Zalman R1: The review: Its a straight 10/10

[brownninja97]

Firstly to anyone that hasnt seen the overview yet i think you should go read that first as i dont have any spec sheets or anything of that nature on me at the moment http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/204445-zalman-r1-its-%C2%A325-its-not-aggressive-world-explodes/

 

On to the review

 

 

Judge whether you think this is enough support, what i will tell you is this is the second zalman R1 that ive got, the first one was hit badly, i mean like a car hit it or something from the side, I dont think that the case's fault as it was the kind of hit that would kill even a lian li case. Anyways with this case there was a hit to the side again and one to the top but the foam could the hit without damage, the side panel on the other hand has warped but its still functional completely, i just used needle nosed pliers, the paint was thick enough for that to not scratch. Also thankfully the thumb screws could be undone by even me.

 

 

 

So this case comes with a number which tells you what the number for the case is, also recycle, save the world one box at a time.

 

 

This fell out of the case when i opened it, i still have no clue as to what broke, everything within the case is fine and i checked pretty much everything.

 

 

Shes a beauty ill admit that, the front panel is plastic but it looks really nice, to be honest i prefer this shade more then the silver variant of the define R4, also i put my hands all over the front panel before taking this picture, do you see any finger prints? There are vents on both sides. Also for reviews sake i tried to find a fault line in the paint, i attacked it with my nails and trying to scratch the area next to the Z badge, the panel is thick enough, you will likely scratch the case badly before the paint comes off, also the side of the front panel isnt a fault line either, some companies put a vinyl on top of plastic to get this above look, zalman havent done that, kudos to zalman for that

 

 

The front IO, the usb 3.0 port uses a 19 pin connector, i would have preferred  dual usb 3.0 but at this price they had to cut corners.

 

 

Here is the front filter thing inside the door, the plastic is a restriction but on the bright side that latch removes it so if you dont care for dust just remove it to unlock your true potential, to the right you can see the fan controller, this works on three levels for two fans, low, high or stop. The stop feature is awesome as its a feature that only comes on high end fan controllers, hell this case and the zalman H1 are to date the only cases in which you can turn the fans off while pc is on without a third party fan controller, honestly companies like Nzxt, corsair and Phanteks should add this feature as its pretty great. the door is magnetic, the circle pad on the left is the magnet.

 

 

There is the dual 5.25inch drive bays and the single 3.75inch bay.

 

 

There is the foam padding in the front of the case, its about 2mm thick, could be thicker but then you would be paying more, its glued on btw.

 

 

I took the fan filter off it takes about 10 seconds to take this out, throw it in the shower, get the rubber ducks out and you clean your filters also due to the mounting system it will not warp unless you be stupid which would be pretty hard to do.

 

 

This is what it looks like behind that filter you can add another 120mm fan above this one, another person on the forum said the filter will not close if you have two fans, i couldnt replicate this issue, i tried with the other case fans. The fan is a blue led fan, i changed it for the white fan at the top of the case because this isnt for gaming and it will be left on for long hours, at night it will light up the whole room.

 

 

well it looked bad, i took a shot because i thought the side panel wouldnt open and id use it as a defence against scan just in case, better to have backup, some sites are evil.

 

 

Top of the same panel which isnt warped as badly. Well you judge, im not sure what hit it but it did add some pressure.

 

 

The dust filter for the psu, nothing shocking here, well actually i think there should be holes in case someone wants to add a fan to the bottom of the case.

 

 

The side of the case thank all higher powers for protective plastic on acrylic side panels, that is one of the best feelings in the world next to scratching an itchy back with a Z97 motherboard.

 

 

So if you wish to remove the window its pretty easy

 

 

So here is the whole of the interior of the case, im not gonna explain you guys can judge by yourself.

 

 

+2 for two white fans, i love white fans because you know, they are like white while they spin.

 

 

The other crap that comes with the case, the hdd brackets are much better then i thought they would be also that letter opener is dead.

 

 

Foam pads for for the psu to sit on, did i mention its £25 

 

 

The pci brackets are the types that when you remove them you throw them away, you cant put them back on but im really sure thats a problem. Example you remove a bracket for a gpu, that gpu isnt likely to disappear.

 

 

The tool-less 5.25inch brackets seem ok, they arent the best but they work, same rules apply, always put a screw in the other side.

 

 

I took the silly bracket out and tried to take another picture, however im not tall enough so i cant get a good shot.

 

So this wasnt a full build, it was a transfer, my father somehow broke his old oem case and its an asus oem pc so naturally its a complete b**ch to deal with so im gonna warn you I completely gave up on cable routing. Turn back if you are scared because this build has shamefully bad routing.

 

 

Bottem line, screw oem psus, luckily i had a spare extension cable for the cpu also its great that hdd has the cables at the back, i need a new psu for this build asap.

 

Well if i would give it a rating i would actually give it two ratings, one taking in the price and one just overall

 

Rating with price in mind: 10/10 lets be honest, for the price this is the best case on the market by miles, it smashes everything, it also looks nice, it has a fan controller, a window, foam, the list goes on, yeah there are problems but those could only be solved by making the price higher.

 

rating just as a case compared to everything else: 7/10 If i doubled the price and made this case £50 it would still be pretty good, hell if i compared this to Nzxts H230 it would win in a few sectors, that being said the appearance of this case is  a massive positive but it makes be wish that there is a £60 version of this case which had all the flaws ironed out, lets be honest, if this case was made by fractal design it would out sell their define r4, why because the price to performance is amazing but the biggest flaw is that this case isnt for the higher end market, zalman tend to make plus edition cases but they didnt do that with this case. Lastly and the biggest problem isnt to do with the case, its to do with Zalman, they have over time got a bad reputation, not sure why and i dont think they deserve that reputation, rebrand this case as one of the bigger case manufactures and it would sell out everywhere, its a shame really zalman needs to get their former reputation back.

 

To conclude if I had the ability to would give this a gold choice award or any award because this sure as hell deserves it, its a great case and i recommend it to anyone that wants a silent case under £50.

 

I hope zalman keeps this up, well leave some feedback on how your experience is with the case, if you have problems ill try to give advice and ill edit any new solutions into this thread, also the plastic panel at the top, its a beast but it will come off, its not stuck before you ask.

[Polyvalent]

I was wondering about this case.  Good review. How is the airflow through the front panel? I might get this for my girlfriends build.

[Izaya Orihara]

Good review. Terrible cabelmanagement tho. You know what? I'm not really a fan of Zalman but to show you that I am a non biased person and that I am openminded I'll pick one of those up and check it out. And I'll the you about it. 

[brownninja97]

I was wondering about this case.  Good review. How is the airflow through the front panel? I might get this for my girlfriends build.

Pretty much the same as the define R4 the intakes from both cases are pretty similar

[brownninja97]

Good review. Terrible cabelmanagement tho. You know what? I'm not really a fan of Zalman but to show you that I am a non biased person and that I am openminded I'll pick one of those up and check it out. And I'll the you about it. 

im not sure if that will end well with the kinds of cases you like you will really be a a step backwards anyways try to keep the price in mind when you review it.

[MeltingPoint]

Pretty neat case for the price although I wouldn't exactly call those dust filters. 

[brownninja97]

Pretty neat case for the price although I wouldn't exactly call those dust filters. 

they do catch some dust so they filter a bit i guess, im surprised that there are filters in the first place, id really like to know how much profit they got from this case.

[Izaya Orihara]

im not sure if that will end well with the kinds of cases you like you will really be a a step backwards anyways try to keep the price in mind when you review it.

Well I like minimalistic cases granted the H440 is a lot more expensive and I mostly use rather expensive cases but this is a value case  and I'll keep that in mind. I mostly like the exterior of that case so we shall see. 

[The_Strict_Nein]

In some ways, I still can't get over how little cable management room there is in this case

 

If you don't mind an extremely messy build like yours (no offense), then it's great, but if you're going for a good look, well, I've broken both the screws for the back panel, and stripped the holes, trying to get it on.

[brownninja97]

In some ways, I still can't get over how little cable management room there is in this case

 

If you don't mind an extremely messy build like yours (no offense), then it's great, but if you're going for a good look, well, I've broken both the screws for the back panel, and stripped the holes, trying to get it on.

how did you manage to strip them, i understand this build is messy, due to the sh** psu that came with the oem machine i couldnt try the cable routing system, its a shame but im not buying another psu due to cable routing, that would be silly and i dont have the money for that

[The_Strict_Nein]

how did you manage to strip them, i understand this build is messy, due to the sh** psu that came with the oem machine i couldnt try the cable routing system, its a shame but im not buying another psu due to cable routing, that would be silly and i dont have the money for that

 

The back panel wouldn't go on, so I got it as close as I could then screwed it on. This stripped the screws and the hole.

 

I had only maybe 2mm of overhang. That's how awful the rear cable management is.

[2mnbars]

As soon as I can, I am buying this to replace my Rosewill Thor-V2.

 

Thanks for your review.

[ShadowCaptain]

pretty awesome

[theelitegamer]

Isn't this like a 20 dollar case? I dont' remember but I read something on tomshardware that zalman is coming out with a 21 dollar case...

[brownninja97]

Isn't this like a 20 dollar case? I dont' remember but I read something on tomshardware that zalman is coming out with a 21 dollar case...

Thats the T5, that case is also great for the price but not to the point where id recommend it, the T4 from zalman is £15 and its better oddly but doesnt have a fan controller. But to be honest for a cheap build this R1 cant be beaten

[theelitegamer]

Thats the T5, that case is also great for the price but not to the point where id recommend it, the T4 from zalman is £15 and its better oddly but doesnt have a fan controller. But to be honest for a cheap build this R1 cant be beaten

How much does this cost? I might consider it over the Corsair Vengeance 

[The_Strict_Nein]

How much does this cost? I might consider it over the Corsair Vengeance

£25, but if you have the money for the C70 I'd get the C70

[theelitegamer]

£25, but if you have the money for the C70 I'd get the C70

Thanks mate! Will do

[TechTalk]

Awesome review! I am definitely going to get this case now, thanks!

I am only going to be using it for 6 months but I'll try and make my build look nice, I'll post pics of it just after Christmas.

[brownninja97]

Awesome review! I am definitely going to get this case now, thanks!

I am only going to be using it for 6 months but I'll try and make my build look nice, I'll post pics of it just after Christmas.

nice, just a warning, watch out when you try to lift the top panel off, it tugs like a mule, you have to take it off in a weird fashion if you want to take it off

[TechTalk]

nice, just a warning, watch out when you try to lift the top panel off, it tugs like a mule, you have to take it off in a weird fashion if you want to take it off

Thanks for the info 

[Psykomantis00]

10/10 and it comes with broken bits of plastic and bent metal pieces. Wat.

[spwath]

one antec military themed case you can turn the fans off. 

[brownninja97]

@Psykomantis00 Take the price in mind, this case smashes everything in its price range. It raises the benchmark a lot, the box had a hole in it so that caused the warping. Double the price and it goes down to 7/10

 

@spwath but at what price?

[Octavialicious]

Nice review! Anyways, that GPU heatsink is pretty exquisite haha