Zalman Z3 ATX Mid Tower PC Cases

Zalman’s Z3 range of Mid-ATX cases represent excellent value for money and boast many features you’d expect to find on a more expensive case.

Case Differences

Apart from a few small differences both of the cases are essentially identical. The main differences are that the Z3 Plus case has an acrylic side window, an extra 120mm fan (bringing the total supplied to four) and a support system for large graphics cards or extra internal fans.

Zalman Z3-Plus and Z3 Cases - Click to enlarge

With the Z3 range, Zalman have focused on bringing a high quality, well featured mid tower PC chassis to the market at the lowest price possible.

Front Panel

Both models have a simple built in fan controller which can control the speed of any two of the supplied 120mm fans. With the button pressed in, the fans will run at full speed otherwise the fans will run at a slower, quieter speed.

Front Panel - Click to enlarge

Behind the power button are the I/O ports and they consist of a single USB 3 port, two USB 2 ports and the usual Headphone / Microphone sockets. Space is provided behind the I/O ports for devices such as mobile phones to sit while charging via USB.

Drive Bays

Both cases offer the possibility of mounting two 5.25” optical drives and four 3.5” drives. Many people also use a 2.5” SSD in their PC’s these days because of their speed advantages over standard hard drives and again, both cases have the provision for one 2.5” drive.

Tool free 3.5” drive installation

One 2.5” drive bay provided

Bottom Mounted PSU

Bottom mounted PSU’s are becoming more common these days and they offer two benefits to the system. First, having the weight of the PSU at the bottom of the case rather than the top adds more stability to the system. The second benefit is that air is drawn up through the bottom of the case straight into the PSU and the warm air is then blown straight out the back of the PSU leading to lower internal temperatures. The opening for the PSU is covered with a removable dust filter to prevent dust getting sucked into the PSU from underneath the case.

Airflow of bottom mounted PSU

Dust filter protecting PSU air intake

Accommodates Large Graphics Cards

Large, powerful graphics cards are also catered for in the Z3 cases and a huge 360mm space is available to accommodate all but the very largest graphics cards.

VGA Support System

Large graphics card are usually quite heavy and they can sag, straining the PCI express socket they are located in because of the weight towards the end of the graphics card. Zalman have recognised this as an issue and have devised an internal support for the Z3 Plus case which if not required for a graphics card, can be used to position additional internal fans.

Overall, we feel these cases have a well-rounded feature set normally found on more expensive cases and for the price, they are difficult to beat!