Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower Case Review

Final Thoughts
At first glance Zalman had a lot of things going for them with this case, the first thing was the cool design and awesome LED lights.  The top part of the case really lights up from the blue LED fan and the overall design of the case is pretty cool and unique.  The “3D” side panel window is something I haven’t seen on other cases before.

As far as cooling goes Zalman has you covered there with 5 included fans, but I guess after the fans is where I stopped liking this case.  The fan connections did not make sense to me, the 2 side panel fans and the exhaust fan use a molex connector, while the top and front fans use 3pin connectors.  I mean I guess I could see the 3 side panel fans using the molex connection, but the exhaust fan sits right beside your motherboard and a 3pin connector would make it so you could connect it to your motherboard rather than routing the cables to an open molex connector.

Another cabling issue I had was with the CPU power cable.  Zalman was nice enough to include the CPU power extension cable, something that you normally don’t see with mid tower cases.  The case does have the opening up top for the CPU power cable, but it really does not fit, it is partially blocked by the top part of the case.  How could Zalman miss this?

This case uses the older USB 3.0 cables that you have to route around the back of your case, rather than the internal USB 3.0 connector.  Sometimes this can be a pain to do, but Zalman has included a PCI slot cover with openings for the cables.

In most new cases we see all of the hard drive bays being able to support both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives.  This is not one such case, you can also fit two 2.5-inch hard drives inside of this case.

I really wanted to like this case, but after doing a full system install and using it for about a week I am disappointed.  Especially since this case is selling for $84.99, there are many alternatives at around the same price that I would recommend over the Z11 Plus.  Overall ThinkComputers gives the Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower Case a 7 out of 10 score.

rating7 10 small

Pros:
– Futuristic design
– 5 included cooling fans
– USB 3.0 support

Cons:
– CPU power cable opening is partially blocked
– Not a lot of room on the backside of the case
– Weird that the fans use different connectors

About Author