Roundup: Four Gaming Cases Under $150

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Zalman Z7 Plus

Previously known for expensive and relatively-exclusive cases like the LQ1000, GT1000, Fatal1ty, and TNN series, Zalman surprised us by sending the least-expensive “mainstream” gaming-system enclosure of today’s comparison.

Though moderately-priced, the Z7 Plus top panel still includes eSATA connectivity and a tilt-in cover.

The second feature that vendors seem to like applying to the “game case” theme is a fan controller, and Zalman includes one on the side panel.

Another feature shared by all of today’s gaming cases is support for external liquid cooling, which Zalman accomplishes with holes that have rubber grommets.

Screw-free card latches that are functionally identical to those found in Cooler Master’s Storm Sniper separate the Zalman Z7 Plus from today’s other sub-$100 case. On the other hand, Zalman goes a bit cheap by using knock-out slot covers rather than the replaceable variety.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
104 Comments Comment from the forums
  • skora
    Good article. But I'm a little surprised that the Element actually found the Buy award. Usually seems like that's set aside for superior products that don't have the QC issues this did.

    I'm sure there will be request for this case and that and across a lot of price ranges.

    If you do enough of these, you could do a "Best Gaming Case for the Money" series. Or is that peeing in Don's yard?
    Reply
  • sarsoft
    No Antec Nine Hundred case...
    Reply
  • p1n3apqlexpr3ss
    That wouldnt be a bad idea tbh skora, would like to know what the best budget case is out there... not excactly a fan of the antec 200/300
    Reply
  • 4ILY45
    No CM 690 II??
    Reply
  • bk641
    the cm doesn't have a fan control option, afaik.
    Reply
  • Gosh, that Zalman is butt-ugly.
    Reply
  • zoemayne
    ANTEC 902?
    Reply
  • sarsoft
    More cases need to be added. There are other case under $150 that are better choices.
    Reply
  • bk641
    the lancool (lian-li) k62 is a very, very good case for a sub $100 range. i'm using one, and it has pretty much everything you'd want in a mid-tower case. i especially like its HDD bay system, which can be configured to have the hard drives straight on, or perpendicular. in addition to that there are four quiet fans (two on top) and room for two 5870s.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    sarsoftNo Antec Nine Hundred case...No OLD cases. The Cooler Master case ended up in here by mistake, it was supposed to be for stuff released from November onward.
    Reply