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Zalman GS1000 Full-Tower Case
 
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Max Slowik
Kurtis
Zalman
Feb. 10, 2009
Inside the Case

You'll need to remove both doors to install a PC into this chassis, both to access the other side of the drive bays, but also to take advantage of all the cable-management this case offers. If you can't make the insides of this case look good, you're trying too hard. There's also six 120mm fan spots, seven if you count the one beneath the PSU, and two more if you use the spaces between the lower PSU/ HDD section and the computer section. Zalman only includes two fans, though.

While the hard drives use tool-free rails, the rest of the PC uses... tool-free screws. It's really nice, they included more server-style, drop-free thumbscrews with all the bays; this is a great way to make the install secure and straight-forward. Zalman also pre-installed all the motherboard standoffs, which, knowing that I hate screwing those in, must have done it just for me. How kind.





Motherboard Tray

The amount of working space around the motherboard tray negates the need or desire for a removable tray. Again, it's Extended-ATX, so there are no components that won't fit inside this chassis. The cable management is extreme, portholes all around the motherboard tray, even at the top for the 12V CPU AUX cable; given the distances, with the PSU at the bottom of the case, you may actually need extension cables to make the juice reach, but that's a small price to pay for a tidy build. It's almost unfortunate that the door isn't windowed.





Power Supply

The power supply is at the bottom, and suspended on wheeled rails; they're not superb but you can stick it in facing up or down, and there's plenty of ventilation at the floor and room for any size PSU. The PSU mounts to a steel bracket with a handle to assist in insertion and removal, but the opening in the chassis for the PSU is very, very sharp. If it'll gash a finger (and it did) it'll shear a cable if you're not careful.



Drive Bays

The bays, with their unusual separation, are still easy to use. The case comes with two 5.25"-to-3.5" adapters, with mounts on the bottom and sides for all kinds of 3.5" devices or just regular hard drives--which would be hard to imagine needing since there are six hard drive slots already.

The hard drive rail system is fast and easy, but also high-tolerance and without vibration dampening. The drives clip into preinstalled, preassembled rails, but the rails fit loosely in the cages with or without drives in them. There's no active cooling on the drive cages, which isn't a bad thing with this case's ability to draw air across them anyway, but that does mean that you can't repurpose the top drive bay as an air channel to the expansion slots. If you're not using the bays, they're just going to take up space.







 
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Page 1: Introduction and First Looks
Page 2: Inside the Case
Page 3: In Use and Conclusion


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