Our love for this feature-packed case runs deep
How do we love thee, Azza Genesis 9000 full-tower case? Let us count the ways. Is it your gorgeous, pearl-white (or charcoal) chassis? The thin, blue or red lit-up lines that adorn your body and provide us with fond memories of the oh-so-delightful Tron: Legacy? The ample space within your interior that allows us to install a motherboard, a kitchen sink, and two power supplies at once? The list continues.
No, we didn’t invert the image. You actually install your components into this case upside-down: perfect for PC building enthusiasts on the International Space Station.
The steel-and-plastic chassis weighs a bit more than you might expect. Standing just over two feet in heightâ€"with a reasonable depth that’s just shy of two feetâ€"this is not a case you should (or would want to) keep hidden under a desk. Its design is lovely and lit-up without dipping a toe into tacky, as evidenced by the slick detail of the case’s top ventilation fins sandwiched between elegant strip lighting.
When you pop off the left side panel, you’ll be confused to find yourself staring at the back of your motherboard tray. That’s right: Azza’s flipped everything around. Not only do you install components from the right side, you also slap them into this spacious chassis upside-down. The motherboard’s CPU and cooler hover over the case’s bottom two 14cm fans, directly to the right of the case’s standard power supply bay (if you need room for two, you just have to take out the rightmost 14cm fan). Two larger 23cm fans expel warm air out of the case’s top, but they can also be removed to make room for a mammoth 48cm liquid-cooling radiator.
The aforementioned fansâ€"and one additional 12cm fanâ€"come pre-wired to the case’s built-in on-off switch. This button, glowing-blue outline and all, mirrors the case’s power button on the top-front of the chassis. While we appreciate the ability to transform the case from shining star to silent beast, we would have preferred separate toggles for the lights and fansâ€"and some way to minimize the din of the system’s cooling instead of eliminating it altogether.
Installing hard drives and 5.25-inch components into the case’s five and four bays, respectively, is a snap. Built-in locking mechanisms easily hold most of your parts in place. While three hard drives require you to first screw them into provided trays, it’s a mild bummer that’s quickly offset by the case’s two built-in hotswap drive bays.
Cables for the case’s two top-panel USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and one eSATA port come tucked away on the side of the Genesis 9000. There’s ample room for cable and tubing management beyond that, and we especially enjoy the hole cut into the back of the motherboard tray for easy CPU-cooler managementâ€"if you don’t feel like sliding out the entire tray, that is.
To say that there are more features on the Azza Genesis 9000 than we have room to write about isn’t an exaggeration: That includes brackets that help hold your videocards in place, rubberized tubing holes, and how Azza perfectly wraps a power cord extension around the case’s bottom (so you can still plug in your system from behind with its front-mounted PSU setup). So, we’ll keep our conclusion brief: This chassis is a must-have, period
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