A Detailed Look – At the Inside

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After opening the side panel, I got my first view of the interior of the Zero 2 case. Immediately I thought the case was very spacious and then I started to get an eerie feeling that I’ve seen this case design before. Remember the old Chieftec cases several years back? This is pretty much the exact design if my memory serves me correctly. However, it’s an effective design and moves the power supply back to the top of the case. Most modern cases have moved the PSU to the bottom of the case, which helps a bit with cable management and heat.

 

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The case includes all the front panel headers needed to connect the power button, reset button, HD audio, power LED, USB, and eSATA ports available on the top and front panels.

 

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The hard drive cage can house up to six 3.5″ hard drives or other storage devices. I would have liked to see some accomodations made to support 2.5″ drives like the new solid state drives. Anything NZXT could do to future proof this case would have definitely been a step in the right direction.

 

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Here’s a quick shot at the two 120mm fans located on the back panel of the case. They look like generic fans that run at about 1,000 RPM during max loads.

 

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The PCI slots are all covered by metal brackets with screws securely fastening each to the case chassis. I would have liked to see vented brackets used, but this way works fine too.

 

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The case can support a variety of motherboard configurations including ATX, mATX, and other smaller motherboards.

 

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The inside of the optical bay cage has plenty of holes pre-added for extra ventilation. When the black drive rails are added to each optical device, users will be able to swap out these components quickly and without having to use a screwdriver. Very handy.

 

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After removing the right side panel, I got a good look at the back of the motherboard tray as well as the front panel ports that are available on the top of the case. My only issue with this design is the motherboard tray not being removable. PC enthusiasts and builders have harped on this issue for several years, but vendors continue to ignore it’s importance. The sad part is all they would have to do is remove the rivets that keep the tray connected and just use thumb screws instead. Problem solved.

 

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Here’s a close-up shot of the front panel devices in all their glory.

 

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Removing the plastic front panel cover gives us a good look at the front of the steel chassis itself. There are metal perforated covers over each optical drive bay as well as a large filter over the 120mm fan at the bottom of the front panel. Our readers can also see how the front panel headers are routed through the chassis to the plastic front panel. These headers connect the power button, power LED, and hard drive LED.

 

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Lastly, I wanted to show you guys a quick shot of the back of the left side panel where users can mount four 120mm fans. My only issue with this is the attention to detail when they painted the front panel and how the paint moved onto the inside of the panel itself (as seen above). It’s not a deal breaker by any means, but these small things are what people look in quality products.

Overall, the interior of the case is pretty standard and I didn’t see anything unique other than the quad fan wall on the left side panel. The quick-release brackets for the optical drives, hard drives, and floppy drives are nice, but don’t scream out to me that NZXT put a lot of thought into making any revolutionary improvements to the chassis. Nowadays, vendors need to work harder than ever to find new features to add to their products to create a buzz around their product lines so consumers will be drawn to them. They can’t expect price alone with ensure their product is being purchased and used by the masses.


 

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