The star of the booth is the upcoming GS1000 case, the first low-end case from Zalman. You probably remember the hefty ones that doubled as extremely sturdy bank vaults, this one is far less beefy but far more affordable. It is not however without a lot of cool tricks.Zalman's first low end caseBy far the best of these are six 3.5-inch hot-plug drive bays behind closed doors. They come with trays and all you need. There is an active backplane, you put your SATA cables and power there, and plug the drives in front. The GS1000 even has case mounted status lights for the drives, a really useful touch.Another nice bit is that the mobo is mounted to a standoff so you can route cables under it easily. It is not a unique feature, but it is nice, and makes for a clean install. There are also fan mounts galore, from two 120mm blanks up top for water cooling to a bottom mount point should you want most of your shag carpet in your case.The best part by far is the price, $150 or so when it goes on sale in the near future. If it can even come close to that, Zalman has a winner on it's hands. The nice touches abound, and for the price, you can't touch the hot plug features. Keep this on your short list next time you are looking for a box.
