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Clash of the Titans - TT Tai Chi vs. CM Stacker 830

 by Joshua Buss on February 23, 2006 12:05 AM EST
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55 Comments
Cooler Master Stacker 830

Cooler Master's first Stacker received huge praise from the community for an abundance of space and a wealth of options in terms of how to place components inside the case. The 830 continues these traits, but extends them with a more stylish design and additional options aimed at making this a truly enthusiast-friendly case.


Click to enlarge.

While the Tai Chi is one of most massive cases that we've worked with lately, the Stacker 830 puts up a good fight. The case is extremely deep, with a total front-to-back measurement of 25½”. This is 4” longer than the Tai Chi – however, with the casters, the Thermaltake case is two feet tall - 3” taller than the Cooler Master. With the same relative size, but a significant difference in the two main dimensions, users will have to take care in selecting a unit that will fit where they intend to put their computer. Neither unit is that well suited for being on a desk, but with the flared feet, the Stacker might not look too bad.


Click to enlarge.

In this shot of the front, most of the various materials that make up the case are visible. Brushed aluminum is the predominant finish, but black painted steel, gray plastic, and a slightly darker gray plastic (now black plastic on many units) are all present as well. The front mounted ports are at the top, but face forward, and unlike the X1 reviewed last month, they don't get covered up when the door is closed. The recessed area above that is actually the front handle, and slightly in front of that is where the power button is located.


Click to enlarge.

The front-and-center Cooler Master logo is very nicely made - it was difficult to capture the real look of it, but this close up does a pretty good job. Overall, the fit and finish of the 830 is fantastic just like the logo. This is a stately case for the serious enthusiast just like the Tai Chi, but the approach to get to this feeling is pretty different.

The main design aspect that sets the cases apart is how complex the styling is. Where the Tai Chi is very monolithic, the new Stacker has quite a few intricacies and a whole lot of functionality. When the main door is open, some of this complexity is revealed.


Click to enlarge.

Like the Tai Chi and other similar cases, the 830 has many external 5¼” bays accessible externally, but only nine as opposed to the Tai Chi's eleven. Another difference is that the covers are vented in this case, and each one has a second filter behind the metal grill as well. The covers hold themselves in place very loosely, but aluminum flaps span the height of the case to provide additional holding power.

This next shot turned out much better as a collage of three separate pictures, and serves to show how these flaps and the front ports look up close.


Click to enlarge.

In this shot, we've opened the main door and left flap too, and towards the far right, the spring-loaded latch that keeps the door on its hinges is visible as well. Notice the ample spacing between ports and intricate molding of the plastic. Overall, this is one of the most unique port clusters that we've seen yet in terms of visual appeal, and although it might not appeal to everyone, its functional design is hard to criticize.


Click to enlarge.

Viewed from a more perpendicular angle, the layout of the top panel is easier to get a sense of. Two more USB 2.0 ports, the de-emphasized reset switch, and HDD activity LED are present along with the blue backlit power button. Cooler Master's choice to label these elements is certainly an issue of taste, but at least the font that they used is futuristic and consistent with the theme of the case.

Thermaltake Tai Chi (cont’d) Cooler Master Stacker 830 (cont’d)
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  • JoshuaBuss - Sunday, February 26, 2006 - link

    The stacker 830 would probably be a perfect case for someone like you.. it has the potential for an incredible amount of air flow right at the hard drives and video cards

  • tjr508 - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    This article states the front bay pannes on the CM case are held in loosely. I find that strange being my $50 CM case (awsome case) actually uses screws to hold these in place, making them the most secure that I have ever seen. I wonder why CM felt it important to secure these tightly on their $50 cases but not on their $250 case?

  • chynn - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

    Wrong! What Anandtech did not do with the RC-830 was to lock the 4to3 drive bays down with the provided screws. The snap locks are there only to position the drive bays, and anything else, that fit into the 5.25in slots.

    Only the Lian-Li V1000 and V1200 cases, in my experience, have a fool-proof and moron-tolerant hard drive locking mechanism.


  • JoshuaBuss - Monday, May 15, 2006 - link

    I was referring to the pop-out panels that cover unused 5 1/4" drive bays. They're very loose, and there's no screws for holding them in place.

  • BikeDude - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    I have been using the Armor case for almost a year, and the green plastic clips still gives me nightmares.

    If you get impatient, they'll simply detach and you'll have to nudge them back in again. In practice, I've wasted a lot of time nursing cards underneath the clips, reattaching the clips and finally pray it all fits in the end.

    Even a simple old-school phillipshead screw would've saved me _a lot_ of time!

    It is disheartening to see that TT not only makes mistakes, but insist on repeating them. :(

    Also, the four holes for watercooling, on my Armor case atleast, are positioned too close. Atleast when attaching the Zalman Reserator-1 system. With the reserator you can choose to have a junction there so that you can more easily detach the cooler and move the case... Won't work if you have two Reserators...

  • Tamale - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    Interesting point about the reserators.. what's the junction exactly?

    As for the green clips, I tend to agree.. it's a shame they didn't come up with a solution as elegant as the thumbscrews used to hold the 5 1/4" drives.. but for the majority of cards they do work very nicely.

  • theoak - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    The reviewer calls this a tie.

    If keeping your components cool is the objective, I feel that the 830 wins by a landslide.

    If you look neer the end of the review at the heat comparison chart, the 830 wins or ties all but two (HDD and System Exhaust).

    The reviews gives the system exhaust win to the Tai Chi. I have to disagree. The fact that the components are cooler, implies to me that the system exhaust would therefore have to be hotter, because it is cooling the components better.

    If you take the sum of the exhaust results you get:

    Tai Chi 54.2/60.4
    830 53.4/59.6

    The combined values I feel demonstrate that the air temperature in the 830 is cooler and hence offers better airflow.

    (I do not work for either of these companies nor do I own either of the boxes. My computer is a P3 650 :( )

  • Tamale - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    You're absolutely right.. the 830 did a slightly better job of cooling than the Tai Chi did in our comparison.. BUT.. it was using FOUR 120mm fans to accomplish this as oppossed to the Tai Chi's two. The fans aren't rated that different in terms of CFM, so adding even a single fan to the side of the Tai Chi would undoubtedly bring its temperatures even closer to the stacker's.

  • chynn - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

    Anandtech got a "non-stock" RC-830 case. The "stock" RC-830 case I received contained two fans, not four.

    Besides, stock case fans are usually less than adequate. I would replace them with 120mm Scythe SFF21F fans because the Scythe have: high MTBF (150,000hrs), more volume (63+CFM), and lower noise (fluid bearing 28DBa). If that's too much noise, use a D or E model; less noise but less air too.

    And no, I don't work for Scythe ... I'm opinionated is all ... :)

  • theoak - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    Ahhh,

    I was unaware and/or missed that the 830 had more fans. That would tip the scales a little.

    For what its worth ... I agree that it is a tie then :)
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