DudeBoyz

I moved my internals from my old case to my new NZXT Zero and thought I'd share some first impressions.

This case solved 2 specific concerns I had with my old case setup. One, the new Sapphire X1950 Pro 512 meg card is so long that the power connectors on the vid card interfered with the back of my hard drive cage. The drives were oriented in the same direction as the card, with power and control cables plugging in line with the card. In order to accommodate the new card, I had to physically remove 2 drives from the drive cage and relocate them to the floor of the case.

Second, since upgrading to an Athlon FX 60 and the X1950 Pro video card, my temps rose all the way to the mid to high 50's (Celsius) from the mid to high 30's. Quite a big increase.

So, since the Zero has drives oriented at a right angle to the video card, I did not have to worry about interference. Also, the Zero has a ton of large fans. My old case used a bunch of 80mm fans which worked okay, but only had one cooling fan coming from the side, though it did have 2 in front and 2 in back. The Zero has 2 large exhaust fans on the back, 1 80mm at the top and of course the two 80mm's inside the PSU for a total of 5. It has 1 large intake fan at the front, plus 4 large intakes on the side. This setup seems to move a lot more air and does it in the standard airflow pattern most PC's use. Actively draw air in from the front and side and exhaust out the back and top. I suppose the air vent at the bottom of the case (not a fan, just a vent) allows it to draw air from underneath the unit too, but I don't think I benefit much given that I have it on carpet.

Well, bottom line is that the video card NO LONGER interferes with the drive cables and temps are down noticeably over my previous setup. The old case just couldn't handle the new vid card because airflow was blocked by the darn thing too.

The new case temps during non-gaming stuff are [b]27 Celsius CPU and 21 Celsius MB. That's even lower than my old A64 3500+ CPU that ran at 30c. My old MB was only 19c before the X1950 Pro card.

The new case temps during hardcore gaming seem to top out about 39-40c for CPU and 24-25c for MB.

So, that seems to make me happy. My primary goals were met.

Aside from that, here are some thoughts about the case itself:

PROS:

Interior layout is well done. The rotated drive cage is outstanding, and the external bays are also very nice. The cross bar rails enclosing the PSU are a welcome feature. I can run cables in the gap and twist-tie them in place, and it also makes the case structure more rigid and supports the PSU well. It was very easy to remove and later replace the top 80mm exhaust fan so I could slide the PSU in. The two rear exhaust fans have a nice gap on the left side of the case that is perfect for unwinding and tucking in the MOLEX fan connector cables. It was great that both the front intake and back exhaust fans had long cables that could be neatly wound up but also unwound easily. Front intake fan setup seems very well done and keeps the hard drives cool.

Capacity is very good for a regular sized case. SIX bays on the rotated drive cage, TWO 3.5" floppy type bays and FIVE 5.25" drive bays, all externally accessed at the front of the case behind the door.

My first aluminum case, and this thing is VERY light compared to my monster steel cases. The light weight is a mixed blessing, however, as I'll mention in the CONS section.

The front drive-bay door is functional and still looks good. On the outside of the closed door, there is a Power / Reset button and a bright red HDD Activity light. It's very easy to see and up high enough so that I can look under the desk and see what up right away. One note on the Power / Reset button. By default, the front button on the outside of the door is configured as a POWER button. If you open the door and look at the face of the computer, there is another button. By default, that one is for RESET. I chose to swap those two functions so that the button on the outside of the door is the RESET button. I do this because I very seldom turn my main machine off, but I very often hit the reset button. With as much software and hardware testing and tweaking that I do, RESET is just something I need to use, so I prefer having it right out in front. Since this case puts only one button on the front of the door, I had to choose, and I chose what makes the most sense for me.

Anyway, at the top of the door is a very cool smoked plastic window that not only lets you look through the window and see any lighted stuff you might want to put there (like a fan controller) but it provides extra room to make sure the door can close if your fan controller or other device has knobs or connections that stick out from the cage. My fan controller has 4 knobs on it that do in fact stick out and also have blue rings around each knob so it looks spiffy. It ended up working out great.

The door is somewhat thick to fit all the internal cables and controls, and it is very neat and tidy. Even the door hinges are well done. Plus, the back of the door panel that houses the power / reset button, the HDD light and the top front door light has 4 screws that let you open it up and mess around if you want to, or just remove it if you need more room for devices that extend out like those fan controllers do.

The magnetic attachment on the door is also a nifty little change over a physical friction lock mechanism. Never thought of putting magnets near my drives before, but I guess it works ok.

Externally, the case also looks very good. My last case had a clear plastic side door, which was trick in a way, but was also a pain if you had so many cables and couldn't route them neatly. This side panel is very subdued and not see-through, which I'm actually preferring now. The top 80mm fan port is also very well done. The black paint and plastic is very glossy, the silver and black front and blue light scheme is also very attractive and still understated. The USB, Firewire and Audio jacks are very neatly placed on the right side of the case. The front panel door also opens to the RIGHT instead of the left, which is great for my particular situation. The case sits on the floor under the desk on my right side. My old case doors always opened to the left, and it was just an annoyance to have that door get in the way. I finally have a nice right-handed case door.

There is much to like about the case. But not all is wine and roses...


CONS:

The Aluminum is NOT as sturdy as a typical steel case. It's very thin and light, but it can warp very easily. The side panel door is a prime example. I have to physically restrain and line up the door while applying pressure to make sure the screw hole lines up properly. It can be a pain when trying to put the thumb screw in with one hand while pushing up against the door to hold it in place with the other.

Also, vibration is an issue. The very thin aluminum is not as meticulously crafted as it could be, and noise / vibration dampening measures did not seem to be a concern when they built the thing. There seems to be times when everything hits a "harmonic" and phases in and out of a vibration and noise cycle. Very strange. I wish they had put more rubber and/or felt pads and the like to help minimize vibration, or perhaps if they had made the metal a bit thicker and sturdier, it would not be such a problem. It is kind of annoying. It starts to "hum" and then I put my hand on the side or top and it will stop when I apply pressure. Doesn't do it all the time, but it does happen often enough to get on your nerves. The front door that covers the drive bays could also have benefited from a bit more protection. It's flush and the magnet areas are covered with rubber, but that rubber is also flush, so contact does happen from plastic to plastic. I may put some thin felt stick-ons along the edge where the door meets to prevent that rattling / vibration that can happen in such cases.

As awesome as folks seem to think Aluminum cases can be, when I spend $110 (after rebate) for a case, I expect it to be a bit more rugged. I can tell you now that if I was able to find this exact case in STEEL instead, I would exchange the aluminum for steel in a heartbeat.

The drive rails are made of black plastic with metal "rivets" that pop into the screw holes instead of relying on actual screws. It is way convenient, but an imperfect system. Plastic can warp and bend. I would much have preferred a metal clip with more rigid plastic. The things don't give that satisfying "Click" like metal clips do, and this soft plastic shaves off easily when sliding them into the case.

The rail system combined with the drive bay system gives a very unsatisfying level of performance for me. I could not mount a 3.5" hard drive below the floppy because that cage only accepts the floppy rails, which don't account for the different screw-port locations. I could not use a hard drive rail in that cage because it has physical metal stops that ONLY accommodate the shorter floppy rails. It's very frustrating. Plus, rails for the 5.25" bays, hard drive devices and floppy drives are all different. The 5.25" rails use an offset plug system that relies on making both a front and back connection in order to secure the drive. The "rivets" are pre-placed in the appropriate locations, BUT, opposite those rivets, the plastic has been built up to match the height of the top of the rivet. Because of that, standard drive fastening screws cannot be used, which means you cannot line up and secure a device with 4 screws / rivets on each side, nor can you secure half-length devices that fit in 5.25" bays, like my Fan Controller. It isn't long enough to extend to the "back" connector on the rail, so I have to fasten it with TWO screws on each side of the front connector in order to keep it from flapping / rotating. Since the rails have that opposite hole BUILT UP in height, I can't use a regular screw. I don't have any extra long ones that fit either. So, I had to use one of the other sets of holes on either side of where the rivet thing is, which means it doesn't properly line up flush with the front case panel. It's not a problem in this particular instance because I'm using the top bay, which has the extra room to accommodate it, but it is still very annoying.

To top all of this off, even though there are SIX 3.5" drive bays in the bottom enclosure, they only included FIVE rail sets. Hey. I have SIX PHYSICAL HARD DRIVES in my system. I can even plug one more SATA drive into my motherboard if I want. But without that SIXTH RAIL set, I can install it all snug in the enclosure even though there is room for it. I'd have to mount it in one of the external bays instead. Since the floppy bays only support using those short floppy rails, I can't put the hard drive in that 3.5" bay. The only option with this rail set is to use a 3.5" to 5.25" drive cage adapter and then put the drive in one of the 5.25" bays. That is really a pain. I guess I'm going to have to call them and ask them to mail me another set of those cheap plastic rails. Doh!

Externally, the Gloss finish is a fingerprint and dust magnet. On both plastic and metal surfaces, you gotta do some serious wiping down with a soft cotton cloth (I use cheap fluffy white cotton washcloth things I get at Fred Meyer for like $1.99 a ten pack, and they work fine and don't scratch).

A note on the fans. EVERY single fan uses a MOLEX connector instead of the standard 3 pin fan connectors that most fans use. They did NOT include any adapters so you can convert from the Molex to the standard pin-out, so you can't plug them into your motherboard fan ports. My fan controller came with 4 cables, two supporting standard fan plugs and two supporting Molex. So, without any converters / adapters, I could not use all 4 dials. What I ended up doing was daisy chaining all of the INTAKE fans together (each one does have a molex to molex pass-through) and connecting them to DIAL 1 and then all the EXHAUST fans to DIAL 2. My motherboard monitors all fan speeds plugged in to the MB ports and the ASUS PC Probe app can show the rotation speeds live. However, my external fan controller, being mechanical only with no LED, does not provide any way of monitoring the fan speed. Minor point, but still - it's frustrating. I'd like to know what the default speed of the built-in system fans are. Guess I will need to go find some adapters and fork out the cash.

Also, the manual is just really sparse - almost useless. I really would have liked more documentation on the fans, the cables, etc. There is a lot of wacky stuff included on the internal cables for audio, usb, firewire, etc. I would like to have it explained to me at some point what all that stuff does.

CONCLUSIONS / SUMMARY:

Yes, the Zero is a very nice case in many ways, but if you are a nit-picky kind of person, I would not recommend it. The vibration, thin aluminum, lame rail system and the weak bundle are probably just too much to overlook for many, if not most, enthusiasts.

For a case that retails for like $149.99, I would have expected MUCH more in the bundle. A better manual for one, extra rails, more screws, stand-offs, etc. They include two short thumb-screws to fasten the side door, but it has THREE holes for fastening the door. They include only FIVE 3.5" rail kits for hard drives instead of the SIX they should have. They didn't include adapters for the pre-wired fans either.

I'm pretty familiar with PC building and such, so I can probably figure out how to fashion some work arounds, and I do have tons of other screws, stand-offs, etc. from old builds, so I guess I can make it all work out ok. But if I was not an experienced techo-geek with all that stuff taken into account, I'd box the thing up and send it back.

It's like going from a very sturdy, well built Ford F150 or Chevy pick-up truck that has boxed rails, excellent towing capacity, uses thick metal, beefier suspension, etc., to a flashy looking import that uses U-shaped rails, softer Leaf Springs, thinner metal and inexpensive plastic for the interior dash.

It may look good parked, but when you have some tough haulin' to do, you're going to notice the difference. Big-Time.

GutterPunk

Nice review... I have found the same problem with aluminum cases in the past and I haven't bought anything less than 40lbs since .

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DudeBoyz

Thanks.

It is close to being a great case - they should just do some updating to the design and packaging, I guess.

Sure does look purdy though...