Above all of this is the included 500W power supply. This is a no name power supply which seems to be alright power wise. I have mixed feelings about selling cases with power supplies installed already. The included power supply is usually not all that good quality so it can be a useless expense if you plan on buying a better power supply. Power levels on this power supply seem to be alright though, with power staying steady at the standard voltages.

Cooling Performance
System Spec: AMD Athlon 1700 @ 12.5x166 @ 1.55v, Aerocool DP-102, Asus A7N8X-Deluxe, 1024MB Corsair PC4000, Seagate Barracuda 120GB
Testing was done using the above components. Room temperature was kept ~21C. All fans were run at full power. Shown below is a chart with the results.

As you can see the Z-Alien did quite well. Temperatures were all below 40 degrees, which is excellant for an overclocked processor. The 120mm fan in the rear did an excellant job in keeping the air around the processor moving. The two 80mm fans up front did an excellant job as well. The sideways 80mm fan at the front made sure the hard drive had excellant cooling.

Installation/User Experience
Installation of all of my components in the case when fairly quickly. Besides the issues listed below everything fit like it should. I found the size of the case to be a major advantage when installing components and trying to do wiring. With the amount of space in the case I could easily route most of the cables out of sight, making for better air flow.

My Startech 24" Round IDE cables fit perfectly, with the hard drive cable going behind the hard drive enclosure, and under the hard drive to finally be plugged in. The screw-less features make everything quick and easy. I found the expansion card retention mechanism to be surprisingly awesome. Having each slider apart from each other makes it easy to install/uninstall one card at a time. The sliders also hold the cards in very securely, being just as good as screwing the cards in. Shown below is a size comparisons to my previous (Enermax) case, as you can see the Z-Alien is quite a bit larger than the Enermax, and it shows when installing all the components. It was very roomy and easy to work with.

I ran into a couple of installation issues with this case, but for the most part it went pretty smoothly. The first real issue I came across was when I tried to install my Enermax fan controller. The combined rail system and door made it impossible to mount the fan controller in the case. First off the rails would not mount to the controller, so I was left with one option on where to screw the controller into the case. Added to that the front door when closed sits fairly flush to the front of the CDROM drives, but the fan controller's knobs stick out just a bit too far. This causes me to not be able to close the door if I install the fan controller. Besides modifying the door, there is no way to mount the controller in the case, and I see users having a problem with any fan controller.

I did find a workaround to the problem though. The back panel of the door can be taken off by removing 6 screws. Once the panel was removed it opened up just enough room to be able to fit the fan controller in. The only other real issue I had was with the drive rails. Although they work fine, I felt that they could mount better to the device. It is weird that A-Top uses awesome screw less metal rails for the 5.25" devices but uses some plastic rails that just stick to the side. I would like to see a rendition of the 5.25" rails used for both 3.5" devices.

Conclusions

The A-Top Z-Alien case from XP Cases is an interesting case to say the least. In the looks department I thought I scored excellently. This is the only case on the market that I know of that actually integrates an alien head into the front fascia. If you are into flashy cases this is defiantly one to look at. I especially liked the side window. The alien head shape was a nice change from the almost old rectangular shape.

Feature wise the Z-Alien came well packed. The Z-Alien comes with screw-less everything. It also features the side mounted hard drives, and excellent cooling. The case comes with 3 fans already installed, which is almost unheard of. Even better though, these fans are all quad-blue LED fans, so case lighting is pretty much handled already.

A-Top includes a 500w power supply with the case, which although is not from a familiar manufacturer, it still provided adequate stable power to my system. Easy access to everything is another big feature on the Z-Alien. Front USB, Top USB, Firewire and audio should make life a lot easier for most. This case is also very roomy.

Installing everything in this case was a breeze for the most part; nothing had to be squeezed in. This case would be excellent for someone with a lot of hardware including people with watercooled systems. Although this case is feature packed, not all features are implemented as best they could be. Fitment for all pieces seemed close but not perfect. Previous cases I have used in the past have had everything slide into place perfectly, where on the Z-Alien it could take some gentle persuasion to get the pieces into place. The decision to use plastic rails for the hard drive and floppy was a major disappointment in my eyes. After installing the rails a couple times I could already see they were started to get scratched/chipped up. Metal would have been a much better material.

Cooling wise this case seems awesome. The inclusion of a 120mm fan in the rear as well as two 80mm fans (pointing in two directions) seems to work excellently. Temperatures in the 30's on an overclocked system are excellant. The two 80mm fans up front helped alot in keeping the hard drive(s) cool. With hard drives getting faster (and hotter) proper cooling for your drives is crucial and the Z-Alien provides that.

Pros: Looks amazing, front temperature display, case lighting already handled, includes all the fans, front/top access to usb/firewire/audio, very roomy, screw less

Cons: Fitment could be refined; fans are a bit loud, plastic rails

Bottom Line: The Z-Alien is a feature packed, awesome looking case. Fit and finish could be slightly better but on the whole this case is really good.

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