Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Review

Installation
So what will we be installing in the Z7 Plus?  Our test system is comprised of an Intel Core i7-965 processor, ASUS P6T Motherboard, ATI Radeon 4870 X2 video card, 2x 128GB SSD drives, Thermaltake Evo_Blue 750W power supply, and an optical drive.  Depending on your CPU cooler you might want to install your power supply first, but since we have a lower profile CPU cooler I went ahead and installed the motherboard first.  Just install the standoffs and then secure the motherboard with screws.

Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case

Now onto our drives.  To install any of the drives you need to remove the cages.  To do this your first need to remove the front bezel of the case.  You can easily pull it off from the bottom.  Once you have the front of the case off you can remove 4 screws on each side of the hard drive cage to remove it.  This means you have to take the other side of the case off.

Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case

Once you have removed the screws you can go ahead and side the hard drive cage out.  You can see there is a large 120mm intake fan that will help keep your drives cool.  We have a special bracket for our solid state drives, but it is just like a normal hard drive.  You just slide it in and secure it with screws.  The hard drive cage will fit up to 4 hard drives.

Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case

Since we are installing solid state drives in this case I wanted to show you how the 2.5-inch hard drive installation works.  Just like the hard drive cage you need to remove it completely from the case.  Once you have it out you just place your 2.5-inch drive on it and screw it in from the bottom.  There is only room for 1 2.5-inch hard drive in the Z7 Plus.

Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case

Next is our optical drive.  Just go ahead and slide it in and lock it into place with the tool-less locking system.  Although the locking system worked it was a little bit tricky and didn’t work as well as I would have liked.

Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case

Once you have all of your drives installed you can finally install your video card.  The 4870 X2 is a longer video card, but we have no clearance issues at all.  The tool-less locking system for your expansion cards works great too!

Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case

Finally you can slide in your power supply and connect everything.  Even though we used a modular power supply there isn’t much room in this case to hide cables.  Most of the cables have to be pushed toward the middle of the case.

Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case Zalman Z7 Plus Mid Tower Case

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