Zalman MS1000-HS2 Mid-Tower ATX Case Review

A Detailed Look – At the Outside

Unveiling the MS1000-HS2 was like having a second Christmas. The design elements on this case will definitely appeal to the old-school PC builders who rather have a silent and sleek case over one with windows and tons of flashy LEDs. This case is also very functional and includes unique features like custom door panels with actual handles and two 3.5″ hot-swapping HDD bays for six SATA hard drives.

The front panel of the case remains clutter-free and doesn’t have any of the typical fans, mesh, or power and reset buttons you see in many modern cases. Zalman left all the room for four optical bays and two large compartments that house six hot-swapping SATA hard drives. If you look closely, Zalman didn’t forget to leave vents on each side of the front panel to pull cool air into the case. This is important to note because it affects the entire cooling system in the MS1000-HS2.

The back panel is pretty standard and features support for external watercooling devices, 120mm fan, and open areas for the motherboard, power supply, and seven PCI devices. Zalman didn’t include a removable motherboard tray and didn’t outfit the back panel with any of the matte black plastic that they used on the rest of the case.

The side panels on this case include a small Zalman logo and a matte black finish as well as nifty case handles to make accessing the case quick and simple.

The top of the case houses two 120mm fans or one 140mm fan as well as the power and reset buttons. The vent over the fans is removable for users to install another 120mm fan or a dual-radiator for a custom watercooling setup.

The bottom panel on the MS1000-HS2 is very unique with removable feet and a snap-on filter that can be used in tandem with an optional 120mm fan on the bottom of the case. Adding this fan might cause issues when you install the power supply, but we’ll cover that a bit more when we discuss the interior features of this case.

Both doors over the hot-swappable SATA modules house three SATA hard drives and include detailed instructions for installing hard drives and accessing them during operation.

Here’s a closer look at the actual removable hard drive cages. They are plastic and include rubber grommets to help reduce hard drive noise and vibration during operation. There are small LEDs on the right side of each HD bay to indicate that the drive is working and accessible too.