Coolermaster Stacker 830 EVO - seeing the light

[afireinside]

I've always been opposed to large cases. Just never liked them. I also never wanted to spend lots of money on a case. Last year, as I'm sure some of you remember, I cheaped out and got an Antec 900 instead of the Lian Li V1000 I wanted. The results were... not pleasant to say the least. I had wanted a stacker 830/2 for a while so when I saw the stacker for 140 AR at Newegg, I bit.









bottom vent



I'm hoping that's sufficient case cooling...





compared to antec 900... nice and big.



Motherboard tray, very nice. Makes everything easy! Note the holes for external watercooling Can also be flipped in seconds for BTX operation.



4x front USB, front firewire, front AC97/HD audio connectors, standard power/reset switches and LED cables



Top exhaust with filtered 120mm fan mount. Can also be replaced with an LED lit hard drive tray if you have one of those fancy raptor X drives

ANTEC TAKE NOTES SECTION



FOUR (not 3, Antec) in 3 hard drive adapter with a QUIET blue LED fan





Side walls of the adapter are removable so that installing the drives is not a nightmare. They screw in easily. Side panels are mounted to blue rubber sound dampeners, which actually work pretty well. My 2x Raptors no longer sound like grinding death!





RIDIN RIMZ!



PSU bracket is a breeze to install



Two aluminum "doors" of sorts cover the latches for the vents and are flush with the front when closed (if that makes any sense)



My current setup The Coolermaster PSU I purchased with the case will not work with my MSI board so I have the Enermax on the floor until a real motherboard arrives. Watercooling is also external because it will not fit with a sound card installed.



Overall, working with the case was VERY easy. Everything except the motherboard, PSU, and hard drives are tool-less installs.

Front door is made of nice thick aluminum (unlike the cheap plastic in many cases) and shuts magnetically

Side fan bracket accepts FOUR 80mm, 92mm, 120mm, or 140mm fans. Snap in brackets with dust filters for 120mm fans come stock. Latches to/from the case extremely easily

Side panels are held into place with a very simple lock/unlock tab at the top rear next to the PSU. However, they are not 100% stuck in place and you can move them a slight bit.

Mobo tray once again has one tab and two sliding clamps

The mobo tray, side fan bracket, and front door can all be quickly reversed/flipped to allow for a BTX installation.

PCI slots use thumb screws

5.25" devices lock into place with plastic locks on both sides of the bay. It can also hold smaller 5.25" devices like fan controllers in place without them flying back into the case when touched. Only downside is that CD drives are not 100% stable and they do move back and forth a slight bit in the bays. Fortunately, Coolermaster left openings for screws as well if you wish to use them.

The wheels are a nice addition, seeing as the case weighs a ton with everything installed. Two of them lock so the case doesn't roll all over when you touch it. Be careful when installing them as the screws strip very easily. There are also two recessed handles at the top of the case that can be used for transportation. I'm not quite sure how much I would trust them to carry a full case though, the top panel is secured to the frame with four small screws only.

Every part of the case is made of thick, high quality aluminum. Easily the heaviest aluminum case I've ever had. The build quality, however, is top notch. It's 110% worth the added weight. The exterior of the case is nothing short of gorgeous as well.

The two stock fans are not loud at all and the LED intake fan is not overly bright. A well balanced LED fan

With most things, you get what you pay for. Cases are no exception. After 7 years of messing around with cheap cases, I'm glad I've moved on. After spending a day with this case I would be more than willing to pay the full ~200 dollar MSRP for it. The difference in ease of install in a large, well built case and a smaller, budget case is night and day.

PROS
Can run ATX and BTX
Mostly tool-less
cools extremely well
well built
easy and quick to install
removable mobo tray
up to SEVEN fans (4 side, 1 front, 1 rear, 1 top)
bottom vent for more ventilation or easy watercooling install
external watercooling pass through holes
high quality all aluminum construction
Fan filters on the side and top fans
Quiet 4 in 3 HDD adapter
wheels included
handles on the top of the case

CONS
Tool-less installs could be a bit better. The 5.25" locks and side panel locks could be a bit more secure. Doesn't bother me at all but some people might not like how they can move a little.

There is not enough room under the motherboard to fit a radiator + fans on the bottom vent with a sound card or SLI installed. In BTX form however, it should fit fine.

The external watercooling holes are not wide enough to fit 7/16" or 1/2" tubing through without the rubber protectors coming off.

the rear side panel sits right on the back of the case, preventing you from routing the PSU wires behind the mobo tray for clean wiring.



Overall I'd give the Coolermaster Stacker 830 EVO a 9.5/10



I have a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme heatsink and an Abit IP35 Pro motherboard in the mail so I'll get some pics of a proper finished install up ASAP!

[TEDY]

i would want one but it's 250$+ here.

[lowfat]

You can fit the power cables from the PSU on the other side of the motherboard tray, it just is a really tight fit

Here is an old setup,

even with all that I could still close the door.

[G.Foyle]

I am thinking of getting a Stacker 832, but one thing buggers me: the power button. Don't you think it's of rather poor quality? or maybe that Stacker I saw had something broken?

[Blasar]

My future case, no doubt about it...the only thing that bothers me is the price (around 370$ where i live)

I can only blame th f taxes, government, whatever...

[AriciU]

Love it myself. It's around 330$ here. I'm seriously thinking of ordering it from ebay or somewhere, just hope that shipping won't kill me with all that weight.

[Cpl Ledanek]

Just picked this case up today and have a few questions:

@Lowfat, did you drill holes to achieve those wire management...coz mine didn't come with holes on the mobo tray.
---also, what paint did you use for the inside; was it flat black? what brand and did you just spray it or sand it first?
---nevermind, just read the rest of your post...sweet deal for $75

@afireinside, what brand of fan would you recommend for the top fan? I'm going for quite fan vs powerful fan.
---what model is that Enermax PSU? are the cables long enough?
---is there a way to mount the HD backwards to hide all the wires?
---almost a month now, any regrets or suggestions for new folks getting this case?

thanks to everyone

[timber715]

afireinside,
can you please post some more pictures on the tool less installs. looking to get one myself but not a big fan of tool less installs. thanks.

[CERO]

Looks like these SE`s, they made some nice minor changes, a + for the watercooling holes, why didnt they consider it earlier, and I like the Mobo tray.

[ownage]

@M2ck,

What happened to the lian-li?

[WesM63]

AFI,
Your such a traitor.

J/K nice case bud. Remember our convo a while back when we were talking about cases and how we wouldn't spend that much money? I picked up the CM690 and LOVE IT. It's a $150 case that only costs ~$60.

[afireinside]

AFI,
Your such a traitor.

J/K nice case bud. Remember our convo a while back when we were talking about cases and how we wouldn't spend that much money? I picked up the CM690 and LOVE IT. It's a $150 case that only costs ~$60.

Haha... yeah. The price was right though. Couldn't help my self

afireinside,
can you please post some more pictures on the tool less installs. looking to get one myself but not a big fan of tool less installs. thanks.

What else do you want to see? PCI = thumb screws, CD drives = slide locks, panels/mobo tray = tab locks

@afireinside, what brand of fan would you recommend for the top fan? I'm going for quite fan vs powerful fan.
---what model is that Enermax PSU? are the cables long enough?
---is there a way to mount the HD backwards to hide all the wires?
---almost a month now, any regrets or suggestions for new folks getting this case?

Yateloons FTW!

It's an Enermax Liberty 500W PSU. Cables are plenty long.

I'm sure you could mount the HDDs backwards but it would be a pain to run the PSU wires to them.

No regrets so far.

Current:



Actually... I got another one for my brothers computer build. They shipped me a regular evo non SE. The finish on his panels feels MUCH smoother than mine Maybe mine is just a defect.

[WesM63]

Looking good bud!

3870's?

[CERO]

@M2ck,

What happened to the lian-li?

got it modded @ aquatuning.de , should be here soon, the Evo i got like a year from my old AMD X2 build

[afireinside]

Looking good bud!

3870's?

you bet!

[ownage]

got it modded @ aquatuning.de , should be here soon, the Evo i got like a year from my old AMD X2 build

Send those pictures when its done , or post it here at XS!

@AFI
830 EVO and hd3870 xfire is a perfect match. Looks damn nice.

[timber715]

What else do you want to see? PCI = thumb screws, CD drives = slide locks, panels/mobo tray = tab locks

yes, if you insist...

[lowfat]

Just picked this case up today and have a few questions:

@Lowfat, did you drill holes to achieve those wire management...coz mine didn't come with holes on the mobo tray.
---also, what paint did you use for the inside; was it flat black? what brand and did you just spray it or sand it first?
---nevermind, just read the rest of your post...sweet deal for $75

@afireinside, what brand of fan would you recommend for the top fan? I'm going for quite fan vs powerful fan.
---what model is that Enermax PSU? are the cables long enough?
---is there a way to mount the HD backwards to hide all the wires?
---almost a month now, any regrets or suggestions for new folks getting this case?

thanks to everyone

Yes i drilled the holes. It was pretty easy though. Just a simple hole saw with a 1.5" saw blade.

Yes you can mount the hard drives backwards. That is what I did with mine.

I still love my Stacker 830 after ~ 6 months. Only thing I disliked about it was how easy the exterior gets damaged. I don't believe they are anodized at all. This is why I got mine painted.

[FZ1]

I have the original version of this case. I love it. I had to drill my own holes in the back for water cooling
Did you also drill the small holes in the mobo tray? Looks good.
I also like the mesh at the bottom of the case. I wish mine had that.