Zalman finally does an affordable case

ZALMAN HAS ENOUGH coolers on display here at Cebit in Hannover to choke a horse. What is new however is the firm is showing oft an inexpensive but cool case - finally an affordable low-end Zalman box.

Our favourite cooler is the VF2000, a compact VGA cooler. It doesn't look all that out of the ordinary and hits all the buzzwords, adjustable speed, four heatpipes and LEDs.

Zalman VF2000 GPU cooler

What is different here is that it converts to a CPU cooler if needed, so you can have all your CPUs and GPUs with the same cooler. Case modders take note.

That brings us to the most convoluted cooler here at the show, the VNF200 passive GPU cooler. Fanless is all the rage right now for VGA cards, and this one will cool a hefty card and exhaust the heat outside the case.

The little part goes on the GPU, and the big one on the other side of the heat pipes is mounted right up against the case fan. That sucks air across, then out. Calling this fanless is stretching the term, but it is really neat no matter what you call it.

The star of the booth is the upcoming GS1000 case, the first low-end case from Zalman. You probably remember the hefty ones that doubled as extremely sturdy bank vaults, this one is far less beefy but far more affordable. It is not however without a lot of cool tricks.

By far the best of these are six 3.5-inch hot-plug drive bays behind closed doors. They come with trays and all you need. There is an active backplane, you put your SATA cables and power there, and plug the drives in front. The GS1000 even has case mounted status lights for the drives, a really useful touch.

Another nice bit is that the mobo is mounted to a standoff so you can route cables under it easily. It is not a unique feature, but it is nice, and makes for a clean install. There are also fan mounts galore, from two 120mm blanks up top for water cooling to a bottom mount point should you want most of your shag carpet in your case.

The best part by far is the price, $150 or so when it goes on sale in the near future. If it can even come close to that, Zalman has a winner on it's hands. The nice touches abound, and for the price, you can't touch the hot plug features. Keep this on your short list next time you are looking for a box. µ