AZZA CSAZ-XT1 Full-Tower Gaming Case Review

By Meng Vang

Manufacturer: AZZA (USA) Technologies, Inc.
Product Name: XT1B
Model Number: CSAZ-XT1 B
UPC: 690568011411
Price As Tested: $109.99 (Newegg | Amazon)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by AZZA.

Adequate air cooling? Check. Water cooling capabilities? Check. Built in 230mm LED fan? Check.

The AZZA XT1 Full-Tower Gaming case has it all. With great features offered in only some of the highest-end products, the AZZA XT1 makes a great case for consumers on a larger budget and even some enthusiast who want to go with a full-fledged customized water cooling system. It also features a lot of expand abilities for multiple hard drives and solid state drive configurations. The AZZA XT1 will accommodate XL-ATX motherboards thanks to its full-tower design. With this accommodation, it has a total of eight expansion slots at the back of the case allowing flexible and unlimited expand abilities.

The AZZA XT1 looks very similar to other high-end cases, but keep in mind that it is built using Japanese steel to ensure the best quality and durability. The overall look of the case is very pleasing to the eyes especially for a person who is into a red and black theme. Now let’s go into more detail on the features and specifications on the AZZA XT1 Full-Tower Gaming case.

Exceptional Cooling System with a Total of Four Fans	1 x 230mm fan locate on top, exhaust the hot air out 1 x 140mm LED fan locate on the side intake the cool air 1 x 120mm LED fan located in the front for cool HDD 1 x 120mm fan locate in the rear, exhaust the hot air out
Easy Swap Slot for 3.5″ HDD and 2.5″ SSD	One Easy Swap HDD tray for easy HDD installation – no need to open side window or remove any screws to install HDD
Maximum Capacity Water Cooler Supports Longest VGA Cards	Supports up to 2 x 120mm water cooling radiators. Accommodate VGA card up to 340mm
USB 3.0 Ready	2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0
Maximum Compatibility	Accommodates XL-ATX, Full ATX, Micro ATX and all kinds of NVidia and ATI VGA cards up to 340mm long.
Easy CPU Cooler Installation	Easy CPU cooler installation – no need to take out motherboard.

Starting out at the front of the AZZA XT1, we can see that most of the entire front-panel has ventilation holes. This allows passive airflow into the case through the expansion bays. There’s nothing too interesting about the front, but starting from the top, there are four available 5.25 inch expansion bays at the top for DVD and Bluray burners. Moving down we can just barely see that large 140mm red LED fan that will intake cool air from the outside of the case.

The front-panel ports are actually located at the very top of the AZZA XT1. Starting at the far left are two USB 3.0 ports. Then we have a microphone and headphone jack along with two USB 2.0 ports at the far right. Moving up at the very top is a large power button that will glow red once the computer is powered on. At the bottom left of the power button is a small reset button, and at the bottom right is a hard drive activity light.

Now that we have seen the front, let’s take a look at the back. Starting at the very top are two water cooling retention holes. Moving down we will see there is a preinstalled 120mm standard fan to exhaust the warm air out of the case. Below the fan you will also notice there are two more water cooling retention holes, a total of four on the back for flexible water cooling capabilities. To the left of the bottom water cooling retention holes are the eight expansion slots for video cards, sounds cards, and other devices. Then finally at the bottom is where you find the mount for a standard ATX power supply.

The AZZA XT1 would not be a gaming case if it did not have a side panel window. There is also a nice large 140mm red LED fan strapped on the lower left side of the case to intake cool air to your high-end video cards. Also keep note of the tall rubber feet. This lifts the case higher off the ground compared to normal cases, which gives more breathing room for your bottom mount power supply. There is also room for a bottom 120mm fan and a dust filter is in place for easy removal and cleaning.

As you can see, the AZZA XT1 case is nicely built with many of the essential features needed for a complete gaming build. Front panel ports that are located at the top of the case give better accessibility to them as they become easier to access. Four water cooling retention holes allows for flexibility for a custom water cooling system. A bottom mount for a power supply keeps the power supply much cooler as warm air rises and does not give the power supply a chance to heat up. Now that we have looked at the basics of the exterior, let’s go into more details.

If you want to make the AZZA XT1 case look a little more beefier, go ahead and strap on these stylish grills. It comes with four of these fan grills that can be strapped onto the exterior of the case. Two of them may be placed on the front and two of them may be placed at the top. Depending on your style, the case does look great with or without these grills.

At the bottom of the front-panel, there is a hot-swappable drive bay for hard drives. This will fit standard 3.5 inch hard drives and is perfect if you plan to travel often while still having important data with you. Behind the drive bay is a preinstalled circuit board that has a red LED activity light with a SATA and 4-pin molex power connection that will be used to connect to the circuit board and access the swappable storage drive.

The four 5.25 inch expansion bays can be used to install DVD and Bluray burner drives. The doors are easily removed by pinching both of the protruding ends of the cover towards the center. Simply pull off the cover and now you can install what ever you want to these expansion bays.

At the back side of the case, the large 230mm red LED fan (located at the top) has a fan controller built in. You may set the fan to run at a low, medium, or high speed depending on temperatures and your noise preference. But since it is a 230mm fan, it does not need to spin very fast to move a lot of air. Due to its large size, it can move a significant amount of air just running at the low speed setting.

Now that we have seen a closer look at the exterior of the AZZA XT1 case, let’s go ahead and see what’s on the inside.

Removing the front panel requires the removal of the top panel. To do this, use something to pull out the two red caps. These can be easily removed by using a pocket knife or something similar. Once you have these two caps removed, there is one standard screw below each of them. Use a four-head screw driver to remove the screw and you can remove the top panel by sliding it towards the front of the case. Once the top is removed, the front panel can also be easily removed.

Now that we have the front panel removed, this is how the AZZA XT1 case looks like. At the top we can see the four 5.25 inch expansion drive bays. These are also tool less whereas you can remove a mounting bracket, slide in a DVD or Bluray drive and use the mounting bracket to secure it. Below you can see the large 140mm red LED fan that is used to intake cool air from the front of the case to the inside. This fan can be easily removed by screwing off the four screws. Then at the very bottom is where you will find the hot-swappable drive bay for external storage.

Looking directly into the interior of the AZZA XT1 case, you will notice a very large CPU cutout on the motherboard tray. This cutout is large enough to remove a CPU cooler without the removal of the entire motherboard. There are also many other cutouts for cable management as well as a small cutout for the power supply cables. Coming to the top right of the case, there we can see the tool less mounting brackets for 5.25 inch expansion drive slots. At the bottom of the 5.25 inch drive bays are six 3.5 inch drive bays for hard drives and SSD’s. These are also tool less. What you do is pull out one of the hard drive caddies, insert a hard drive, and place the hard drive caddie with your hard drive installed back to where it was and connect the wires to the hard drive from the other side of the case. This will improve the looks of cable management and also improve airflow efficiency.

At the very bottom of the case, you can also mount a 120mm fan that can intake air. There is no fan preinstalled here, but you have this option to install a fan for better temperatures on the graphics card. Installing a 120mm fan here will not interfere with the wires coming out of the circuit board for the hot-swappable bay.

Here is that large 230mm red LED top fan that I have been dying to talk about. Having this large fan will ensure quieter and better cooling to the case overall. To access this fan, you must remove the top panel, which I had already explained how to at the very beginning of this page. This top 230mm fan also has a built in fan controller at the back of the case. It allows you to run the fan at low, medium, and high speeds so adjust the speed of this fan according to your noise preference and temperatures in the case. You can also remove this fan and install a 2 x 120mm radiator.

With all of these features and specifications explained, allow me to build a system with the AZZA XT1 case and see how it goes from here.

In this build, I will be using a Cooler Master V8 CPU cooler and a Gigabyte Radeon R9-270X to demonstrate how much room is in this case. The Cooler Master V8 CPU cooler is still a very large CPU cooler and that is why I decided to use it for this build. I will also be doing cable management to get everything to look at its best. So enough talk, let’s jump right into the build!

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ Motherboard
• System Memory: 2 x 4GB G.SKILL Ripjaw X Series 1600MHz DDR3
• Processor: AMD FX-8120 Eight-Core Processor @ 4.0GHz
• Audio: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
• Video: Gigabyte Radeon R9-270X 2GB
• Disk Drive 1: ADATA SP900 64GB SSD
• Disk Drive 2: Seagate Momentus Thin 320GB HDD
• PSU: Raidmax Hybrid II 630W Modular PSU
• Monitor: Acer G226HQLBbd 21.5″ 5ms LED Monitor
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64-Bit

Like any new build, it is recommended to start with the CPU cooler already installed onto the motherboard before installing it into the case. Because the AZZA XT1 had a lot of interior room and had that large CPU cutout on the motherboard tray, it would have been possible to mount the motherboard into the case first and then install the CPU cooler.

Because the AZZA XT1 case supports graphics cards up to 340mm long or roughly a little over 13 inches, I had no trouble fitting my Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X Windforce edition into the case. Because this graphics card measures in at 11.5 inches or 292mm, it came no where close to hitting the 3.5 inch drive bays. During the build, I did not run into a lot of problems. There was more than enough room for even a larger CPU cooler and a larger graphics card. There was also a lot of room for more storage drives and ultimately a custom water cooling system.

As you can see, cabling was very simple to manage because there was a lot of room between the motherboard tray and side panel for even some of the thickest wires. The only downside that I discovered was that there were mounting holes for a 140mm fan at the bottom. The reason why it is impossible to install a 140mm fan here was because the SATA and 4-pin molex power cable attached to the circuit board for the hot-swappable drive bay were in the way. If you remove the circuit board, then installing a 140mm fan here will be possible. But for now, I installed a 120mm fan instead and it does the job

All over the motherboard tray are lots and lots of tie-down points. I was able to use as many as I can to make the best out of my cable management. I could have done a better job if I haven’t ran the front panel ports over the cutout of the motherboard. Instead, I could have tied them down to the tie-down points between the small cutout and the CPU cutout. But overall, cable management is top notch with this case if you take your time.

Once I got everything installed, I tested the system and made sure everything was in working order. When I know that everything is working, I went ahead and tied down all of the cables. The results were very satisfying with the AZZA XT1 case.

Here is the completed system. The preinstalled fans are very quiet. The red LEDs from the top 230mm fan also complements the red LEDs from my Cooler Master V8. Closing up the side panel, the system makes barely any noticeable noise when the fans are running at their lowest speeds. Even though they are running at their lowest speeds, there was still enough air passing through the case keeping my FX-8120 at 4.0GHz at around 45C at max load and my Gigabyte Radeon R9-270X at 48C at max load with an ambient room temperature of 25C.

Keep in mind that the AZZA XT1 also comes with four fan grills that can be attached to the front and top of the case. In my case, I wanted to show you how it will look if the grills are attached to the case. You can also leave them off for a more classic look depending on your preference. Also, these fan grills will not prevent dust from passing through them.

I had a lot of fun building a system in the AZZA XT1 case. The case provided a lot of room for cable management and a lot of space for my graphics card. It was also more than enough room to fit my old Cooler Master V8 and that thing is still a large CPU cooler even for today. The three small cutouts on the motherboard tray allowed me to route cables behind the motherboard and out to the proper positions with little to no effort. The CPU power cutout was also very easy to get to and was large enough for the eight-pin CPU power connector.

I really enjoyed working with the AZZA XT1 case. The overall build quality and functionality are top notch. The fact that it uses high quality Japanese steel makes the case stronger and more durable so it is less likely to be bent or damaged. I really had no problems with cable management and tying them down because there were so many tie-down points at the back of the motherboard. The motherboard cutouts are also rounded to keep cables from getting cut. This is important especially for very tight cables. Airflow was also adequate with this case thanks to the large top 230mm fan. I did notice a few drops in temperatures in comparison to a case with dual 120mm fans strapped to the top.

There are also some design flaws that I came across while building. The only thing that really disappointed me was that I couldn’t mount a 140mm fan to the bottom of the case. The mounts are there for a 140mm fan but I cannot install one here because it will hit the wires to the circuit board for the hot-swappable drive bay. This makes it physically impossible to install a 140mm fan unless you remove the hot-swappable drive bay circuit board or just install a 120mm fan instead. I also think it will be much more convenient if removing the front panel did not require the removal of the top panel. And lastly, the removal of the side panels on both sides were difficult to remove and replace. The handles to pull off the side panels are much smaller than usual. This makes it difficult to get a hold on to pull them off. These are just minor design flaws that can be worked around, but this is still an excellent case for what it is.

In terms of performance, I think it is best to first rate this case by how it came straight out of the box and then rate it on its flexibility to add more to it. Built with a 140mm red LED intake fan, another 140mm red LED fan on the side panel, a standard 120mm rear fan, and a top 230mm red LED fan at the top, the AZZA XT1 case comes ready to cool right out of the box. These fans also run very quiet while providing adequate air cooling to your system components. But some enthusiasts will like more beef and prefer something other than just air cooling, that is why there are four water cooling retention holes for a custom water cooling system if air cooling is not enough. This gives a lot of flexibility to add more for people who will like to use a custom water cooling system.

This will not be a gaming case if it did not have a side window and a ton of bright LEDs. Someone in the market for a red and black theme will be very satisfied with the AZZA XT1. In terms of appearance, the case looks almost like something you would see from a science fiction movie. The four fan grill that can be attached to the front and top of the case really completes the system. Even though these grills do not filter dust particles, they do make the overall looks much more appealing to the eye. There is no performance difference in terms of air cooling when these grills are removed or attached, so it is all a matter of your personal preference whether you like the grills removed or attached.

The overall build quality is top notch with high quality Japanese steel. I experienced no problems with flexing and bending while I was moving the case around with everything installed. The steel is very strong and can definitely handle even some of the toughest force against it. The AZZA XT1 is well constructed and this is something any enthusiast will expect in a high end case.

In terms of functionality, I was expecting more than just six internal 3.5 inch drives. This may be because of the fact that there are already four 5.25 inch drive bays along with the bottom hot-swappable drive bay at the very bottom. But who really uses up to six 3.5 inch drives for storage especially if they are buying this case for gaming? The AZZA XT1 also accommodates XL-ATX motherboards for even some of the largest and bulkiest motherboards. It also fits graphics cards that are up to 340mm long. With so much room for XL-ATX motherboards and expansion for multiple crossfire and SLI configurations, air cooling may not be enough. But then again, the capabilities of water cooling are there if you need it.

As of March 2014, the AZZA XT1 sells online for $109.99 (Newegg | Amazon). At this price range, many enthusiast will expect more than just a normal computer case. But as for me, I just could not find the selling point of this case to be honest. Yes it has pretty LED fans, a large 230mm fan, water cooling capabilities, but there are other cases with these same features at a much lower price point. Also with some of the design flaws that I mentioned earlier, I would expect a case at this price range to have a better design. I think this case could do better in the market if it were to be sold at a lower price point considering there are other cheaper cases that have the same features.

This is a fantastic case overall. I think an enthusiast would be very satisfied with the overall build quality, the functionality, and the flexibility that the AZZA XT1 case delivers. I mean it doesn’t try to be something that it isn’t. It’s also a very eye attracting computer case that will appeal to most gamers. It does what it should, it’s not suppose to sing and dance. It just works. The AZZA XT1 will make an excellent case for a new build or someone upgrading from a cheaper case.

+ High quality Japanese steel construction
+ Very heavy in weight
+ Lots of interior room for expansion
+ Preinstalled 230mm red LED top fan
+ Tall rubber feets allow bottom fans to intake large amounts of air
+ Accommodates XL-ATX motherboards and VGA cards up to 340mm
+ Red LED fans are quiet and bright
+ Looks great to a gamer
– No special features as selling point
– Must remove top panel before removing front panel
– Cannot install 140mm bottom fan unless hot-swappable circuit board is removed
– Hard to remove side panels

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 9.25
• Construction: 9.75
• Functionality: 8.25
• Value: 7.25

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.

COMMENT QUESTION: What do you like/dislike about the AZZA XT1 Full-Tower Gaming case?