Azza Helios 910

[Darksaber]

The Helios 910 is a simple but sturdy chassis with nine external drive bays up front. It features an all black interior with a menacing looking 230 mm side fan, which comes equipped with blue or red LEDs. Azza is aiming to offer you a useful set of features at a price that won't break your bank.

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[tonyd223]

see, this is why I love TPU - quality reviews from someone who thinks about using and living with the case. Some other sites don't even do a build - you know who you are...

Good work - keep it up

 

[mlee49]

If our Graphic Cards can have Noise Level ratings I think our Case reviews should too. It's important to know/hear if a 230mm fan is truly quiet.

I think it could be a very crucial piece in the review process. But thats just my $0.02.

Keep the reviews coming!!! Great job all around!

 

[AddSub]

Not a bad case and the review is pretty much spot-on, expect for the hard drive bays. I mean, it's 2010 and they are still doing these legacy front-to-back 3.5-inch hard drive bays? I saw this the other day in another fresh-to-market case from Silverstone. Once you realize how much easier it is to deal with drives once you go with a case that has side-to-side mountings (especially once you have the rest of the hardware set up) you can't go back to front-to-back setups.

I mean, lot of these manufacturers try everything to simplify front-to-back arrangements from cages to removable front covers, but nothing comes close to the ease-of-use that side-to-side mountings offer.

Does somebody actually hold a patent on such a design or something? I mean, that would explain a lot, since other than Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Ultra cases and maybe few others, side-to-side mountings are pretty rare.

 

[tonyd223]

Not a bad case and the review is pretty much spot-on, expect for the hard drive bays. I mean, it's 2010 and they are still doing these legacy front-to-back 3.5-inch hard drive bays? I saw this the other day in another fresh-to-market case from Silverstone. Once you realize how much easier it is to deal with drives once you go with a case that has side-to-side mountings (especially once you have the rest of the hardware set up) you can't go back to front-to-back setups.

I mean, lot of these manufacturers try everything to simplify front-to-back arrangements from cages to removable front covers, but nothing comes close to the ease-of-use that side-to-side mountings offer.

Does somebody actually hold a patent on such a design or something? I mean, that would explain a lot, since other than Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Ultra cases and maybe few others, side-to-side mountings are pretty rare.

+1 on the HDD mounting

 

[Darksaber]

Not a bad case and the review is pretty much spot-on, expect for the hard drive bays. I mean, it's 2010 and they are still doing these legacy front-to-back 3.5-inch hard drive bays? I saw this the other day in another fresh-to-market case from Silverstone. Once you realize how much easier it is to deal with drives once you go with a case that has side-to-side mountings (especially once you have the rest of the hardware set up) you can't go back to front-to-back setups.

I mean, lot of these manufacturers try everything to simplify front-to-back arrangements from cages to removable front covers, but nothing comes close to the ease-of-use that side-to-side mountings offer.

Does somebody actually hold a patent on such a design or something? I mean, that would explain a lot, since other than Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Ultra cases and maybe few others, side-to-side mountings are pretty rare.

Well the truth is rather simple: cost and complications.

Companies like AzzA, Sharkoon, Apevia...do not build their cases from scratch. They buy the frame and design the front or even buy the entire case from an ODM or OEM and slap their name on it. Nowadays having a black interior is the new hype. So that is what many manufacturers are doing. Taking a grey case, painting the interior black - done. So traditional setups for HDDs for example are not changed in favor of a lower price tag, as many users won't mind this if it means they save a few bucks.

cheers
DS

 

[assaulter_99]

Pretty good for a case, I mean, the interior's black! not every case manufacturer does this. If you look at it from far away, you might mistake it for a 900. lol

 

[El_Mayo]

Does somebody actually hold a patent on such a design or something? I mean, that would explain a lot, since other than Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Ultra cases and maybe few others, side-to-side mountings are pretty rare.

I doubt it, i have an OEM casecom case that's sideways mounted, and i see your point
it's so much easier

 

[OneCool]

Not a bad case and the review is pretty much spot-on, expect for the hard drive bays. I mean, it's 2010 and they are still doing these legacy front-to-back 3.5-inch hard drive bays? I saw this the other day in another fresh-to-market case from Silverstone. Once you realize how much easier it is to deal with drives once you go with a case that has side-to-side mountings (especially once you have the rest of the hardware set up) you can't go back to front-to-back setups.

I mean, lot of these manufacturers try everything to simplify front-to-back arrangements from cages to removable front covers, but nothing comes close to the ease-of-use that side-to-side mountings offer.

Does somebody actually hold a patent on such a design or something? I mean, that would explain a lot, since other than Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Ultra cases and maybe few others, side-to-side mountings are pretty rare.

So true.NZXT FTW

 

[dr emulator (madmax)]

personaly i think sideways mounted harddrives don't get cooled correctly ,
i know this as a fact as i've had 2 cases and the one i have now with a side mounted fan just doesn't cut it even after drilling big holes
pictured here

there is no way they can unless you have mountings with huge holes,
and well they just don't exist, so this Azza case has the benefit of keeping the drives alot cooler,
yes sideways mounting harddrives are a alot easier to put in/take out, but what use is that if they overheat and make more noise?

 

[AddSub]

I actually came back from MicroCenter tonight and they had several Azza Helios 910 cases on display. They had one unit on display for people to play with. I literally had the case in that review in my hands few hours ago. In short, the case is budget-build material at best, although it does look semi-decent and by semi-decent I mean the aesthetics of it and only them.

As for airflow issues, I have yet to see a case with side-to-side arrangement that doesn't allow for some sort of fan mounting for the hard-drive area, usually the standard front intake. My Cosmos 1000 case with side-to-side slide trays not only has nice rubberized vibration mountings in the individual trays but it also has a fitting for a 120mm fan dedicated only for the hard drive area. In fact, I rigged/mounted another 120mm fan near the HD area mostly to benefit my GPU's so I have now two 120mm fans taking hot air out of the hard drive area (overkill really). Noise due to vibration with six hard drives (4 SATA and 2 PATA) is non-existent, thanks to the special rubber mountings. As for the temperatures, they go from upper 20's in idle mode to mid 30's under load.

According to the SMART readings, the lifetime readings on all the drives show that one of the drives hit 42C previously (probably during the summer), which is the highest recorded ever among all six drives. The records for the rest show upper 30's with one at 40C flat. Right now the highest temps are 34C and 33C (for my primary RAID setup drives), the rest are idling with temps few degrees lower than that.

 

[HossHuge]

I don't go to the review section here that often. So I thought it funny that I did today and saw this review. Cause I just bought this case yesterday. It's the exact same thing except for the inside colour and mine has a clear side panel.

 

[jujdred]

personaly i think sideways mounted harddrives don't get cooled correctly ,
i know this as a fact as i've had 2 cases and the one i have now with a side mounted fan just doesn't cut it even after drilling big holes
pictured here
http://img.techpowerup.org/091013/more holes cut and cleaned.jpg
there is no way they can unless you have mountings with huge holes,
and well they just don't exist, so this Azza case has the benefit of keeping the drives alot cooler,
yes sideways mounting harddrives are a alot easier to put in/take out, but what use is that if they overheat and make more noise?

+1 for being technically spot on.

For the most part, technology has advanced enough to where 3.5" Sata is the standard nowadays where not long ago it was 3.5" IDE and I can even remember 5.25".
Cases were/are designed to accommodate a multitude of system configurationss some of which may possibly include IDE drives still to this day even believe it or not. Hell, I still have 2 IDE HDD's myself in my main rig.

Average Hard Drives are small enough and the mechanisms within are sturdy enough that mounting HDD's in any position and at any angle is not so big a deal as it used to be. But they still need to be accounted for in high performance systems where massive amounts of heat is generated and most case intakes are designed to be in the front lower area, usually where air is coolest and it just so happens to be where hard drives are mounted. Hard drives are mounted with the mounting holes on the sides and if you build a mounting mechanism to accommodate all 6 screw holes of 4-5 hard drives, then well, you will end up with a wall of metal blocking your main insource of cool air.

There are always around it, but by design it is just more efficient to ensure that hard drives are mounted in a way that cool air is pushed/pulled/forced in some way from front to back with no more resistance than is necessary.

I have 7 different computer cases right now, each with 2 Hard disks mounted in them and each with an intake fan, although varying sizes, that pretty much blows directly onto the hard drives from the intake, thus cooling them, as well as offering cool air to everything else, with the exception of my Dell XPS 410, which has the side to side cages on the very bottom floor of the case, and there are only 2 of them total with no room for expansion because they are side to side. All the rest are front to back.

The Dell XPS' ambient temperature hovers around 45 degrees celsius average and the hard drives run at a minimum of 6 degrees celsius HOTTER at idle than the hottest OPERATING Velociraptor in the crappiest case I have, which is pretty crappy (It's small, cramped, and very crappily built and designed; but I use it solely for testing anyway, so who cares.)
In addition, this extra heat transfers to everything else and does not help cool anything. I even had to cut a hole in the side for extra intake as well as buy 2 fans for the rear since it didn't come with them. Dell is stupid like that, but the case is pretty.

So while I am sure it's just really a cost/efficiency factor rather than cost/convenience factor in budget cases, it is likely the more expensive the case the better your chances of seeing multiple mount possibilities in HDD cages.