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  • meacupla - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    I haven't seen a particularly interesting product from Zalman in a while.
    They have a bunch of okay products, but none of those amazing products.
  • BedfordTim - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    Their USB CD jukebox emulator is pretty good if not new. Being able to carry a bag full of CDs in your briefcase is very useful for us.
  • SpartyOn - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    Could be a blessing in disguise if they take the right steps during restructuring. I used to love Zalman products, but in the past 2-3 years, their quality and attention to detail has been noticeably slipping. Instead of focusing on high-end, premium components, they've been caught up in the "race to the bottom" along with a number of companies; also, when they do role out a premium product, it's performance doesn't justify the price.

    Zalman needs to get back to what it did best in the past: selling superb quality, high-performance parts at a premium price. But to earn my business again (and I assume others as well) they'd better back up that premier price with really solid, and I mean really fantastic/competitors can't match, performance.

    Let's face it, there are enough PC suppliers out there that to compete at the low- to mid-level at this point would be suicide. But truly premium suppliers could be able to carve out a niche considering companies like Corsair, Seasonic, Antec, EVGA, Silverstone, etc. all seem to be increasingly catering to the lowest common denominator and fighting over table scraps while maintaining an air of premium-chic.
  • Operandi - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    I disagree in regards to quality. The CNPS 5X is my go to heatsink to replace stock Intel and AMD heatsinks. Performance is great for a budget heatsink and the quality is all there; high-quality fan and very solid mounting hardware.

    I do agree about them slipping on the top end high performance stuff a bit though.
  • just4U - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    Absolutely agree Operandi,

    at 14-20 bucks it's a steal and works well with a lower profile than others. As far as I know the only one that it competes with is the Arctic Cooler FreezerPro 7 but that's normally in the 20-24 dollar range.
  • invinciblegod - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    That case is so ugly.

    I liked their flower coolers and bought some for my pentium 4 rig and my athlon rig. They never really released anything else that interested me.
  • CProse - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    I'm ~100% certain that case is a skin and re-branded Fractal Design case. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4878/fractal-design-...

    If it is, all three of my fractal design chassis fans failed within a year, absolutely abhorrent quality. I still have and use all of my 120MM Aerocool fans I bought back in 2005....
  • just4U - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    I've used the arc mini several times and consider it an excellent design.. (a variant of the one you speak of) If anything Corsair and Fractal have similar ideas on how a case should be.. Zalman? not so much..

    As to fan failures.. it happens. Not sure if it's common though or you just got lucky/unlucky.
  • CProse - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link

    I do like my Fractal case, but having three fans fail in under a year is pretty awful, but as you said, it happens.

    Look closely at the design and layout of the case. Ignoring the exterior cosmetics, the case is exactly the same as a Fractal Design. It is no where near uncommon for producers to rebrand products, it just makes me wonder how much Zalman rebrands vs produces.
  • just4U - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link

    I see what you mean sort of.. although it doesn't look like they have as much clearance.. still hard drive placement and general layout does look similar yep.
  • piiman - Thursday, November 27, 2014 - link

    "general layout does look similar yep"

    and so does any number of other cases I mean its a case how different can they make them inside?
  • meacupla - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link

    Nah, the panels are 100% different on both exterior and interior.
    They are only similar, because that's a popular and current layout that many other manufacturers also use.

    As for the fans, all I have to say is maybe it's just a bad batch, because the ones that came with my define mini are working just fine after more than a year. Either that or maybe they are sleeve bearings, which is why they are cheap.
  • Redwoodz - Sunday, December 7, 2014 - link

    You are certainly 100% wrong.While the base structure may seem similar,there are many differences. And you can say that about 90% of the mid-tower cases out there.Why/ Because that's the design that works for most users. The new Z11 neo is indeed a refined Z9,the base case is the same. That's excellent because the Z9 has an almost perfect lay-out.You really can't beat the Z series features for the price. Just the name Zalman has not become "fashionable" like Corsair or Fractal Design.
  • just4U - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link

    I've used a couple of Zalman Cases ... can't say I really care for them, a pain to clean to. My advice to Zalman.. keep it simple.. and pay attention to the move to smaller minimalist designs that are easy to work in with excellent interior management.
  • ppi - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link

    Not really surprising. As long as Zalman's core business is sound, the best way to cover any losses to creditors/whoever is usually to sell that business as a whole, and not sell it piece by piece.

    That Zalman's shares plummeted is no surprise, given their parent was giving out false information about its performance.
  • StrangerGuy - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link

    I look at the designs in this article and I can see why nobody would be bothered with their products.
  • Antronman - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link

    All of their air-cooling solutions have some of the best price/performance ratios out of all coolers. They last a long time as well. While aesthetics are important, there's a large crowd that is more interested in performance.

    There always has been interest in their products.

    There's quite a large gaming community that would interested in a case like that.

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