Zebronics Aviator - Budget Gaming Chassis

Reviewing Zebronics Aviator Gaming Chassis:

The Zebronics Aviator gaming cabinet has been introduced by Top Notch Infotronix. The product page indicates this to be a mid-ATX casing, with a size of 185 x 437 x 466.5 mm (WxHxD). With seven expansion slots and four 120mm fans for cooling, running two graphics cards together for game performance is quite possible.

 First starting of with the specs: 

Case dimension	:	185 x 466.5 x 437 mm (W x D x H)
Motherboard configuration	:	Micro ATX, Mini ATX, ITX
Drive configuration	:	CD-ROM : 4 x 5.25",HDD : 6 x 3.5", FDD : 1
Optional system cooling fans	:	4 x 120 mm fans provided
Expansion slots and ports	:	7
Front panel control	:	Power switch, Reset switch, Power LED, HDD LED, Sleep LED, 2xUSB-2.0, mic in and audio out
Materials	:	0.6 mm SGCC
Side panel	:	Normal with side fan controller
Tool Free	:	yes
Net Weight	:	6.8 Kg
Color	:	Black
Power Supply (If supplied)	:	Optional

Features: 

• Gaming chassis • Outstanding design • Excellent cooling performance • 2 x 120mm blue LED fans on side panel with fan control switch • 120mm fan on the back • Easy swap bay (5.25"and 3.5"bay) • Front panel is made of mesh steel for better cooling • High quality electroplated zinc steel sheet strong and durable

Fascinated with such great features I decided to give this chassis a try. Moreover this chassis was the best option for me. At a budget of around 2k no other brand provides such bang for bucks. Final price of buying it was Rs.2500 (w/o the bundled PSU). Zebronics is the largest Indian manufacturer of Computer peripherals in India. Their products range from memory card reader, LCD cleaner, chassis fan to high end gaming chassis, 7.1ch speakers and almost all computer peripherals. Times are tough all around, it doesn’t matter where you go anywhere on the globe. But in times of diversity we all need to play our parts, consumers buy, retailers sell and manufacturers produce the goods. But of course -- as consumers we are only going to buy what we think is a good investment for our hard earned money. Zebronics Aviator is an attractive gaming chassis sporting a side fan controller panel and mesh front panel that not only gives it superb looks but also keeps the chassis cool. This is what I can say a great budget gaming chassis.

PICS Zebronics Aviator Cover

Top Panel

 

Side Fan and fan controller

Blue Glory in the dark

 

The electroplated zinc steel body is claimed to make it strong and durable. This cabinet is meant to offer optimum cooling of all critical components. The chassis features fan speed control (also called turbo boost control) which can be set on "high" to increase exhaust of heat that builds-up during gaming, or can be lowered while in normal operation (such as simply browsing the web). The interior has a smoked-black color tone.
The front panel consists of a steel mesh to allow air for effective cooling and includes a 120mm blue LED fan, for air intake. The side panel has two 120mm blue LED fans for exhaust with a power on/off button. At the rear is a fan for exhaust, thus circulating air from front to back to cool the system components.
While maintaining a simple layout, the cabinet offers a lot of space and slots to play with. Keeping in mind gamers who constantly tinker with their machines for upgrades and accessories, the Aviator series claims assembler-friendly features. Up to four 5.25-inch drives (optical disc drive bays), and six 3.5-inch drives (hard drive bays) can be accommodated - five of which are internal and one 3.5-inch bay is exposed. A built-in SD/MMC card reader is accessible at the front.

Conclusion

Zebronics Aviator is a sturdy well made chassis with an attractive style about it. It should be appealing to those like me who are entering the custom built computer market or people who are looking for a chassis on a strict budget.
It was missing some features that I personally like to have in a chassis. The main one is wire management, so that all the cables can be hidden out of the way, however with only one ODD installed I was able to tuck all the wires into the three empty drive bays to keep the system somewhat tidy. As there is no proper cable management available, IMO this chassis was made for budget buyers who use local/generic PSUs. If zebronics improves the cable management facility, I bet this will be the best budget gaming chassis.

Overally, I was thoroughly impressed with Zebronics Aviator for its performance and cost.



Pros:
1. Great Looks
2. Superb Design with pure black interior
3. Top USB, MMC and Audio Jack
4. Two HDD racks out of the five can be removed to accomodate longer graphics card
5.  4 x 120mm cabinets (probably 1k RPM) provided
6. Side Fan Controller is a great option, you can switch it on while gaming and switch it off while normal work like browsing the net, chatting, listening to music, watching a movie, and such
7. Has support for water cooling
8. Price

Cons:  
1. Very bad cable management, should be improved
2. Top PSU mounting instead of bottom 
3. Should provide a fan option at the top also. 
4. Front header cables are very thin and are very prone to damage 

 

The Computer System Unit (Interior)

The System Unit (Interior) 

The system unit is what we can refer to as the main part of the computer. Its not a single unit but is a combination of many smaller parts/units. All the parts inside the system unit are interconnected with each other to work in coordination with each other.


Components inside the system unit:

1. Processor (CPU):  

Processor aka CPU (Central Processing Unit) is what we can say as the brain of the computer. Without the processor its impossible for a computer to work.  Here in the CPU all the main operations of the computer are carried out. 

Earlier there used to be a single core processor, but with increase in technology we now have multicore processors which can do multitasks with ease within a short time. Modern processors are very power efficient i.e they work much faster and efficiently compared to older processors consuming almost half (or even lower) the power. Also these days processors are coming with built in graphics which is quite good for daily usage and playing games up to some extent.

Currently Intel and AMD are the two big processors manufacturers along with small manufacturers like VIA, Fujitsu, National Semiconductor, etc.

AMD Proceossors

Intel Processor

                                                                     VIA Processors

                                                                   2. Motherboard: 

Motherboard is a just a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) which inter connects all the hardware parts with each other. The CPU and RAM are mounted on the motherboard and other devices like Hard Disk, Solid State Drives, Optical Disk Drives, etc are connected to the motherboard via various cables. It just looks like a board but has many ports and slots on it for connecting various hardwares peripherals mentioned above.

Different types of sockets are found on various boards (motherboards are different for Intel, AMD and VIA) with different configurations for various processor pins.

A typical motherboard looks like this:

 

3. RAM 

RAM (Random Access Memory) is the primary memory of a computer. Its is used by the computer to store data that is to be processed by the CPU (processor). Ram stores the data is memory cells that are arranged in spreadsheet format (as in Excel Sheet), from which data in form of 0s and 1s are accessed and transferred at random to the processor  for processing (according to the users need).

RAM is volatile in nature i.e its a temporary memory i.e its contents are lost once power goes off. 

RAM are of two types: 

(i) Static RAM: These RAMs are generally faster and use less power power. But these RAMs are costlier so are not used primarily. Static RAMs are often used as Cache memory of  CPU (processor). Flip-Flop technology is used in static RAMs to store data. 

(ii) Dynamic RAM: These RAMs are slower and consume more power in comparison to Static RAM. But these RAMs are affordable so are used as Primary Memory. In DRAMs data is stored in 0 and 1 format using Transistor-Capacitor data execution technology making it affordable for general use as compared to Flip-Flop. 

We can again classify DRAMs to three types (as of now): 

---> DDR      ---> DDR2     ---> DDR3

and higher the version of DRAM the faster it is and also it consumes less power than the previous version(s).  

                                                                    

                                                                             Modern RAM with heatsink

                                                                          

4. Hard Disk Drive (HDD):

A HDD is the secondary storage device of a computer. Its stores data permanently i.e its non-volatile i.e its contents are not lost even if power goes off. Data in the HDD are stored permanently. We can store large amount of data on HDD. Access time of HDD is slower than Cache memory and RAM. Cost per bit of HDD is very less compared to RAM making it suitable to be used as storage media for storing huge collection of  data. 

HDD come in different size varrying from 80GB-5TB. 

HDDs are of two types:

(i) Internal: These HDD are used inside the cabinet of the desktop and laptops. Its not easier to carry these separetly. 

(ii) External: These HDD are are used externally. Mostly these HDDs are used via USB pots and Fire-wire ports. The main aim of external HDD is to make transfer of huge amount of data easier. 

Internal HDD

 

External HDDs

 

5. Optical Disc Drive (ODD)  

ODD is a device that is used in the computer to read from or write into a disc. ODD use laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs (CDs and DVDs). 

Now a days external USB DVD-RW are available which can be used with older PC which dont have a DVD-RW drive to read and write DVDs. And these drives can also be used with laptops that come without a ODD like small 10" Netbooks.

Internal ODD

External ODD

 

 

6. PSU (Power Supply Unit):

PSU aka SMPS, as the name suggests is the power supply unit of the computer. It is responsible to deliver power to different hardwares as required. So, its always safer to get PSU from good brand with good efficiency for protection of a hardware as overloading the PSU might resulting in burning. Also getting a PSU from a good brand saves a lot on electricity bills. 

There are different types of PSUs depending on power output, efficiency and modularity. 

Different wattage of PSUs

7. Cabinet/Chassis: 

Chassis refers to the outer box of the system unit. Its the store house of all these hardwares. It has different racks to support Motherboard, HDDs, ODDs, PSU, system fans. Also modern Cabinets come with front USB header support and audio jack along with number of fan support to have proper ventilation of air. Proper ventilation of air is necessary to release out the heat of the hardwares inside the cabinet. This indeed increases the life of hardwares. So, choosing a good cabinet is also vital while choosing a PC.