MaximumPC 2007 02

C

ase aesthetics are largely a matter of

personal taste. Some folks love lit-up

LED fans, engraved windows, crazy

logos all over their cases, and other additions.

Because everyone has a different opinion

about what a good case should look like, we

base our review verdicts more on a case’s

usability and mechanics than look and feel.

We’ll take a solid design and good airflow over

a blinged out but dysfunctional case any day.

—DaviD Murphy

ZalMan Fatal1ty FC-ZE1

The Fatal1ty-branded FC-ZE1 case is one

heckuva sturdy container for your electronic

essentials, but it’ll

take a railgun to your

bank account. We’re

just a little hesitant to

recommend the FC-

ZE1 to everyone: The

case is covered with

logos and labels,

and accessing the

internals is some-

what awkward. But if

you’re shopping for a

new case, Fatal1ty’s

design comes pretty

close to flawless.

Getting your

gear into the FC-ZE1

couldn’t be easier—sort of. While the left side

of the case features an easy-access toolless

door, in order to access the right side you

must bust out the included Allen wrench.

It’s a hassle when you want to access the

5.25-inch bays.

Irritating as that is, we pepped up after

seeing that our hard drives would rest in the

case’s snug, noise-reducing chassis. Three

aesthetically pleasing red fans round out the

deal, sucking air in and out of the case while

giving the insides a smooth, ambient light.

CoolEr MastEr

itowEr 930

Mix the joys of Lego construc-

tion with a scene from any of the

Hellraiser movies and you’ll have a

pretty good idea of what it’s like to

work with Cooler Master’s iTower

930 case. The multilayered front

panel is ugly enough, but that’s just

a taste of the true monster lying

underneath: a plasticky nightmare of

“configurable” features that we really

see no need for.

You could practically open a

Greek restaurant with all the PITA

that come with assembling a com-

puter using this case. For starters,

nearly everything you do requires that

you first remove something plastic,

something gimmicky, or something

useless—our biggest battle came

with the case’s CPU fan duct, which wouldn’t

even fit on top of a standard AMD heatsink.

After breaking a tab trying to install a

videocard into the case’s toolless PCI mount

and desperately trying to squeeze in an

oversized power supply—which fit in the

other two cases—we admitted defeat. The

iTower 930 is a cramped, convoluted case;

Godspeed to anyone who attempts to pack

an enthusiast’s rig into it.

nZXt aDaMas

Latin poets used the word “adamas” to

refer to the hardest substance imaginable.

Although it’s a bit overdramatic, this defini-

tion neatly sums up our experience trying

to stuff a motherboard into NZXT’s Adamas

midtower case.

By itself, the case is pretty solid; the

Adamas’ aluminum chassis is smooth and

classy and has a reasonable weight for its

size. The case comes with as many 5.25-inch

drive bays as 12cm fans (four). The included

fans are surprisingly quiet, especially for a

case in this price range. The interior of the

case is about as standard as standard gets,

save for a large 12cm fan mounted on the

rear wall. We mention this only because it was

quite a wiggle to get a standard-issue ATX

motherboard into

the case because

of said fan. Add in

an annoying tool-

less door-mount-

ing mechanism

and the Adamas

left us with a

sour taste in our

mouths—not

enough to spoil

the entire experi-

ence, but there

are definitely

better midtower

options for the

same money.

Casing out the Cases

And here you thought it’s what’s on the inside that matters...

there’s a lot of branding
on Fatal1ty’s case, but
it’s still a sleek looker
with a durable design.

the exterior of the

adamas looks just fine,

but you’ll want to throw

the unfriendly side door

through a wall.

$200 street price, MSRP unavailable,

http://www.nzxt.com

NZXT AdAmAs

gr8

Lots of fans, lots of ven-

tilation. Pleasantly plain

exterior.

h8^7

Tight fit on the inside. Forcing

the side panel shut is not fun.

run! run for the hills! this Cooler Master case

dreams big but is really just a nightmare.

$370, http://www.zalmanusa.com

ZAlmAN fATAl1Ty fc-Ze1

owning

Looks sharp and spacious

for a midtower; pretty

durable.

pwnD^9

Mounting components in the

5.25-inch bays is a pain in the ass.

You’ll love or hate the logoed exterior.

$139, http://www.coolermaster.com

cooler mAsTer iTower 930

woot

The hot-swapping SATA

enclosure is pretty cool.

toot 3

Everything else about this

case is a drag.

february 2007 MAXIMUMPC