Computing on Demand PC News & Reviews
As your eyes wander over this chassis, and your girlfriend becomes intimidated by a piece of hardware (NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL LADY’s!), you can’t help but notice some of the features that really accent an already beautiful piece. The GT1000 takes a tricked out approach to accessing your goodies, the side panels open like cabinet doors instead of being removed and are kept snug by a total of 4 thumb screws for each side (thanks for the finger hole as well).
The side panel plastic window makes it easy to sit in awe of your essential hardware. As the window occupies a nearly half of the total side area, you are able to view your video card and motherboard but your optical drive and various other peripherals are left behind another thick aluminum door.
The opposite side is very similar, however, it doesn’t sport the same plastic window for you viewing pleasure. Instead, it is fixed in place by Allen keys (they give you spares in case you lose them), not thumb screws; and doubles as a removable motherboard tray that fits standard ATX and microATX motherboards.
Zalman chose to give us a case that can handle 4 5.25″ drives (top two are tool-less), however, they are spaced by about 3 mm of aluminum; so if you are using a device that requires more than one bay, don’t… it won’t fit. The uppermost bay does not wear a bay panel cover plate as Zalman expects we will populate the space with an optical drive or fan controller. There is one exposed 3.5 inch bay for… um… floppy drive (yeah right!)?
