Nov 5, 2010 11:20 GMT  ·  By

Since Intel, AMD and NVIDIA are all eagerly bringing out new products, or plan to soon do so, it is not surprising to hear that the rest of the industry is refreshing their own product lines, and Zalman has just announced plans to bring out two chassis.

This once, Zalman did not go for anything particularly grand, though it did strive towards delivering as much functionality and aesthetic value at a small price point.

The cases it has in store are, in fact, two versions of the same Z9 mid tower, the standard Z9 and the Z9 Plus.

Both of them are built out of steel and have steel mesh on the front and top, meant to enhance ventilation and keep things running cool on the inside.

They measure 207 (W) x 464 (H) x 504 (D) mm and a bottom-mounted PSU (power supply unit) design.

Both also have the advantage of an interior spacious enough to accommodate video cards with length of up to 290 mm.

Zalman implemented three external 5.25-inch bays, meant for ODDs (optical disk drives) or other accessories, like add-in drive enclosures or fan controllers.

There is also an internal 2.5-inch drive holder, for hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid state drives (SSDs), plus two 120mm fans, one on the front and one at the rear. The former has a blue LED light.

It should also be noted that the company made use of a tool-free installation design for the hard disks and threw in a cable management hole, in addition to CPU cooler holes.

As for the I/O panel, it is located on the front and provides four USB 2.0 connectors in addition to the obligatory audio jacks.

The Z9 and Z9 plus will start selling next month at prices of $64 and $75, respectively. The former costs more because it has a 2-channel fan controller, a side acrylic and a temperature sensor.