinobi and enlarged it leaving many of the same features on the outside as well as the inside the case is released at around $150 so not bad for a full tower category the case would appeal to many who like the simple and minimalistic design the top and front panels are made of plastic and covered in beach Phoenix's soft touch coating which adds the rubber as steel and enhances the overall build quality the front panel connectors are located at the top and concerning the sizing of the chassis it may become problematic if placed under the desk or in tighter spots the orange USB port is big Fenix's supercharged port it's not for data transfers but for charging your USB devices it sends up to 2.5 amps of current and it charges about five times faster than a regular USB port so a neat little feature that will definitely be of use in the current day in age next are the 4 USB 3 ports the connector both the 20 pin and the regular 9 pin depending on your motherboard then we have our audio ports your power button and they hardly accessible a reset button that must be pressed with a pen or something thin for it to register the front panel has 5 optical drives with meshed venting strips running down on each side behind the panel and remove the dust filter covers that provided 230 millimeter fan with the option to install a triple 120 millimeter fan intake with the top fan mounted on one of the five the quarter inch drive panels meaning the bottom three optical base will be taken up so defense options for the front intake are pretty decent but having only the small venting strips on the panel not much air flow will be delivered the top panel has a tight mesh to catch the settling dust with support for a triple radiator and more venting steps on each side to maintain a uniform design now the front panel should have had the same ventilation mesh to allow less resisting airflow the top panel is removable and B Phoenix includes a second 230mm fan for the top and users can mount an additional 230 mil Marfan for a powerful exhaust now given these fans are over $20 in their own props to meet Phoenix for supplying two of these fans the top also supports triple 120 millimeter fans for water course unfortunately fans cannot be mounted above the frame and all the parts must be mounted inside which is a bit disappointing you will not be able to have a push and pull configuration with a standard radiator and given the size of this enclosure we feel this is a major drawback take a look at the back we have water cooling holes an exhaust fan IO area nine PCI slots and the bottom mounted power supply with a removable dust filter moving inside all the optical base utilize a tool astounding system and hard drive cage supports up to seven 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives using this tool as brackets now the brackets aren't exactly secured and can fall off the rails easily now this is an issue with the 3.5 inch drives but if mounting SSDs you can secure the bracket to the cage using a single screw we would recommend this if the case is in transport on the other side the CPU cut out is fairly large with rubber grommets spread all around the mother wood tray for your cable management now these garments are pretty small and can fall out easily when passing cables through them and given this is a full Tower the case has support for XL ATX motherboards which is the reason for those nine PCI slots Quad SLI or crossfire for all of you enthusiasts at the bottom of the case there are two dust filters for the optional 120 millimeter fans and that first impression said seam these filters could easily be removed but unfortunately that's not the case they said extremely tight and they're secured from the inside removal which requires to poke through each corner to release the dust filter the fan can be installed for the bottom intake and the filter would just be screwed on with the fan not the most ideal way and could be a little frustrating the entire hard drive cage can either be removed or rotated and if removed the bottom intake could be utilized perfectly for a dual radiator or a standard triple rad can be installed on place for the front intake but unfortunately voltage the hard drive cage is not made easy and definitely needs to be reconsidered first you must remove 11 screws the top four are hardly accessible then you need to remove both the dust filters which in itself is quite a challenge and only then the hard drive cage is free and can be rotated now once the cage is rotated neither of the bottom fans can be utilized as there's no clearance and on top of that wiring and drives now becomes a problem as it is difficult to route the cables behind the cage also this prevents any graphics cards longer than ten and a half inches to be installed so rotating the cage seems to introduce more hassle and limitations than benefits and the more appropriate solution for the cage is to divide it into two parts either which can be removed if needed we've seen this method from many manufacturers in the Phoenix needs to adapt to the current market standard if they want to stay competitive included with the case is a five and a quarter inch adapter that supports 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives so in case the hard drive cage is removed for water cooling you can still mount a single drive looking in the back of the case there's a ton of room for all your cable management and spread around are these cable tie notches that can really be helpful and no issues should arise with cable routing his rubber grommets are conveniently placed around the motherboard and fully assembled the shinobi excel does not disappoint the spacious interior is what you would expect from a full Tower cleaning up all the cables at the back is really easy due to how much space is available and graphics cards on length of 13 1 1 inches are supported with the cage in place meaning the full potential of what can be installed inside is not limited by any hardware so overall the shinobi excel is a good candidate within the Fulton family it is nice to see they've expanded the shinobi line is it appeals to many budget consumers the simple and clean design is the preferred choice for many and the overall build quality is decent but definitely could be improved like the annoying rubber grommets that possibly fall out and the unsecured hard drive brackets it has plenty of storage area and can mount the largest GPUs on the market and it's always exciting to see some innovations within closure market like the new supercharged port for charging your device's water cooling capabilities could be improved but it does support 360 and 240 million rads however there are a number of small flaws that really add up and we hope it Phenix with address them in the future starting with the top panel it would be nice being able to install the fans above the steel frame for a push and pull configuration the front intake fans are practically choked on the front panel and there needs to be more meshed ventilation to really take advantage of that 230 mm a fan and the last major turnoff about the Shinobi excel is the rotation of the hard drive cage it is not made simple and carries with it many limitations like the inability to install bottom intake fans and an extremely tedious process of the actual rotation and obviously difficult wiring for the drives but that being said modding the chassis is an option to really take advantage of its large size and the internal design at this price range there are plenty of competition swirling around and the shinobi excel offers many possibilities and has great potential and that concludes the review for the shinobi Excel thank guys for watching and we'll see you next time