Final Words
Zalman is once again living up to their reputation by putting a chassis on the market that indeed is professional. The overall aesthetics and design make it an attractive chassis to look at. Now obviously taste differs, but granted ... this is the kind of style this editor prefers very much over the shiny, reflective, LED flashing chassis out there available on the market.
From A to Z the Zalman MS1000-HS2 is thought through really well. The nice design, the hot swappable drive functionality, cooling design, placement of the PSU, securing PCI card outside the chassis, rubber feet, noise insulation, gaps in motherboard tray for CPU cooler access and cable management, washable dust filters ... and the list goes on. Next to that, the chassis is heavy and sturdy and this editor likes that. Cooling wise the airflow created by the fans is more than sufficient for any setup really, the noise levels are quite low as well.
Any downsides then ? Yes sure, we felt the swappable drive trays are rather fragile. If a HDD gets stuck and you have to use a little more force, the handle just might break off. That seems a little flimsy and something Zalman will need to look at with future models. I very much would like to suggest metal based slide in trays here.
Other oddities are the fact that there's just one drive bay fan while there are two drive bays. We understand that adding stuff makes products more expensive, but really we would have liked to see two fans for the HDDs. The same goes for the noise dampening coating fitted in the left side panel - why not noise dampen the right panel as well ?
All in all these are minor concerns at best though. Overall the Zalman MS1000-HS2 is a splendid chassis with great looks and awesome functionality. For those that would prefer it, the Zalman MS1000-HS2 comes in white as well (though I have yet to find it in e-tail).
The rough price in USD is $175, and we spotted the chassis in the EU for 125 EUR including VAT. The chassis is definitely worth the price and if you like the design and features we'd very much like to recommend it to you.
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