The most aesthetically important part of a system is the chassis, it is the first thing everyone notices. Cases come in all shapes and sizes, from those adorned with cathodes and LED’s to those understated and elegant. Today we are looking at the “NZXT Zero”, a case with excellent cooling properties and an elegant appearance.

NZXT is most probably well known to our readers, although the company was established only 2 years ago. Every single case they have released since then became quickly popular because of their distinctive appearance and high quality. NZXT cases can be quite distinctive like the Nemesis or exceptionally elegant, like the Lexa. The Zero is marketed as the ‘perfect cooling solution’ by NZXT and is a simple but attractive case with a total of 8 fans pre-installed inside it with 7 of those fans being 120mm fans!

Features

• Full tower Light weight Aluminum Chassis
• Quad 12cm fans optimized for SLI and Crossfire Configurations
• Fully equiped Cooling system with Seven 12cm fans and 1 8cm fan
• Aluminum plated front panel
• See-through Smoked acrylic
• Screwless installation for 5.25", 3.5" and PCI devices
• Quad 12cm side fan setup
• Large capacity for hard drives and drive bay devices
• Ext. Ports: 2 x USB 2.0, Mic, IEEE 1394/FIREWIRE,
• Intel HD Audio Ready Headphone Jack

Specifications

MODEL	Zero SERIES
CASE TYPE	Full tower Aluminum Chassis
FRONT PANEL MATERIAL	Plastic/Aluminum
DIMENSIONS (W x H x D)	210.5 X 532 X 520 mm
COOLING SYSTEM	FRONT, 1 X 120 mm fan (included) REAR, 2 X 120 mm Fan (included) SIDE PANEL, 4 X 120mm fan (included) TOP, 1 X 80mm Fan (included)
DRIVE BAYS	13 DRIVE BAYS 5 EXTERNAL 5.25" DRIVE BAYS 2 EXTERNAL 3.5 " DRIVE BAYS 6 INTERNAL 3.5" DRIVE BAYS Screwless Rail Design
MATERIAL(S)	Aluminum Construction
EXPANSION SLOTS	7
POWER SUPPLY	500 WATT PS2 ATX 12V 2.0 (OPTIONAL)
WEIGHT	7.35 KGS (W/O Power)
MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT	MOTHERBOARDS: ATX, MICRO-ATX, BABY AT, MINI ATX

Packaging and bundle

The package has a clear picture of the Zero and names the case features in detail. The case is very well packed inside, protected by thick pieces of Styrofoam, so damage during transport is almost impossible.

The bundle you’ll receive is standard for a case. Besides the small bag of various screws and standoffs, you’ll receive a well written manual and several drive rails. The drive rails are plastic, and while they seem durable enough, some people would prefer metallic rails. Metallic rails are usually dropped for safety reasons since their edges can easily cut someone, which is most probably why NZXT makes thick plastic rails for their high grade cases. What we would like to see is more screws in the package, as the ones found in the plastic bag are barely enough for the components that this case can fit.