Contents
Measurement
The nominal fan speed is about 1100 RPM. Despite that being a fairly reasonable speed, at 39.0 dBA ambient noise the five fans are quite noticeable at 44.2 dBA. It is not yet loud, but definitely nowhere close to silent either. I have also come up with a new test to see how well the case can dampen noise from within. For that purpose I used an old SCSi enterprise hard drive with ball bearings. The drive alone placed in roughly the same position as it is in the case (just lying on the bottom of the anechoic chamber, so not in the same distance from the sonometer!) produced 41.3 dBA. With the drive inside the case in the middle cage and the fans turned off, the noise climbed to 44.2 dBA. With the fans on, it reached 48.5 dBA which is already quite loud. The test equipment is the usual as for power supplies.
Conclusion
My overall impression of the Azza Taurus 5000B (CSAZ-5000B) is good, especially for their asking price. But if Azza is aiming to steal an interesting portion of the high-end market dominated by companies like Corsair, Fractal Design, Cooler Master and other “big” brands, Linkworld should definitely improve the build quality. The price is nice, but it is definitely not that low as to only compete on equivalently priced case, especially given its flaws and limitations. Yes, the case offers many high-end features, but they need tweaking. For instance, the molex connectors used for the fans are a nightmare. The fans themselves are not among the quietest either, what’s the point of including five of them if you have to throw them out and buy better ones anyway? Having door over the 5.25″ positions is nice, but your choices get limited when it can only open to one side (and you can’t swap it for the other).
It is good that you get some fan filters with the CSAZ-5000B, but only the bottom ones are easy to remove and clean. The front and top ones are somewhat of a pain to do. And the way you have to remove them means increased wear on the assembly every time. Again, not the best solution. What I like is the fact the case feels really sturdy when force is applied, and it does not significantly contort, even the side panels off. The first and most important property of a good case in my opinion is to provide the maximum support possible for installed components. The second is cooling. The case really is tough enough for my requirements, which may come as somewhat of a surprise. Though to be honest, I’ve never really seen Linkworld cases before. But judging from their power supplies, I would have expected only paper-thin enclosures. This is a nice example that they can make a good product. The finish is also good, though it wore out a bit under the side panel tumbscrews after removing them a couple of times. But this happens quite often with most cases.
The cooling possibilities here are fine with seven 120mm positions, which could also be repurposed for water cooling. Though as already stated, the fans are only very basic models which should be replaced if you mean to achieve a reasonable degree of silence. Also, providing some noise-dampening material might have been good idea on their part. As I showed with the loud SCSI hard drive, the sound-dampening properties of this model are hardly optimal. Some effort to improve the case could also be directed towards the middle hard-drive cage. Since the locking mechanism broke during shipping, what can we expect in a few years when the plasic becomes fatigued? It breakes simply by touching it?
All in all, if it was me, I would personally not buy this case for myself or for my customers, but that’s only because it has the window which I am no fan of (and most of my customers are not either). If they sold a window-less variety for a few bucks less, it would at least appeal to my customers :o) But if you like windows and want a reasonably solid case with at least some advanced properties for slightly lower price than most other brands ask, the Azza Taurus 5000 may be the right one for you.
 Pros |
+ sturdy built, good metal processing, quality finish + optical drive positions + support for long graphics cards + rich cooling possibilities, 5 fans pre-installed + fan filters + mostly tool-less instalation, thumbscrews provided + front/top panel connector caps + reasonable price |
 Cons |
− poor fan connector quality − discutable HDD cage locking mechanism − front and upper dust filter mounting system − no sound dampening − loud fans |
 Be aware of… |
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Thanks
I thank the Azza company for providing the Azza Taurus 5000B.
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