Oh, my tomcat would definitely love this case... especially those little USB inserts. I'd give it about half hour tops before being discovered and ... privatized :-)
What does that have to do with it not being cat-proof?
I think you'd be ok if you removed the transparent section on the top and didn't use the port covers. The other parts are a bit big for a cat to make off with. Although I say that, my cat has stolen my razer and hidden it before.
No really, pet-related problems are the fault of having a pet, not products being designed around pets. Cat hair is one of the worst things for computers in general, so get rid of the cat and you not only save a ton of money, but solve that problem completely.
How about you get rid of that disgusting attitude you have towards other animal species?
I have 4 adopted cats I take care of, not because I went to an adoption center, but because of crappy people like you who leave them abandoned on the street, with no home, no shelter, and no food. Just like me or you, cats didn't ask to be born. They just do their best to live another day. I was gracious enough to accept not one, not two, not three, but four abandoned pets from my neighborhood and gave them a loving home.
Also, cat hair isn't an issue. Regular vacuuming and A/C filter replacements takes care of that issue. It's a matter of PEBCAK. In other words, you're too lazy to vacuum (whereas you should regardless of whether you have pets or not) and you're too lazy to replace A/C filters throughout your home on a regular basis.
Why? mATX and mITX motherboards support 0 expandability. For example, I have a fast PCIe SSD and a PCIe sound card. And of course a PCIe GPU, and room for even more stuff. Also, I have support for SLI and CrossFire. You couldn't have those on a smaller motherboard. mATX has its place in the market, for people who want to build as small a PC as possible, or for those who want a living room media PC.
All of your points are true, but also irrelevant for (I would guess) north of 90% of all users, who need 0 expandability. SLI is relatively rare, PCIe sound cards rarer still. And yet full ATX remains the most common form factor.
IMO, it's motherboard selection that's holding people back more than cases. I have one CPU, one high-end GPU, one PCIe M.2 SSD, and no expectation of ever needing any additional PCIe slots... and yet I have a full-ATX motherboard, because Asus didn't offer any mATX motherboards with the features I wanted.
I'd say it's not Motherboard selection.. We have had some variety for awhile now.. What's lacking is casing... casing.. casing. Can't stress that enough.
I'd kill for a good ole lian-li type PC-60 without all the 5.25 drive bays /w a wider chassis to accommodate 120MM fans.. and cable management.. provided it had the old school removable MB Tray..
Can think of about 50 other cases out there that would be great sellers to if these case makers would just shrink them down for the Mitx market..It's not rocket science to know what works and what doesn't.
I still buy a big case so I can have a bunch of 200mm fans. Big and slow = quiet but good cooling. It is pretty empty in there these days though. Although 64gb of 2800 RAM sure made that empty feeling go away quickly once the lid closed.
They had a Kickstarter which failed, but that opened up some new opportunities. According to their forums which I've kept up with they're working out some final details before signing the paperwork and announcing the details as to what's happening next.
There's even talks of a possible ATX variant which looks incredibly small for what it offers.
The problem is part selection though more so than case selection. It's a chicken and egg problem though as power users don't support mATX because the options are lacking, yet manufactures don't put a lot of money into mATX because the power users aren't interested.
I'd argue that people jamming 4-5 drives into their case is faster than SLI at this point, yet every ATX case seems destined to have room for lots of drives...
I'd love to see a slimmer ST Raven or Corsair Air 540 would, lose the drive cages but keep the straight airflow and room for enthusiast SLI/water configs.
There's still a lot of unexplored ATX form factors IMO.
I didn't realize that anyone made PCIe soundcard anymore, other than for some specialized applications, and sli/xfire hasn't really been worth the hassle IMO. Now that m.2 is pretty standard, I'm not sure what a PCIe SSD buys you anymore. I'd like a mATX case that didn't stink. My big storage is in another box attached via Ethernet, so having 5 drives in my case is too much hassle. mATX still has full features mobos (4 ram slots, at least two PCIe slots), so that's all the expandability that I need or want. And I expect that the vast majority of people agree. It pains me when people buy a giant Dell box in ATX size, using iGPU. I think I've said enough.
I grew up on sound cards in my builds. But 5 or 10 years ago I got two useless sound cards in a row. Turns out MS changed windows sound and made those guys obsolete. Then some new sound guys came out with high end cards and op amps, whatever that is etc. Lack of driver support made me finally spit on them and now I just enjoy the built in ROG sound on the MB.
Oh yeah, and who cares about sound cards when it's just a digital stream going straight to your computer's surround receiver. The new sound algorithms track individual sounds through the 3d geometry which kind of means sound belongs in the GPU anyways.
what's the point of SLI support if you're not using it?
It's not something most people ever use anyway.
I've never owned a mobo bigger than mATX and I'm an average value-for-money gamer, and I didn't do it on purpose. My case supports ATX motherboards but I don't need them when I'm aiming for the cheapest motherboard that has what I need (the chipset).
For a media PC I'd go with mITX.
PCIe SSDs are a rarity, PCIe sound cards are either for obscure use cases or for noobs, real speakers need an external amplifier anyway, and AVRs can get digital audio through HDMI and do processing themselves with Audissey and all that jazz, which a consumer sound card will never do (idk about specialized uses).
And for the average gaming PC build (which is the use-case most enthusiasts who bother to build a PC have) you see nothing more than a single GPU in the PCI-E slots, and usually less than 4 SATA drives.
The usual difference between MicroATX and ATX is that one has 4 PCI-E slots and the latter has space for 5, 6, sometimes 7 slots, and ATX usually has ~2 more SATA ports, although it's still really common to find MicroATX boards these days with the standard 6 SATA ports.
You can still do Crossfire/SLI with a MicroATX. You can still have an array of disks with MicroATX.
MiniITX's real problem is that most people don't understand the form factor and think it's a limitation rather than a freedom of case choice and additional form-factors and sizes. Additionally, for first-time builders, small MiniITX cases are incredibly difficult builds, due to stressful cable management issues, and the order you install items in the case actually REALLY matters, because otherwise, everything just won't go in right.
I think a lot of consumers are just uneducated on how legacy and obsolete ATX has been for the past few years. Like someone else said, I'd bet only 1-3% of consumers need anything more than ITX. SLI/Crossfire has never really been worth it and the needs for expansion cards is virtually non-existent.
I use 5 slots on my motherboard for legacy hardware, but otherwise agree that most users don't need larger than mATX. That said, it doesn't cost much more to build a low cost full atx case, and doing so widens the market a brand can reach, which is critical for the low margin low end.
Looks great, but there are some real disadvantages. 1. 5.25'" slots seem really odd today. Yes, you can put one 3.5" or even two 2.5" drives on holder shelf, but it looks really terrible. The only cases I can remember without 5.25" slots for today is NZXT. There are also good solutions for 3x5.25" slot cases - you can easy find rack mount (at a very small cost) which allow you to have 5x3.25" drives (90 degrees rotated) on the same space. 2. Screw-free holders for HDD are terrible. They don't hold tight in slots providing small but HDD-killing vibrations. 3. Power supply & HDD case in lower part which isolates these parts from other case volume (yes, this is good for cooling - you can pull down front fan and it will blow right through this case) consumes a lot of space. 4. Upper side-located HDD mounting place is located very close to GPU. I installed MSI GTX 980 Gaming card (279 mm) and it is located deadly close.
It seems that Zalman tried to save owner's money in too many ways. Still, good cooling and good look. P.S. Sorry for my english.
Personally I use BD once in a good while. I'd get the case with 5.25 so I don't have to put the drive in some kind of casing. It's not very popular nowaday so I understand your point.
Anyway if I do gaming system without optical drive, I'd put fan controller there instead.
I understand what you're talking about, but there are many uses for the 5.25" trays. I am an owner of a Corsair 900D and make plenty of use of them.
- BluRay burner for M-Discs definitive storage. Very good for storing my photos, videos and other things, and not have to worry (too much) about them "going bad".
- Fan controller. In addition to the 4 fans that come with the case, mine has an addition of 6 low noise fans for (absolute) positive pressure, and the controller has 3 thermal diodes so I can see temps on the GPU/CPU area, HDD area and overall intake air temp.
- One hot-swap tray for 3.5" HDDs, mostly for convenience. The 900D already comes with a hot swap HDD cage, but with this I don't need to open up the panels, and can use the couple HDDs I have for "on the go" usage. Might be bulkier, but cheaper than 2.5" USB ones and with more storage.
Good review, thanks! It's nice to see something other than an all black case or a black and red one and the price is pretty reasonable. I think it makes up for shortcomings like a non-removable filter on the front.
As always, the Coca-Cola can size comparison makes me smile a little.
As someone who uses the cheapest zalman cases quite regularly at work I do recognize their flwas but overall they always seem to be a decent choice for simple pc's that just need to work.
Whats up with rainbow side window? Did that side window plastic not cure completely? Looks awful in my opinion Zalman. I am hoping that is an artifact of the camera lens and the side window really is not iridescent.
Valuable article - I was fascinated by the information - Does anyone know if my business would be able to locate a sample Residential Real Estate Lease example to use ?
I think the RAM sticks are installed incorrectly in the interior photo. I wanted to point this out because readers may use the photos as guidance for their build. Should be A1/B1, not A1/A2.
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HollyDOL - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Oh, my tomcat would definitely love this case... especially those little USB inserts. I'd give it about half hour tops before being discovered and ... privatized :-)HollyDOL - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Not to sound ironic, it seems like a good case, esp. related to the cost.Flunk - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
What does that have to do with it not being cat-proof?I think you'd be ok if you removed the transparent section on the top and didn't use the port covers. The other parts are a bit big for a cat to make off with. Although I say that, my cat has stolen my razer and hidden it before.
Haravikk - Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - link
Get rid of the cat; problem solved.No really, pet-related problems are the fault of having a pet, not products being designed around pets. Cat hair is one of the worst things for computers in general, so get rid of the cat and you not only save a ton of money, but solve that problem completely.
JoeyJoJo123 - Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - link
How about you get rid of that disgusting attitude you have towards other animal species?I have 4 adopted cats I take care of, not because I went to an adoption center, but because of crappy people like you who leave them abandoned on the street, with no home, no shelter, and no food. Just like me or you, cats didn't ask to be born. They just do their best to live another day. I was gracious enough to accept not one, not two, not three, but four abandoned pets from my neighborhood and gave them a loving home.
Also, cat hair isn't an issue. Regular vacuuming and A/C filter replacements takes care of that issue. It's a matter of PEBCAK. In other words, you're too lazy to vacuum (whereas you should regardless of whether you have pets or not) and you're too lazy to replace A/C filters throughout your home on a regular basis.
flyingpants265 - Tuesday, April 2, 2019 - link
Whoa, not often you see someone that delusional.MadAd - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
I'm constantly amazed how much full size ATX is still used.Kepe - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Why? mATX and mITX motherboards support 0 expandability. For example, I have a fast PCIe SSD and a PCIe sound card. And of course a PCIe GPU, and room for even more stuff. Also, I have support for SLI and CrossFire. You couldn't have those on a smaller motherboard. mATX has its place in the market, for people who want to build as small a PC as possible, or for those who want a living room media PC.Black Obsidian - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
All of your points are true, but also irrelevant for (I would guess) north of 90% of all users, who need 0 expandability. SLI is relatively rare, PCIe sound cards rarer still. And yet full ATX remains the most common form factor.IMO, it's motherboard selection that's holding people back more than cases. I have one CPU, one high-end GPU, one PCIe M.2 SSD, and no expectation of ever needing any additional PCIe slots... and yet I have a full-ATX motherboard, because Asus didn't offer any mATX motherboards with the features I wanted.
just4U - Monday, May 23, 2016 - link
I'd say it's not Motherboard selection.. We have had some variety for awhile now.. What's lacking is casing... casing.. casing. Can't stress that enough.I'd kill for a good ole lian-li type PC-60 without all the 5.25 drive bays /w a wider chassis to accommodate 120MM fans.. and cable management.. provided it had the old school removable MB Tray..
Can think of about 50 other cases out there that would be great sellers to if these case makers would just shrink them down for the Mitx market..It's not rocket science to know what works and what doesn't.
Azethoth - Monday, May 23, 2016 - link
I still buy a big case so I can have a bunch of 200mm fans. Big and slow = quiet but good cooling. It is pretty empty in there these days though. Although 64gb of 2800 RAM sure made that empty feeling go away quickly once the lid closed.vpr - Sunday, May 29, 2016 - link
Pre-Note: I do not work for this company, just been following their progress a lot.The Kimera Industries Cerberus might be what you're looking for - http://www.kimeraindustries.com/#main-hero
They had a Kickstarter which failed, but that opened up some new opportunities. According to their forums which I've kept up with they're working out some final details before signing the paperwork and announcing the details as to what's happening next.
There's even talks of a possible ATX variant which looks incredibly small for what it offers.
The problem is part selection though more so than case selection. It's a chicken and egg problem though as power users don't support mATX because the options are lacking, yet manufactures don't put a lot of money into mATX because the power users aren't interested.
Impulses - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
I'd argue that people jamming 4-5 drives into their case is faster than SLI at this point, yet every ATX case seems destined to have room for lots of drives...I'd love to see a slimmer ST Raven or Corsair Air 540 would, lose the drive cages but keep the straight airflow and room for enthusiast SLI/water configs.
There's still a lot of unexplored ATX form factors IMO.
erple2 - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
I didn't realize that anyone made PCIe soundcard anymore, other than for some specialized applications, and sli/xfire hasn't really been worth the hassle IMO. Now that m.2 is pretty standard, I'm not sure what a PCIe SSD buys you anymore. I'd like a mATX case that didn't stink. My big storage is in another box attached via Ethernet, so having 5 drives in my case is too much hassle. mATX still has full features mobos (4 ram slots, at least two PCIe slots), so that's all the expandability that I need or want. And I expect that the vast majority of people agree. It pains me when people buy a giant Dell box in ATX size, using iGPU. I think I've said enough.Azethoth - Monday, May 23, 2016 - link
I grew up on sound cards in my builds. But 5 or 10 years ago I got two useless sound cards in a row. Turns out MS changed windows sound and made those guys obsolete. Then some new sound guys came out with high end cards and op amps, whatever that is etc. Lack of driver support made me finally spit on them and now I just enjoy the built in ROG sound on the MB.Azethoth - Monday, May 23, 2016 - link
Oh yeah, and who cares about sound cards when it's just a digital stream going straight to your computer's surround receiver. The new sound algorithms track individual sounds through the 3d geometry which kind of means sound belongs in the GPU anyways.Murloc - Saturday, May 21, 2016 - link
what's the point of SLI support if you're not using it?It's not something most people ever use anyway.
I've never owned a mobo bigger than mATX and I'm an average value-for-money gamer, and I didn't do it on purpose.
My case supports ATX motherboards but I don't need them when I'm aiming for the cheapest motherboard that has what I need (the chipset).
For a media PC I'd go with mITX.
PCIe SSDs are a rarity, PCIe sound cards are either for obscure use cases or for noobs, real speakers need an external amplifier anyway, and AVRs can get digital audio through HDMI and do processing themselves with Audissey and all that jazz, which a consumer sound card will never do (idk about specialized uses).
JoeyJoJo123 - Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - link
And for the average gaming PC build (which is the use-case most enthusiasts who bother to build a PC have) you see nothing more than a single GPU in the PCI-E slots, and usually less than 4 SATA drives.The usual difference between MicroATX and ATX is that one has 4 PCI-E slots and the latter has space for 5, 6, sometimes 7 slots, and ATX usually has ~2 more SATA ports, although it's still really common to find MicroATX boards these days with the standard 6 SATA ports.
You can still do Crossfire/SLI with a MicroATX.
You can still have an array of disks with MicroATX.
MiniITX's real problem is that most people don't understand the form factor and think it's a limitation rather than a freedom of case choice and additional form-factors and sizes. Additionally, for first-time builders, small MiniITX cases are incredibly difficult builds, due to stressful cable management issues, and the order you install items in the case actually REALLY matters, because otherwise, everything just won't go in right.
techxx - Sunday, May 22, 2016 - link
I think a lot of consumers are just uneducated on how legacy and obsolete ATX has been for the past few years. Like someone else said, I'd bet only 1-3% of consumers need anything more than ITX. SLI/Crossfire has never really been worth it and the needs for expansion cards is virtually non-existent.ninjaquick - Sunday, May 22, 2016 - link
I use 5 slots on my motherboard for legacy hardware, but otherwise agree that most users don't need larger than mATX. That said, it doesn't cost much more to build a low cost full atx case, and doing so widens the market a brand can reach, which is critical for the low margin low end.ShieTar - Monday, May 23, 2016 - link
Honestly, once you decide you want 2x2.5" bays and 2x120 mm fans in the front, you do have the space to put a full size ATX behind it anyways.I would expect more than 50% of the standard users to actually fit a mATX board into such a case (cause they are cheaper then the full size boards).
strangeone - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Well, I'm a happy owner of this case.Looks great, but there are some real disadvantages.
1. 5.25'" slots seem really odd today. Yes, you can put one 3.5" or even two 2.5" drives on holder shelf, but it looks really terrible. The only cases I can remember without 5.25" slots for today is NZXT. There are also good solutions for 3x5.25" slot cases - you can easy find rack mount (at a very small cost) which allow you to have 5x3.25" drives (90 degrees rotated) on the same space.
2. Screw-free holders for HDD are terrible. They don't hold tight in slots providing small but HDD-killing vibrations.
3. Power supply & HDD case in lower part which isolates these parts from other case volume (yes, this is good for cooling - you can pull down front fan and it will blow right through this case) consumes a lot of space.
4. Upper side-located HDD mounting place is located very close to GPU. I installed MSI GTX 980 Gaming card (279 mm) and it is located deadly close.
It seems that Zalman tried to save owner's money in too many ways. Still, good cooling and good look.
P.S. Sorry for my english.
mr_tawan - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Personally I use BD once in a good while. I'd get the case with 5.25 so I don't have to put the drive in some kind of casing. It's not very popular nowaday so I understand your point.Anyway if I do gaming system without optical drive, I'd put fan controller there instead.
LordanSS - Sunday, May 22, 2016 - link
I understand what you're talking about, but there are many uses for the 5.25" trays. I am an owner of a Corsair 900D and make plenty of use of them.- BluRay burner for M-Discs definitive storage. Very good for storing my photos, videos and other things, and not have to worry (too much) about them "going bad".
- Fan controller. In addition to the 4 fans that come with the case, mine has an addition of 6 low noise fans for (absolute) positive pressure, and the controller has 3 thermal diodes so I can see temps on the GPU/CPU area, HDD area and overall intake air temp.
- One hot-swap tray for 3.5" HDDs, mostly for convenience. The 900D already comes with a hot swap HDD cage, but with this I don't need to open up the panels, and can use the couple HDDs I have for "on the go" usage. Might be bulkier, but cheaper than 2.5" USB ones and with more storage.
BrokenCrayons - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Good review, thanks! It's nice to see something other than an all black case or a black and red one and the price is pretty reasonable. I think it makes up for shortcomings like a non-removable filter on the front.As always, the Coca-Cola can size comparison makes me smile a little.
qlum - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
As someone who uses the cheapest zalman cases quite regularly at work I do recognize their flwas but overall they always seem to be a decent choice for simple pc's that just need to work.Axiomatic - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Whats up with rainbow side window? Did that side window plastic not cure completely? Looks awful in my opinion Zalman. I am hoping that is an artifact of the camera lens and the side window really is not iridescent.TheUsual - Friday, May 20, 2016 - link
Please post the weight in your case reviews.basiliadufrene - Sunday, May 22, 2016 - link
Valuable article - I was fascinated by the information - Does anyone know if my business would be able to locate a sample Residential Real Estate Lease example to use ?paulpdx - Sunday, May 29, 2016 - link
I think the RAM sticks are installed incorrectly in the interior photo. I wanted to point this out because readers may use the photos as guidance for their build. Should be A1/B1, not A1/A2.