Review System

Assembly

Installing the motherboard is pretty straightforward, using the pre-installed spacers and screws. The openings along the top and bottom edges of the board line up well and should help with cable management. With the board in place, it becomes apparent that one or two such openings along the right edge could be helpful as well. There is lots of space for such components as the GPU, but big power supplies or any other contraption in the lower front area will obviously limit the total possible length.


Thanks to the metal trays, including a classic 2.5" SSD is no issue at all. Simply fill the tray using the provided screws and snap it back onto the rubber-ringed mounting screws. While you should be able to place an AIO above the SSD plates, its tubing will most likely force you to give up the top slot in the process.


If you are installing a 3.5" drive on the floor, first apply the rubber rings to then use special screws to hold the drive in place. There is lots of room towards the front—connecting data and power cables even with an intake fan installed here shouldn't be a problem.


An argument can be made for installing the PSU earlier in the assembly process, or at least before the GPU. But there is a bit of a gap between the cage and GPU even so. As such, routing cables is not impossible. We used a few zip ties to bunch up the excess wiring and keep the interior as clean as possible.


In this built, we moved one fan to the front of the chassis and installed a compact 120 mm AIO into the ceiling while keeping the other fan in place. This worked just fine, and while things are a little tight vertically above the motherboard, it did not cause any real issues as all the components are still accessible. That said, do connect all the wires up before placing an AIO.


With everything in place and a bit of extra effort and time put into cable management, the Sharkoon MS-Z1000 interior doesn't look half bad. While it could be cleaner towards the front, the all-black interior helps hide it. Those opting for the white variant of the enclosure will not have that advantage. In the rear, we actually focused the cable mess towards the center of the motherboard tray since the cutout gives us some extra room to work in.

Finished Looks

Turning the Sharkoon MS-Z1000 on, the fans are quiet in idle. The only visual elements that are the system's own are the blue power LED in the top and any internal component lighting.


Looking at the front, none of the internal components shine through, which isn't surprising as there are two pretty solid layers of metal in the way. In the rear, everything but the power plug in the top looks normal.


As already hinted at in the beginning of the review, you can clearly see through the glass of the side panel, and get to pick if you want to view the top half of the motherboard along with your CPU, memory, and cooling setup or focus on the lower half showing off your GPU. Having that flexibility is a nice touch, of course. Taking a quick peek at the opposite side, not a whole lot excites there.