During CES 2008 Zalman displayed their next high-end case, Z-Machine LQ1000, which is basically their Z-Machine GT1000 with a Reserator XT water-cooling system added. Let’s take a look at this forthcoming product from Zalman.

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Figure 1: Zalman Z-Machine LQ1000.

LQ1000 has four external 5.25” bays, one external 3.5” bay and four internal HDD bays, with the same installation mechanism used by GT1000. Zalman provides thumbscrews for fastening the external drives.

On its frontal panel you can find two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port, microphone input and headphones output, standby and reset switches and components from the water-cooling device: water flow meter, fan speed meter, water flow speed control, water flow indicator, etc. The only thing we think that could have improved this case was the addition of at least one eSATA port.

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Figure 2: Front panel.

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Figure 3: Front panel.

On the rear side of the case you will find the water cooler radiator. This case, like 99.9% of the cases on the market, provides seven slots for expansion boards.

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Figure 4: Rear panel.