INTRODUCTION

   It's no secret that it's only on very rare occasions that we see something new introduced in the PC case industry and that's the main reason as to why we don't focus much in such reviews lately. Sure we see PC cases with different shapes and sizes and some even come with LED lighting right from the factory but if you really think about it the majority pretty much shares the same features which we've been seeing for years now. So when we get an offer to test a model that stands out from the rest we don't hesitate to say yes. Back in 2013 (if i recall correctly) the guys over at Bit-Tech held a competition where they asked all of their forum members to help design the perfect ATX case for watercooling. Well although at the end of that competition the winning design was the one submitted by SnowyOwl and was called the Black Owl it took almost 2 years for our friends over at Phobya to bring it to the market and today we're taking a very close look at it.

   The Phobya brand is a coalition of many manufacturers under one name. This cooperation has developed and produced many innovations in the water-, air- and passive cooling sector. Numerous accessories for improvement of your computer, both in the performance sector and optically, have been developed. Phobya products are for those who want more from their system!

   The WaCoolT Black OWL Case is a full tower that can accommodate ATX, micro-ATX and eATX mainboards and since it's made entirely of 1.5mm German-made thick aluminium it weighs just around 10Kg. It also has room for three 3.5", four 2.5" drives and three 5.25" drives, 360mm long graphics cards, 120/140/240/280/360/420mm radiator at its base (actually you should be able to use two 140mm ones if you don't want to use a single large one there), 120/140/240/280/360/420/480 radiator at the top (or three 140mm ones easily), rear 120mm exhaust fan (or a 120mm radiator) and comes ready with an anti-vibration pump mount which is compatible with a large number of pump types (Laing DDC/Laing D5/Eheim 1046/Eheim 1048/Magicool 12V/ Phobya DC 220/Phobya DC 260/Phobya DC 400). It seems however that the case designer didn't think of everything since the WaCoolT Black Owl comes without a tool-free design for the drives and graphics cards and without any air-filters for its many perforated sections. But let’s take a look and see everything it has to offer.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

We received the WaCoolT Black Owl inside a plain cardboard box filled with stickers from the courier company.

Unfortunately we removed the case prior to taking shots of it being inside the box but as you can see although packaging was quite good it did feel a bit "rushed".

Inside the box aside the case itself you will find a small plastic bag which contains the mainboard mounting screws, 360mm Radiator mounting brackets, Allen key and 8 "extra" Allen screws.

THE WACOOLT BLACK OWL EXTERIOR

The Black Owl may not be very heavy (10.42kg) but it's certainly one of the largest towers in the market today measuring 675mm in height, 625mm in depth and 235mm in width.

Phobya (or i should say SnowyOwl) has placed a small acrylic side window on the right side panel right over a large perforated area. The weird thing is that there's room for a much larger window so i don't know why Phobya didn't choose to expand it even though it may not have been in the original design.

The fascia actually looks great and just by looking at it the two perforated areas point to a high-airflow case.

There are three 5.25" drive covers at the front (can only be removed by removing the Allen screws keeping them in place from inside the case), two large power and reset buttons, single USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone 3.5mm ports and the Phobya logo.

Another large perforated are is placed on the lower end of the left side panel.

At the rear of the case we find 8 PCI expansion slots, four 19mm hose/fillport openings, 120mm fan area and a vertical PSU area.

Although it's not really a problem foam material from the spacers stuck on all 4 hose/fillport openings and unfortunately it wasn't easy at all for us to remove them.

At the top of the Black Owl you can either install four 120mm fans, three 140mm fans or a radiator up to 480mm long.

The base of the Black Owl is not perforated and just has the screws used to hold the pump mount in place.

THE WACOOLT BLACK OWL INTERIOR

When we got the Black Owl out of its box i was looking for a way to open the side panel, perhaps a lever or a button at the rear since it obviously wasn't held in place via rear thumbscrews. Unfortunately to gain access to the interior of the case you will need to remove not one, not two, not four but 16 Allen screws (as seen above).

The interior of the Black Owl is extremely spacious and certainly not something we see a lot.

You can mount up to three 3.5" drives inside the small aluminum box that has the Phobya logo on it and two 2.5" drives on top.

Unfortunately the Black Owl doesn't feature a tool-less design so you will need to use screws for all of the drives (you can mount two extra 2.5" drives on the interior of the lower 5.25" bay).

The mainboard tray has 5 rubber coated holes for cable management and a large opening beneath the CPU area.

All of the 8 expansion slots also feature Allen screws.

Here is where you can mount up to a 420mm long radiator with up to 3 fans in push and pull (pull air from the perforated section of the left side panel and exhaust it via the perforated section of the right panel).

The anti-vibration pump mount is located behind that section of the case and can be accessed from the opposite side.

Well to mount drives in and on the drive cage you also have to remove the right side panel.

This is how the other side of the interior looks.

BUILDING THE SYSTEM

As always the purpose of this section is not to build a functional system but rather to showcase what you can expect from the case at hand in terms of interior space.

As expected from a large tower our ATX mainboard takes just a small portion of its tray.

Although the Black Owl is a watercooling oriented tower you can still mount CPU coolers up to roughly 200mm tall.

Since you can mount graphics cards up to 360mm long (we used a GTX 590) the Black Owl is ideal for a gaming system.

Here you can see how small a 360mm radiator looks when placed on the base of the tower.

Of course you can also add more at the top up to 480mm in length (we used a 420mm long one).

The Black Owl also has room for even the longest PSUs out there but to mount one you have to remove the right side panel.

CONCLUSION

   The WaCoolT Black Owl is a unique tower with many pros but also quite a few cons. It’s built entire out of aluminum so it’s very sturdy yet light weight, looks great, has plenty of room for the largest possible hardware components, you can mount up to two very large radiators (420/480mm) and it has the ability to offer superior airflow levels if you decide to mod it even slightly (so you can add fans on both sides and the front). Still as mentioned in the introduction page the designer made quite a few mistakes so the Black Owl has no air-filters, takes too long to even remove 1 side panel (even with an electronic screw driver) and it lacks a tool-free design. Personally I have no problem with having to use screws inside the case but spending a good deal of time to even access the interior is not something I really enjoy while the lack of air-filters somewhat guarantees that you will have dust issues quite fast (unless you also decide to use your own filters). The lack of bundled fan is also unfortunate but since this is aimed at watercooling it’s really not as important as it would be for a regular tower.

   Currently the WaCoolT Black Owl PC Case is not available inside the USA and I really don’t know if Phobya has any plans for that. Still it’s available inside the EU for a price of 359.99 Euros (Aquatuning.de) so as expected really it doesn’t come cheap (it was even more expensive when launched). With that in mind if you don’t care much about water cooling there are certainly more “complete” solutions at around that price and even for less. On the other hand if all you care about is water cooling and you’d like to get a unique tower (can also be used as a show case) then the WaCoolT Black Owl by Phobya has your back and that’s why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality (100% Made By Aluminium)
- Weight (10.42Kg)
- Design
- Spacious Interior (Up To 360mm Long Graphics Cards & 200mm Tall Coolers)
- Top/Bottom/Rear Radiator Mounts (480/420/120mm)
- Potential Airflow Levels (Requires Slight Modding)
- Anti-Vibration Pump Mount
- Available In Black & White

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- No Fans & Air-Filters
- Each Panel Is Secured Via 16 Allen Screws