Final thoughts and rating
We've come full circle, and the most obvious question - is the Zaria A20 SIM worth £100? - requires an answer. Despite the chassis' thermal performance and SIM goodness, our answer would be no.
Why? Well, once the chassis is up and running, most users will rarely venture back inside and will spend the rest of their time simply looking at their kit - herein lies a problem, as the Zaria A20 SIM in our opinion doesn't look or feel like £100. The premium price is clearly dictacted by the inclusion of the SIM system, but the chassis sorely lacks a bit of finesse and its blocky aesthetics aren't what we'd call easy on the eye.
Looks aside, we also need to reflect on Ikonik's promise of surpassing requirements by delivering performance, fun, good looks and ease of use.
The performance, clearly, is there, and newcomers to overclocking will have plenty of fun playing with the easy-to-use SIM system - and, perhaps, the quickly-forgettable "kick start" button. That's two out of four, but good looks and ease of use need some work.
The Zaria SIM A20's lack of a removable motherboard tray makes it tough to work with, and cable management could be better. Still, let's not forget that Ikonik hasn't been in the market long and its Zaria SIM A20 is a solid start. There's room for improvement, of course, and we'll be looking forward to seeing what else Ikonik can produce.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the chassis is evaluated with respect to our 'mid-range components' criteria.
Ikonik Zaria A20 SIM
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Ikonik Zaria A20 SIM can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk at a cost of £98.39.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
Ikonik's marketing and sales account manager Annemarie Pot submitted the following HEXUS Right2Reply on May 22nd 2009:
Hereby IKONIK would like to thank HEXUS for the technical evaluation of IKONIK’s Zaria A20 SIM.
HEXUS has tested the Zaria A20 case with SIM. If you also have an IKONIK case with the SIM software installed, please bring a visit to IKONIK’s website (http://www.ikonik.com/downloads/). Because here you can download the latest SIM version for free.
There is also the Zaria A10 and A20 without SIM available. On our website (www.ikonik.com) you will find more information about the different models.Since HEXUS has tested a media pre sample, I would like to have the opportunity to mention that few issues mentioned in the review are meanwhile solved.
IKONIK will guarantee that the extension slots are very easy to handle now and you don’t need to screw to install the motherboard because the mb standoff holes are improved.
But maybe you can check out IKONIK’s tool-less design yourself! It’s very easy…
