Zalman R1: Its £25 its not aggressive *world explodes*

[NeatSquidYT]

Its your choice in the end, i personally try to go as cheap as possible with my case as it barely effects performance, eg my z9 costs £50, i got it for £31 as it was on sale. I dont really ever see my case so its not a problem, the build quality isnt bad and the thing is easy to build in, im a minority but I believe more money should be spent on parts because thats what matters in the end.

Yeah, true but the 230t has nearly everything I want and need. The annoying thing about it is that I can only fit a h100i if I put the fans on top of the case, that annoys the hell out of me, but then, one day I'll get an expensive case and show that 230t how a real man can handle an AiO!

[brownninja97]

Yeah, true but the 230t has nearly everything I want and need. The annoying thing about it is that I can only fit a h100i if I put the fans on top of the case, that annoys the hell out of me, but then, one day I'll get an expensive case and show that 230t how a real man can handle an AiO!

just get an air cooler and then there is no hassle, also you will save some money

[brownninja97]

With all dat green PCB... UNGH. Even though I don't think the power supply I have has cables long enough to reach.

o god a green pcb, most psus should be long enough to fit in a standard atx or you could get fancy and do some weird stuff in order to get the cables to fit.

[flibberdipper]

o god a green pcb, most psus should be long enough to fit in a standard atx or you could get fancy and do some weird stuff in order to get the cables to fit.

It's a stupid HP one. I'll probably get a CX430 to go with it since it's pretty cheap.

[Dicoray]

I like it. Might use it in a build someday...

[The_Strict_Nein]

Grabbed one to throw my old Gigabyte GA-EP45-Extreme build in. It'll be a nice upgrade for my parent's PC

[coen113]

i might actually upgrade my case.

[Northstorm]

Oh sweet baby jebus that thing looks nice!

[Socky]

That price is so good, I would buy two.

[Mooshi]

I'm actually tired of Zalman constantly releasing cheap plastic cases. At one point, they had one of the most beautiful cases on the market (sans the tacky branding everywhere) and since then, I've always wanted the firm to re-create something as nice with a modern layout..but it seems Zalman is content with cheap plastics. It /looks/ nice, but so does the Air 240 from Corsair and that case has a terrible internal layout with REALLY flimsy side panels.

 

Come on, Zalman. Make a proper alu case again that rivals what you used to be able to do.

 

[mgsstar]

This looks like a budget Define R4 and with the aluminum finish makes it have a premium look to it imo.

[felixthemaster1]

What an ugly case, but for the price, it seems okay

[brownninja97]

I'm actually tired of Zalman constantly releasing cheap plastic cases. At one point, they had one of the most beautiful cases on the market (sans the tacky branding everywhere) and since then, I've always wanted the firm to re-create something as nice with a modern layout..but it seems Zalman is content with cheap plastics. It /looks/ nice, but so does the Air 240 from Corsair and that case has a terrible internal layout with REALLY flimsy side panels.

 

Come on, Zalman. Make a proper alu case again that rivals what you used to be able to do.

 

 

zalman have gone to the lower end because they get a lot more sales as a result, they sell a lot here in the uk, a decent amount in the us and they are massive in asia. As a result of all of this they dont change their ways, im amusing its because they get more money this way.

[Mooshi]

zalman have gone to the lower end because they get a lot more sales as a result, they sell a lot here in the uk, a decent amount in the us and they are massive in asia. As a result of all of this they dont change their ways, im amusing its because they get more money this way.

 

Still wouldn't mind them to make another flagship. Inwin wasn't that special before and now the crazy seems to be in their DNA and I love seeing the stuff they come out with. The case in the OP is actually pretty nice looking for the cost, but I fear the materials at that cost would only yield a case that is really flimsy. It's why I brought up the Corsair 240 Air because I recall reviews on it with comments about its really badly constructed side panels. I get the feeling this case will be another case of thin panel construction.

[brownninja97]

Still wouldn't mind them to make another flagship. Inwin wasn't that special before and now the crazy seems to be in their DNA and I love seeing the stuff they come out with. The case in the OP is actually pretty nice looking for the cost, but I fear the materials at that cost would only yield a case that is really flimsy. It's why I brought up the Corsair 240 Air because I recall reviews on it with comments about its really badly constructed side panels. I get the feeling this case will be another case of thin panel construction.

i can understand where you come from, im pretty much a professional when it comes to cheap cases, if its a cheap case chances are ive built in it, ive tried for a while to find the best cheap case, one for gaming and the other for an office environment. Zalman in comparison to the other cheap case companies is pretty good, the build quality is pretty nice on their cases with the exception of the z1 and the old T series of cases. Zalman save money with fans because they are a manufacturer of fans who then give those fans to other companies, a lot of the chinese brands use zalman fans like Palit, Manli and Sharkoon. Also they use a decent amount of plastic and recycled rubber(for feet and psu rubber pads). They then tend to recycle parts from one case to another, they all have similar feet and drive cages are basically the same in all of their cases. 

[Mooshi]

i can understand where you come from, im pretty much a professional when it comes to cheap cases, if its a cheap case chances are ive built in it, ive tried for a while to find the best cheap case, one for gaming and the other for an office environment. Zalman in comparison to the other cheap case companies is pretty good, the build quality is pretty nice on their cases with the exception of the z1 and the old T series of cases. Zalman save money with fans because they are a manufacturer of fans who then give those fans to other companies, a lot of the chinese brands use zalman fans like Palit, Manli and Sharkoon. Also they use a decent amount of plastic and recycled rubber(for feet and psu rubber pads). They then tend to recycle parts from one case to another, they all have similar feet and drive cages are basically the same in all of their cases. 

 

That's actually a clever way to cut costs instead of using paper thin panels and the like.

[Sonefiler]

You say that the support bracket is only for triple slot gpus and Asus coolers... you have not ever used a PCS+ I can see.

 

I literally chain zip ties to my H100i tubing from my GPU to prevent sagging and to keep the tubes from blocking the optical drives. I love this design. I hope it's removable if you don't like it though.

[Sonefiler]

That's actually a clever way to cut costs instead of using paper thin panels and the like.

Corsair does the "recycle other parts" thing too. They have a fucking 300R motherboard plate inside the 450D. "premium cases" my ass

[Raboo]

That's pretty nice.

[The_Strict_Nein]

Alright, it arrived today at my house.

 

I'm going to do a build in it (probably on Monday) then post a review

[brownninja97]

Alright, it arrived today at my house.

 

I'm going to do a build in it (probably on Monday) then post a review

damn that was fast, if it wouldnt be too much trouble take a lot of pictures, my fathers pc case *accidentally* got hit with a sledge hammer so i was thinking that i would get this as a replacement

[The_Strict_Nein]

damn that was fast, if it wouldnt be too much trouble take a lot of pictures, my fathers pc case *accidentally* got hit with a sledge hammer so i was thinking that i would get this as a replacement

 

I'll do my best, though I'm no photographer

[Christo]

Got the case delivered yesterday and thought I would share my thoughts on it.

 

The case is rather light, weighs less than both side panels on my Fractal ARC Midi. It states it has clearance for 160mm coolers, but this is in doubt. I had to kind of scrape the panel closed because the stubs holding the acrylic window on the inside probably was not taken in to consideration. 

 

The case came with a mark about 6cm long on the plastic along the top, it is not very noticeable but still not great. Removing the removable top fan cover is almost impossible without snapping it. It does come out easily pushing on it from inside the case, making the handle irrelevant? Maybe it needs to loosen up a bit. The front face and the top plastic was easily removable though.

 

Cable management is ok and with some effort it looks tidy. The inside of the case is easy enough to work on and there were no sharp edges, except for the non reusable PCI slot covers. The dust filters seem ok and should work well. I did notice one issue, I placed the front fan in the front top position, and this caused the front filter to not close properly because the latch was hitting the fan (I did not troubleshoot this further).

 

The plastic aluminium looking front panel is a bit nicer than I thought it would be. 

 

For £32 I think it is decent. It replaces a cheap 6 year old coolermaster and will serve my non main PC just fine.

[brownninja97]

Got the case delivered yesterday and thought I would share my thoughts on it.

 

The case is rather light, weighs less than both side panels on my Fractal ARC Midi. It states it has clearance for 160mm coolers, but this is in doubt. I had to kind of scrape the panel closed because the stubs holding the acrylic window on the inside probably was not taken in to consideration. 

 

The case came with a mark about 6cm long on the plastic along the top, it is not very noticeable but still not great. Removing the removable top fan cover is almost impossible without snapping it. It does come out easily pushing on it from inside the case, making the handle irrelevant? Maybe it needs to loosen up a bit. The front face and the top plastic was easily removable though.

 

Cable management is ok and with some effort it looks tidy. The inside of the case is easy enough to work on and there were no sharp edges, except for the non reusable PCI slot covers. The dust filters seem ok and should work well. I did notice one issue, I placed the front fan in the front top position, and this caused the front filter to not close properly because the latch was hitting the fan (I did not troubleshoot this further).

 

The plastic aluminium looking front panel is a bit nicer than I thought it would be. 

 

For £32 I think it is decent. It replaces a cheap 6 year old coolermaster and will serve my non main PC just fine.

thank you for the feedback, ill look through it as well on monday when i get the case.

[The_Strict_Nein]

Not done with my build yet, but my first impressions.

 

I had to break the top vent cover to uninstall the fan there. The cover completely obstructs airflow, so there's no point having a fan there if you intend to have the cover on, and without the cover it looks ugly as all sin.

 

Not a fan of the implementation. Furthermore, installing a second front fan stops the front fan filter going in correctly. I managed to force it back on, but it took some effort.

 

Also, the back panel. I'd be tempted to give this case zero out of 10 for the back panel alone. I laid my cables as flat as the case allows, and it still took 15 mins of trying by myself to get it on. Eventually, I get it nearly on, then used the rear thumb screws with a screw driver to get the panel back on.

 

Overall, it's not bad, but there are a couple of glaring design errors that I think could have been fixed for cheaper, like just having a well designed open top rather than an essentially un-removable cover.

 

I recommend the case, but be prepared for a little bit of a battle.