The Zalman Z9 Neo Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on May 20, 2016 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Zalman
- ATX
- Case
Conclusion
The Zalman Z9 Neo is a product that is trying to put all of the eggs into one small basket. Its designer strived to make it solid, good looking, high performing, silent and versatile, all while maintaining a very low price tag. It is obvious that a product excelling over all of the aforementioned points with a price tag below $80 is utopian and simply cannot exist. Still, even though it is not without issues, the Zalman Z9 Neo is a positively surprising design.
One major quality issue is the use of different materials for the exterior of the case, which is causing a major visual dissonance. For example, the metallic side panels and the plastic top panel of the case are meant to be of the same color and they are most likely sprayed with the same white paint. However, the different properties of the materials change the final hue of the paint, resulting to an observable dissimilarity. We found this to be a significant issue, as the difference is easily discernible even from a distance in a well-lit room, with a significant impact on the aesthetic quality of the Z9 Neo. In terms of pure mechanical strength and solidity, the Zalman Z9 Neo is very well design and made for a case of this price range.
The use of a fixed nylon intake filter and a very thin layer of sound dampening material were also, in our opinion, poor design choices. Zalman wanted to keep the cost down and therefore implemented the simplest solutions they could find, but they are virtually ineffective. The fan filter will only block very large particles and debris, all while accessing it and cleaning it is inconvenient, and the thin sound dampening layer proved to be virtually ineffective. In our opinion, these two features could not have been implemented at all, lowering the cost of the case even further, or Zalman could implement just one of the two but in a more effective manner.
The spacious and versatile interior is perhaps the most positive feature of the Z9 Neo. There is enough room for powerful gaming systems and some top tier hardware, allowing future upgrades and easy maintenance. Its design is also helpful to modders, allowing them to easily work and modify the interior according to their needs.
It appears that the designer made a wise choice to go with five low speed fans. The stock cooling arrangement of the Zalman Z9 Neo is very efficient, providing more than enough airflow for an advanced gaming or professional system without being too noisy. The major side effect of this configuration however is that these fans have four pin Molex connectors and thus cannot be connected to a fan controller or to the motherboard, forbidding any kind of speed control from the system. It is only possible to reduce their speed by manually modifying their cabling.
In conclusion, the Zalman Z9 Neo may not be an engineering marvel, but the company did an excellent job designing a low cost versatile case with high thermal performance. With its five stock cooling fans and spacious interior, the Zalman Z9 Neo is an excellent choice for users that just want basic features but good performance right out of the box. The retail price of $73 including shipping, which gets down to just $60 for the black version, the Zalman Z9 Neo offers outstanding value for money that is very difficult to compete with.
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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.