Today i will be reviewing the Aztec case by Raidmax. The Aztec is part of Raidmax’s “Elite Series Gaming Cases”. It officially features room for 4 5.25 drives, 2 external 3.5 drives, and room for 4 3.5 hard drives all with tool less installation. It also features easy to open flip down side panels and removable motherboard tray.

Official specs

• Atx Form Factor (12×10.5 or smaller)
• 7 Expansion Slots
• SECC steel
• 20.5 x 8 x 17.75 IN
• 2 120mm fans included (front intake rear exhaust)
• 2 80mm fans included (two on side panel)

Lets get to some pictures (click any pic to enlarge)

The Box

The Aztec in all its glory!

Front door open down at the bottom there are 2 usb ports and a headphone and mic jack (Note the very small vents for the front intake)

Right side (Note the spot for another 80mm fan and the vent holes)

Left Side Open, one pull of the handle and Wala!

The support bar and VGA intake, notice the adjustable card keepers, a nice touch!

The insides, Check out the twist lock toolless goodies!

The parts box hidden under the hd cage.

Walla!

Whats inside… screws, standoffs, mobo speaker, pci slot cover and HD clips. The hd clips are completly toolless they just wedgie into the holes on the side of the hd then slide and clip into the cage.

The hd cage is quite unique, there is a simple latch on the outside of it that once disengaged allows you to turn the cage 90* and pull it out the side.

A hd inside the hd cage, a tight fit for 4 hard drives.

This is probably the coolest feature, a flip down mobo tray (the tray can also be removed from the side pannel with 3 screws) Also pictured is another spot for an 80mm fan to cool any hard drives in the upper 3.5 bay.

The Rear, a nice open fan grill is what we all like to see

With the use of my trusty fan tester PSU i fired this baby up. It looks quite good the side fan does a very good job of emmiting the perfect ammount of light to make the side glow, but… THE FANS WERE SUPER LOUD. The 80mm fans spun ungodly fast and the 2 120mm fans had a horrible clicking sound in the motor, but all of them pushed a very good ammount of air. I must also nit pick about the front intake and the lack of air the front intake fan receives when the front door is closed. when you close the front door you roughly reduce the airflow by 75%!

The way the front led’s are implemented isnt the best, there is tons of bleed through the plastic front indicating where the leds are. It would look much better if they housed the LED in a frosted plastic housing to diffuse the light, this in my opinion would give a much better glowing effect.

CONCLUSION

Raidmax has some very ingenious and interesting design ideas in this case, from the one handle flip down panels and flip down motherboard tray, to the turn out hd cage and hidden parts box. Overall the main body of the case was quite sturdy, the side panels were somewhat flimsy but once locked into place they were rock solid. The design features are very good ideas on paper but were not implemented the best so to say. The way stuff moved and locked into place could be characterized as clunky and not necessarily the best fit. But after using it for a little while its easy to figure out the way things work. One thing i must note is the fact that this is advertised as a “gaming case” yet is so small inside. Without a hard drive in the top slot of the HD cage your looking at 11in from the back pci slot to the hard drive cage. But with a hard drive in the top or second to top slot in the HD cage your clearance is reduced to 9.5in which will not fit a latest and greatest 9800 series card, and you will have a VERY hard time even fitting the smaller 8800gt in there.

All in all the Aztec is quite a decent case, with good features, it could be used for a middle of the road gaming system without problems, but dont plan on running multiple hard drives and 2 9800gtx’s in SLI in this case, not only will you have clearance issues the heat might be a problem also. in the end i give this case a 6.5/10.

What we liked…

• Sturdy Construction

• One handed flip down side panels

• Hidden parts box

• Turn out HD cage

• Flip down motherboard tray

• Integrated card keepers

• Flip away VGA cooler

• Tool less installation of most things

What we didn’t like…

• Minimal ventilation for front intake w/ door closed

• Small interior space for a “gaming case”

• Front LED bleed through

• Noisy fans

• Some fit and finish issues

• Not really any places for wire management.

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