Azza Storm 6000 Case Review
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware
Benchmarks & Final Analysis
Yes these are temperature deltas, and yes we had to lower the temperature of the room to test the Storm 6000. From a ventilation standpoint, it seems to follow the trend set by a certain other nicely painted RGB-lighted case.
The Storm 6000 has impressively fast RGB fans on the top and front, yet those are so well blocked-in that only a small portion of that noise reaches the user. Though far from silent, it blocks noise in so well that we barely see a difference between its full-graphics-fan “Full Load” and low-graphics-fan “Idle” setting. That would make this the perfect case to retest at lower fan speed, except that the attempted retest pushed our CPU past its custom-set 115° throttle point.
With noise moderated by a relatively closed front-panel design, cooling was the weakness that struck down the Storm 6000 in our temperature-to-noise chart.
Surprisingly, the $170 Thermaltake View 71 TG’s overall performance advantage was so great that it beat the other cases in value. Even the $200 RGB version of the View 71 TG would have beaten the $150 Storm 6000 (by around 6%) in performance-per-dollar.
We started off this review with high hopes for an outstanding-looking case built from medium-gauge sheet metal (steel), perfectly painted, and given the full RGB treatment. Those hopes were further bolstered by an early test error that produced far better numbers than those shown here. But alas it was not to be, as the Storm 6000 simply didn’t move enough air to keep our hot platform cool. The barely-open front panel that did such a great job of blocking in graphics card noise appears to have done a similarly remarkable job of blocking out cool air. Warm air likely followed the path of least resistance by recirculating though open fan mounts.
Then there’s the matter of the glass side panel having no locator pins or even a ledge to hold it up while installing or removing screws. I dropped it on my table several times just setting up photos. Yet because it looks so good, I’ll probably hang onto the Storm 6000 until I finally drop that glass on something less forgiving.
MORE: Best Cases
MORE: All Case Content
Current page: Benchmarks & Final Analysis
Prev Page Hardware Installation & Test ConfigurationStay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
30-year-old Pentium FDIV bug tracked down in the silicon — Ken Shirriff takes the microscope to Intel's first-ever recall
Cyberpunk 2077 update 2.2 claims to improve Arrow Lake performance by up to 33%, theoretically matching the Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Empyrean Technology gives control to CEC after U.S. blacklisting — China’s top developer of chip design systems hands reins to state-owned firm
-
Simon Anderson Nice design! Glad to see a different design brief for a piece of gaming equipment other than "put lots of jagged lines and colours and make it look like a space ship". Hexagons. That's all it took people! See how something can still look futuristic and "awesome" without shoving it down peoples throats?Reply -
Verrin I'm not sure how you can claim a beehive is better than angles and lines. Looks are subjective, and in my subjective opinion it looks just as tacky.Reply -
moogleslam That final build looks beautiful. The white really makes it look clean and pure. Might have to consider a white case for my next build.Reply -
10tacle I have always loved the white build theme. However, I knew immediately the functionality of this case would be a fail just based on the restrictive air intake slots with those hexagon slots. For a complete water build, CPU and GPU, I can see it being somewhat functional. However, for an air cooled system, especially with a GPU with fans that blow the air back into the case, there is no way I'd buy this even at $50. And asking $150 is way too much.Reply
If Azza wants to know what a real full tower is, they can start by looking at Cooler Master's Storm Stryker for the same price (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260). This is more of an inbetween mid and full. Good luck Azza, you'll need it trying to sell this in big numbers. -
daglesj I just long for the day that the plugs, cables and connectors all move into the 21st century and stop living in the 1960's. Surely we can do better?Reply -
Patrick Tobin This is a basic case for premium cost... yay... I'd rather build into a Fractal Design, Silverstone, or NZXT. Same price or lower, more features. Better looking.Reply -
Patrick Tobin Dagles I fully agree. It'd be nice to see premium quality motherboard connectors. Heck, it'd be REALLY nice if it was just one connector with a billion pins ala laptop connector type.Reply -
ddferrari 20362454 said:Nice design! Glad to see a different design brief for a piece of gaming equipment other than "put lots of jagged lines and colours and make it look like a space ship". Hexagons. That's all it took people! See how something can still look futuristic and "awesome" without shoving it down peoples throats?
I guess you didn't read the review. The case sucks at cooling. Its looks don't matter one bit at that point.