Xclio WindTunnel Review -- 5 out of 5

As promised, I am reviewing the WindTunnel case by Xclio. I am really amazed by this case, and it is a much better design that I had hoped for.

For starters, the only thing that screws appear to be necessary for are mounting the motherboard and power supply. The case has tool-less "thumb screws" for easy access. The drives slide in on rails - which, from my experience normally require screws - that are mounted onto the drives with posts. All of the brackets, zip ties (yes it comes with those), and other parts are stored in a latching box that is attached to the inside of the case. This means no more hunting for hardware. If you need more room for drives, the storage box can be removed and the space can be used for more hard drives.

The case itself is very light compared to most full-towers that I have encountered. Also, I did not find any sharp edges; I am prone to accidents, and I didn't get cut once. For those who have never built their own computer before, the instructions that come with the case are fairly detailed.

Overall, I would give this case a 5 out of 5 and is the best design I have yet to purchase.

Building new computers.

I am building a matched pair of new computers for my wife and I and will review them when they are finished. Normally we stagger building our computers (replacing the older of the two each time). This works well for keeping them up-to-date, but not so well for gaming. One of us always is running slower than the other, or envious of the level of graphics detail on the other computer. This methodology should eliminate that problem.

So far we have purchased Sony Optiarc AD-7191s DVD drives and have them sitting in a box and have ordered two XCLIO WTSL cases last Friday. These are expected to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday.

The cases should have more than enough cooling with the pair of 25cm fans and - being full towers - are large enough that are can circulate. The main reason for the particular model of DVD drives that we purchased was the price. From my experience, optical drives wear out about every three years no matter what brand you buy. Since, I have this expectation going in, I don't want to spend a lot of money on them.

Over the weekend, I should have some time to install the drives in the cases and can report on how easy or difficult the cases are to open, close, and work in.

Vista 32-bit or 64-bit

So, I am in the process of building a new Windows box as my current one is about dead (fortunately, my Linux box still functions well) and am planning on installing Vista so that I do not have to worry about not being able to run new software in a year or two. However, I have noticed that the HCL (Hardware Compatibilty List) that I found seems to be rather sparse.

This seems odd to me, why would Microsoft release an Operating System that will not run well - or at all - on many computers? Another question is why hardware manufacturers would not have released more drivers by now?

I don't want to run a 32-bit Operating system on a 64-bit processor as I am a programmer by vocation and would like to be able to test 64-bit versions of my programs. However, I also do not want to waste money on an Operating System that will not work with my hardware, or spend hours weeding through New Egg trying to find hardware that is guaranteed to work correctly with Vista 64-bit.

Has anyone had good luck with Vista 64-bit? I would like to think that the HCL that I was reading was outdated, and that a newer version lists many more devices.