The Z9 NEO White from Zalman is a mid-tower PC case that sells for just under $80 online, but if you looked it over without knowing the price, you’d probably guess that it costs more. It comes with five pre-installed fans, which is pretty unheard of at this price, and two of them are blue LED models. The case has two external 5.25-inch drive bays up top, but all other bays (two standard 3.5-/2.5-inch bays in a cage and two vertical 2.5-inch mounts on the back of the motherboard tray) are located outside of the main interior space, as is increasingly the style these days. Speaking of interior trends, the 5.25-inch exterior bays almost feel like a vestigial tail at this point, but if you would rather go without, you can remove both of them just by taking out a couple screws, leaving the Z9 NEO’s interior completely drive-bay free.
The Z9 NEO even has a ventilated PSU shroud, which helps keep your system interior clean and neat and provides a separate cooling zone for your power supply and any drives you have installed in the two-bay cage toward the front of the case. The motherboard tray has five rubbergrommeted cable management slots and two without grommets up top, and behind the tray you’ll find a number of tie-down anchor points and three pre-installed hook and loop straps. In other words, messy cables don’t stand a chance in this case.
Does all that stuff sound like what you’d expect to find in an $80 case? The Z9 NEO even has little rubber plugs in the USB ports at the front of the top panel by the power and reset buttons and I/O audio ports. That’s something we’ve never seen before, even on cases that cost several times as much. The buttons themselves (and all of the front and top panel surfaces, for that matter) feel solid and well made. The outer portion of the front panel is a door that swings left to right and opens to provide access to the case’s 5.25-inch drive bays. It’s a solid panel, but Zalman provides baffled ventilation slots along the front of the right and left sides so that its intake fans have a steady supply of cool air. The door panel, which closes with a magnetic latch, has sound-dampening material insulating its back side to help keep ambient noise to a minimum.
Zalman did a really nice job with this case. It looks great (it’s also available in black), has a spacious side-panel window, and an interior that looks and feels much more expensive. It’s a rare thing these days to get more than you expect for your money; if you’d like to know how that feels, take a look at the Z9 NEO White.
Specs
Dimensions: 19.29 x 8.07 x 18.98 inches (HxWxD); Materials: Steel, plastic; Motherboard support: Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX; Drive bays: 2 x 5.25-inch external (also accommodate 3.5-/2.5-inch drives), 2 x 3.5-/2.5-inch internal, 2 x 2.5-inch internal, ; Fans (included): 2 x 120mm front, 2 x 120mm LED top, 1 x 120mm rear; Fans (optional): 2 x 140mm front; Ports: 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, audio I/O