Boy, is this ugly...

I am now looking for new case (my old Chieftec BG-02 ended up being 5 mm too narrow for a CM 212 Plus I just bought ) and was browsing through manufacturer's websites.

I am not even trying to be picky, not looking for the perfect design, but Jeez... do those designers have a bit of a clue about aesthetics? To what kind of target market are these targeted? Are enthusiasts and gamers considered to be a herd tasteless stupid animals or what?

Apart from Antec's NSK (unfortunately only a few more or less world-wide known brands are available here and in a limited model range: Antec, Coolermaster, Thermaltake and maybe Zalman) the rest are looking like they are made by teenage designers that are getting used to a CAD program.

I don't really believe you should have "Ugly" in the cons section, it comes across as rather unprofessional. I actually find the case decent looking, if bordering on the gaudy side, and it certainly looks better than a fair few of the "gaming" style cases out there. If anything, I think the review should be edited to say something along the lines of "Polarizing appearance" or "Exterior not to everyone's taste", in the Cons section of the summary table.

About the design of the PSU intake vent, I remembered reading this comment from a review of another case:

(4th comment down)

Thanks for the review, it is good to know that the harddrive mounting system is effective at reducing vibrations.

I agree that use of the word ugly is questionable when everyone has different opinions.

I believe that this is a decent budget case, for those who do not have a large budget for their builds and do not specifically care about having a quiet build. I would recommend this over something like the Antec 300 because of a more modern and advanced interior.

The other contender is the Cooler Master HAF 912, I would appreciate of a SPCR review of that.

I believe I read in another review that Zalman included a feature from one of their older, more expensive cases, and that is the ability to install at least one 2.5" drive into the 3.5" external bay.

Surely it would be possible for power supplies to be mounted fan down and draw air from the space between it and the floor of the case, if they were raised high enough off the floor without needing air vents? It would be a good move for case manufacturers to do this if they were to follow that particular safety requirement pointed out in that Benchmark Reviews comment.

Finally there is a typo on the first table on page 6, it says GPU #1 three times, where one of them should be GPU #2. Also on page 1 there is a typo: Above the picture of the included accessories, I assume that it should say "(one external)".

Yes.

I remember reading a discussion about the aesthetics of another case reviewed by Lawrence, in which he described the Inwin Maelstrom as "ugly as sin." A debate ensued between Mike Chin and SPCR members over aesthetic design as a factor in the merits and value of a case:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=57903

I don't think it's "unprofessional" to factor in looks as part of one's review.

"Polarizing appearance"

Hahaha oh lordi mercy!!!! one of the funniest things I've read in a long long time.

fyi, the so-offensive word Larry used, ugly, has been replaced with a phrase of greater neutrality: questionable aesthetics.

Ugly is more apt, imo. But that's just an opinion... which can be said about virtually every judgment we make here as reviewers.

No need to change it MikeC, those reading the review will understand that the view voiced (and put in the con section) was made from a personal viewpoint, not from a case functional view point.


// A well written review, and a joy to read, as always.

Just curious, if you decked the case out with Acoustipack would it make any difference in the recommendation of the case for silence?

If you wanted to reduce perceived noise from case internals, then you'd need to cover over the vented side panel, which would dramatically affect cooling. I think this case is designed to provide a lot of fresh air for the components, so it'd probably be easier to use quieter internals.

This case has a lot of nice features, and a good price. I'm turned off by the "questionable aesthetics", however.

Drat, found the prices very good at one source $50 shipped after $10 rebate, lol, for the Z9, $10 more for the Z9 Plus, oh well, looking and hoping.

Good morning to everyone.
Thanks to SPCR for Zalman Z9's review, I liked it very much and decided to try this case.
I currently have it @ home, going to build a little new system this incoming weekend.

Some things to ask / discuss with you:

a) I will put a low heat system inside my Zalman Z9 (Intel I3 + an SSd + 2,5" HDD + CPU Cooler Arctic Freezer Extreme // no VGA at all, using the integrated GPU). May be I will take off the CPU cooler fan (I would like to be fanless as a CPU cooler).
I would like to try a "positive pressure" situation, trying to avoid dust in my system, going to use the top fan x 2 (putting the side fan on the top), rear fan, front fan as intake fans; all of those 4 fans will be reduced to minimum speed; little remaining heat will go away through the side panel mesh. What do you think about this?

b) Will have to decide if my PSU (Be Quiet E9 400) will be face up or face down. I'd like face down position, but I'm a little worried about dust. Anyone will help me to decide? May be the PSU it's too far from the bottom to suck dust?

c) http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1177-page2.html That horrible molex powdered rear fan (the white one). I will connect all the other fans to fan controller provided with the case (with y-cables), but that fan, I only have the option to power it via a molex connector, so ... How can I control that??? (obviously, I could swap that fan, but I'd like to use all the provided fans...). How could I make that fan slow, being forced to connect that to a molex, directly to the PSU??

Thanks to you all.


Excuse me for my bad English.

If you cut the chamfered corners of the connector on the fan you`ll be able to plug it in the "wrong" way. What this achieves is feeding 5 volts to the fan instead of 12, considerably slowing it down.

Thanks for your answer.

Related to undervolting the fan: uhm... understand. Won't I find an adapter, instead of modding??

Related to my other questions?

I forgot to mention that there are indeed 4 pin molex to 3 pin adapters. They`re not so easy to find but a store like performance pcs will most likely have them. On the other hand, the mod is so easy to do that ordering the part will likely take more effort..

As for the fan layout: positive pressure is not a bad idea though I would do it a bit differently: 1 rear or top exhaust along with 2 or 3 intake fans at the front/side panel. I would keep the psu facing down and add a filter if concerned about dust (I`ll mention prformance pcs again as they have a great selection of filters).

I would suggest a different cpu cooler if you haven`t got the freezer already. Thermalright`s hr 05 will easily cool your cpu with no fan attached. It`s possible that the AC freezer can do the same but I don`t know for sure.

Wanted to try a complete situation of positive pressure in my Zalman Z9, using the preinstalled 4 fans: 2 on the top, 1 on the rear, 1 on the front, all of them at minimum rpm and blowing inwards the case. CPU fanless.

Why would you suggest to have some intake and some out-blowing fans? Want to try complete positive pressure to avoid dust and see if it works in Zalman chassis...

I already have it. I guess (hope) I will be able to go fanless (limited to CPU cooler fan, I mean), having at least 2 intake fans that blow a little air on it (the top fan and the rear fan).

frupoli, why do you want to go fanless on the CPU heatsink if you'll have 4 case fans anyway? If your CPU fan is at least as quiet as the case fans, and since its noise is a bit more dampened too (by being inside the case rather than on a case panel), it won't really add any noise...

You're right. Need an explanation.
I don't like Arctic Cooling fan (in general); for this building, and in this specific chassis, I thought I could completely avoid using that fan (it's not a standard fan, it has a particular shape).
Furthermore, I will use the provided fan controller to control 4 chassis fans (using y-cables: the fan controller has only two channels, using y-cables I can double the number of controlled fan) and reduce them to minimum possible rpm. Don't want to control 5th fan!
Last: I'm an exhibitionist, wanted to take pictures of Arctic Freezer Extreme double tower (without that horrible fan drowned there)

I did it. Even if image quality is a pain, I have a picture of it. Very simple micro-modding, I was able do downvolt that fan to 5v:



========================

Another question.

I'm now controlling 3 fans with the provided fan controller. Does anyone know which voltage range is that fan controller? I mean, for example: from 5v min to 11v max.

I read this on http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1177-page4.html
Together, the top, rear and front fans are SPCR-quiet at 7V and close to inaudible at 5V. These voltages can be reached with the included fan controller which supports two 3-pin fans.

So it seems to me that fan controller is ... from 5v to 12v. I cannot find this data reading tech specs of this case.

Thanks.