Akasa Infiniti ZOR

Verdict: Akasa's first genuinely new case in years.

Akasa regularly receives praise and wins awards with its cases. The Mirage boasts excellent build quality, cooling and looks, and this was echoed in our review of the Omega. The Infiniti ZOR is pitched at a lower price bracket than the Omega, and is also £27 cheaper than the excellent Antec Twelve Hundred. Despite the sub-£100 price tag, though, the Infiniti ZOR faces stiff competition from the Twelve Hundred.

First off, the ZOR suffix denotes that this is the gaming version of the Infinity, and as such, has blue LEDs on the fans at the front and a window in the side panel. We're going to call the case the Infiniti from now on, mainly because 'ZOR' looks a little odd.

The Infiniti is a large, reasonably attractive case, with neat lines, good build quality, a matt black finish and feet that swivel out from under the case for extra stability. The textured finish of the steel side panels feels cheap, however.

The front controls are mounted in the uppermost 5.25in external bay and look rather simplistic with just a silver power button. However, pressing the blank front panel flips down the door, exposing a FireWire port, an eSATA port, a reset switch, two USB 2 ports, and microphone and headphone jacks.

There's a relatively quiet 120mm fan mounted on the front of each of the two hard disk modules, each of which has three 3.5in drive bays, and a lone 120mm fan at the rear. A meshed roof vent prevents heat build-up in the top of the case. Removing the mesh exposes a series of holes that will allow for a dual 120mm-fan radiator or two 120mm fans with grilles. There's enough space internally for most radiators of this size if you give up the top 5.25in bay. Also available at the rear are two holes with rubber grommets through which to route tubing for an external radiator.

When we removed the windowed side panel we recoiled at the ugliness of the insides. The standard grey steel interior with its mass of vulgar drive bay modules is a far cry from the smart, anodised black interior of the Twelve Hundred.

The case is accompanied by a diagram (rather than a manual) that offers little in the way of a comprehensive explanation as to how to install the hardware. At first, there didn't seem to be any way to remove the drive modules, but they were freed up almost by accident when the entire front fascia of the case came off alarmingly easily in our hands. This could prove to be a problem if you move your case around a lot, as the fascia frequently opened unbidden during our testing.

Another issue is the way in which Akasa has attached the front panel section to the swing-out fascia; in order to open the fascia fully (if you want to swap a drive, for example), you might have to disconnect the USB, FireWire and front panel wires from your motherboard, or else you'll risk bending pins and headers on your board, or potentially even snap cables.

Opening the fascia reveals the drive modules and rails that can be unclipped so that each module can be pulled out of the front. The two 3.5in hard disk modules each fill three of the eleven 5.25in bays and can be positioned at any height. Another of the 11 drive bays is taken up by an external 3.5in drive bay mount, leaving three bays free for optical drives and fan controllers. You could ditch one of the hard disk modules in favour of more external 5.25in devices, although this would limit you to three hard disks.

Akasa supplies clip-on rails for the hard disks and optical drives - once they're attached to your device, you just slide in the disk or drive. These rails are meant to be tool-free, but you'll need to fix the 5.25in rails to drives using the screws provided. Some of the drive bay slots refused to accept our hardware in any kind of satisfactory way, however.

As the rails are made of solid plastic, it's debatable how effective they are at reducing vibrations. The removable motherboard tray was also very stiff, so we recommend leaving it alone and mounting the motherboard inside the case.

Conclusion

A case should be an investment that will serve you well for many years, as it's unlikely you'll upgrade it as often as a processor or graphics card.

The Infiniti may be a solid case that's flexible and more suited to water-cooling than the Antec Twelve Hundred, but it's awkward to install hardware inside. The fascia that swings out as soon as you glance at it, and the way it tugs the front panel connections when it does so, is grating. The textured finish of the side panels and the unyielding removable motherboard tray further undermine the Infiniti's appeal.

The build quality, cooling and looks of the Antec Twelve Hundred are far superior to the Infiniti ZOR, yet it costs just £27 more. If £82 is your limit, the Infiniti isn't terrible, but you can get much more for a slightly larger investment.