Hardware Zalman GS1000

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/07/09/zalman-gs1000/1

Zalman, long a staple of the ultra high-end case market, tries it's hand at a case aimed firmly at the mid range, with the GS1000. Sporting some impressive features, we investigate to see whether the GS1000 can compete in the most competitive of price ranges.

 

Why not implicate a bottom mounted 120mm fan for the HDD's.

It seems silly not cooling the HDD's at all.

 

It seem so silly designing a case to look like that.

 

I believe there was a Google study recently that showed hard drive life to be fairly unaffected by temperature. I do agree that cooler drives are usually preferable though. I really like the hot-swap idea, even if its only used for fast hard drive changes whilst the system is off. I love my Silverstone TJ-09 but it is a huge pain to organise all the cables going to the hard drives. I don't know why these companies don't mix all the best features together into one case!

 

I think that kind of person would go for a CMS 830 with 2 5in3 drive swap bays anyway. thats 10 drives with 2 slots left for optical and cardreader.


classic engineering flop, the details are the killer

 

For Hot swappers, why not that nify Li-Li?

 

Well, looks like I will be sticking with good old Lian-Li thanks.

 

Eh... I don't like it. Tacky plastic and classy aluminum combined into one mediocre box.

 

ugly case.. I'll stick with my NZXT cases thanks.

 

This thing is absolutely hideous. Far better cases exist in the same price range. Zalman should stick to what they know: Cooling.

And to note as said above; it's pretty odd that a company known primarily for their cooling products would neglect to provide any form of heat relief for the HDD's. Party foul Zalman. Party foul.

 

Uummm... This case is utterly UGLY. The exterior design is completely rubbish.

And though thermal performance is pretty good, there's no cooling for the HDDs (many people, like me, DO care about that).

Plus, I've never been a fan of bottom mounted PSUs. If it's cables are not long enough, you've had it.

 

Looks incredibly sturdy. For some, it may be all that matters, particularly in this range of product price and, proportionally, what's inside.

 

Meh, looks pretty fugly. I'm really not a big fan of mixing metal and plastic, it makes the plastic look even tackier.

Also did I miss something about Zalman? Since when have they been considered the BMW of computer peripherals? I mean from my experience their products are alright but really not all that special or anything.

 

"However, the reset button and HDD activity LED are notable by their complete absence - we still like to see these inclusions on a case; I know I still use mine at least a few times a week."

You do? Personally, I can't remember the last time I used either..

Yeah.. as others have said, it's not a case i'll be looking into buying, though I am after a case in that price bracket.

 

a case for more than 100£ shoudnt have a plastic exterior.
the zalman fans arent bad, they preform well and are very cheap, but if you have several it can indeed get noisy.

 

I'm not sure I'd miss a reset button, but I'd definately miss a hdd indicator light. What concerns me more is the ability to drag the weight of a loaded system from under your desk to upgrade/repair stuff. Why not have castors? Or the sledge arrangement that the Cosmos sits on? As for the build quality - that's a real put-off. Was this a retail unit you reviewed?

 

Keep your eyes on bit-tech - I've got the Akasa Omega and Lian Li PC X2000 ready for review - both cases show a LOT of promise.

 

surpricingly, i hit reset button more than my power button..... HDD light can be dismissed without problem, same goes for the power LED. both are redundent LED where you will only look at if your monitor is off or not responding.

is it me or every case manufacturer is copying Antec's design? (was it antec's orignal idea to put PSU on the bottom? )

 

Nice looking case.

Haven't used my reset button in about 5 years.

 

I do use the reset button quite a bit. I find it helpful when I have missed getting onto the BIOS when I am starting my computer up, and similar such scenarios. My motherboard actually records how many times it has been pressed, I will have a look next time I restart it.

As for the case - oh well. Thanks for the review though
Still looking for something similar to the case that was used in the £400 PC build, cheap and not too rubbish.