Zalman Z7 Plus Review (Hardware, PC Case)

Intro

There are a lot of great mid-sized ATX cases on the market today, but for me, when you really get down to it, you need to pick a case with good airflow, versatile design features, and that fits your price range. Recently, I purchased a Zalman Z7 Plus for a build I was doing for a friend. I had a budget set of $70, wanted the case to me mid-sized, and I also wanted to be able to pick it up at my local electronics store. After looking at about 10 different models, I decided to go with the Zalman Z7 Plus.

Description/Feel

The case came inside a pretty standard brown box with various branding and technical information. When I opened the box, the case was packaged well and undamaged. Right away I noticed that the case was very solidly made, with strong steel and clean well-molded plastic. There was also an instruction manual, an extra 120mm fan, motherboard screws, and a nice resalable bag for any extra parts.

Now that the case was out of the box and in front of me, I could see that it had four 5.25” drive bays, and one 3.25” drive bay at the bottom of the front of the case. Just above the 3.25” bay there is a 120mm blue LED fan as well. There is a panel on the top of the case that can be flipped up to reveal a 3.5mm headphone jack, 3.5mm microphone jack, two USB ports, an e-SATA port, and a reset button. Just in front of the panel, there is a large power button just above a clear Zalman logo that glows blue when the case is on.   

The right side of the case had no ventilation or designs; it was just a smooth black finish, but the left side featured a small Zalman logo in the lower right corner, and a large mesh vent that had room for two 120mm fans that are controlled by a small dial next to the vent. One fan was already installed, but I had to install the other that came in the box.