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Date Posted: June 8, 2002
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The front of the Black Pearl is very attractive. It is adorned with a very thick, yet easily scratched, acrylic cover that is held on with six gold thumbscrews. The acrylic cover does little more than make the case more visually pleasing. While the acrylic cover can be replaced Directron doesn't carry the replacement covers. Most impressive with the front of the case is the blue power led. To my knowledge the Black Pearl is the only mass-produced case that comes with a blue led. At the very bottom of the front panel are a 4-port USB and multimedia connecter. The multimedia connector comes with plugs for your Firewire devices, microphone and speakers. The port connects to the back of your motherboard with a long set of connectors that loop through the back of your PC. The USB connectors on the right side connect directly to your mainboard. Unfortunately, not too many mainboards have the USB panel connectors built-in, so you won't be able to use two of the four ports on the front panel.

Once you get past the very sturdy exterior you come across the Black Pearl's best feature, the six ball bearing cooling fans that are covered with gold fan grills to protect your fingers. There are two in front of the case that blow across the hard drive cage, one on the side that blows onto your video card, two in back which help exhaust hot air from around your CPU, and another on top which exhausts heat that rises to the top of the case. The included fans were very noisy and only moved 22 CFM. The air movement was not very impressive, so I quickly replaced the included fans with several fans from Sunon. This isn't to say that the stock fans won't work in your situation, I just wasn't very happy with them. Another issue is that the top blowhole is surrounded by an enclosure that impedes airflow. While I could feel some air being moved through the top blowhole, I knew the fan wasn't turning out optimal performance. I strongly suggest that Super Flower ship this case with better fans.

Inside of the Black Pearl we see the removable hard drive cage and the other drive bays. We also see a feature typical of the Lian-Li family; Rubber moulding is surrounding all of the sharp edges of the case so that you don't accidentally cut your finger. Also inside the case is a removable mainboard tray. I am a huge fan of removable mainboard trays, so the fact that the Black Pearl has one makes me even happier. Another feature that the Black Pearl has is a breakaway connector for the power switch, hard drive led, and speaker connector on the mainboard. This is very useful if you intend on using the removable tray and you don't feel like connecting the power switch and led connectors every time, which can be a huge hassle.

You are probably interested in whether or not all of your components will fit in the Black Pearl. I will tell you right now, there is no issue with this case being too small. I was able to fill every drive bay, install my MSI K7D Master and several components, and there was never an issue with a fan or a hard drive getting in the way, as there is with many other cases on the market.

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