NZXT Zero case review
The left panel of this case features four big 120mm intake fans. Unfortunately, they don't feature a dust filter so small amounts of dust will be blown into your case by these fans, the fan mesh prevents some dust from entering your case but probably not everything. A dust filter on the inside of the case would also prevent wires from accidentally hitting the fan blades of one of the four fans. All four 120mm fans are chain-linked so they only require one Molex connector from your PSU.
Another negative aspect is that the left panel doesn't have handles to open it and that the panel doesn't really fit perfect. I sometimes had troubles to get it back in place, the side panel doesn't perfectly align with the screw holes.
Here's how the inside of the case looks like. You can't see it in this picture but I spotted a nice feature that will help you a bit while installing a motherboard in your case. The Zero features small labels and a short legend to explain to you where you need to put motherboard standoffs, like hole A1 to A9 for ATX motherboards. There are also labels for a couple of other motherboard standards, including mini ATX.
This is the top fan, it's the only 80mm fan included in this case. All the other fans are 120mm. While installing a power supply you will need to remove this and if you have a long PSU it's possible that you will need to remove it permanently.
On the bottom of the case is a hole to mount an optional 80mm fan, this one does have a dust filter.
The hard drives can be installed without any tools in this hard drive cage, there's room for up to six HDDs and the installation is really simple. You just need to push the metal rods of the plastic drive rails into the holes on the side of your hard drive and you're ready to go. No screws are needed which makes it also easy to remove hard drives from your system.
The installation of the 5.25" and 3.5" devices is also toolless. You just have to push the metal rods into the holes and slide them into the drive bays.
The installation of the expansion cards is also toolless, but it's also possible to secure your cards with screws or to completely remove the toolless system.
On the left are the cables for the front panel's USB, FireWire and audio/microphone ports, in the middle the cables for the power button, power LED, HDD activity, reset button and a Molex connector for the blue LEDs in the front. On the right is a cable for the 120mm intake fan.
Removing the front panel
To remove the front panel you have to grab the hole on the bottom of the front panel and pull it out. I don't really like this because there's always a chance that one of the plastic pieces will break off if you aren't careful enough. I prefer the system used by the Bach VX case from ThermalTake, that case's front panel is basically a door that can be locked. That makes it a lot more convenient to remove the front panel to install hardware or clean the dust filter.
The front panel features a dust filter for the 120mm intake fan.
And this is a photo of what you'll see if you remove the right side panel. In some cases there's some room here to stuff some unnecessary cables in but in the Zero there's not really that much room available.
Previous Page (2/4)
Added: March 9th 2007
Product reviewed: NZXT Zero case
Reviewer: Thomas De Maesschalck
Score: 7.5/10
Page: 3/4
