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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
55 Comments | Add A Comment
55 Comments
Cooler Master Stacker 830 (cont’d)

The last aspect of the 830 that needs to be addressed is its ability to morph into a BTX compatible system. In showing how this is possible, we'll also highlight some of the other fine details of this complex case. It all basically comes down to a very well designed motherboard tray. Notice how thumbscrews are used instead of problematic plastic clips to hold expansion cards down.


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Since the main difference between ATX and BTX systems is the orientation of the expansion cards in relation to the I/O ports, those two components of the rear plate of the motherboard tray are separate, and can be put back into the tray reversed.


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After removing a total of six screws, the two panes of the back hinged right off. Once off, they can be attached to each other in reverse – exactly how BTX motherboards are laid out.


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After assembling the motherboard tray in its reversed configuration, the tray is slid into the opposite set of rails in the case. Next comes the fan juggling.


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The fans, fan cages, and fan grills are all interchangeable on the Stacker 830. The unit on the far left is a fan in its cage, the unit in the center adds the grill, and the unit on the right is simply an empty cage with grill. Each of these are needed in various places, but generally, the unit on the far left goes at the rear or top of the case, the unit in the center goes at the front if one wants additional air to be brought in at the front, and the unit at the far right is a passive vent that fits in front of the BTX duct.


Click to enlarge.

In this shot for instance, three of the standard bay place-holders have been removed in favor of the single cage and cover unit. In the bays themselves, one may install the BTX duct to direct air appropriately in terms of the BTX specification.

Without the extra adapter, the duct could still be utilized to simply channel air at a particular height of the case, but putting the extra adapter on is a piece of cake.


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Lastly, here are a couple of shots of the lighting of the case. In a completely dark room, a well-loaded 830 can put on quite a show.


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And the aforementioned power button:

Cooler Master Stacker 830 (cont’d) Benchmark Comparisons
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  • Tamale - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    I made the most prominent mention of it right before the sound chart:

    "With the finding that the Tai Chi cools just as well as the Stacker 830 with half as many fans, one has to wonder if that means that the Thermaltake fans are making substantially more noise. To see if that's the case, we used our sound pressure level (SPL) meter and rated the system's noise subjectively on a scale from 1 to 10."

    Even without taking the fans into consideration, the two cases' temperatures were very, very close. Look at the HTPC roundup to see how much they've different in the past.

  • JoshuaBuss - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    1) It's ok for different people to have different definitions of 'high-end'. For me, a great case for a decent price is higher-end than a case that costs twice as much and doesn't offer as much.
    2) I mention the passive radiative design of the Tai Chi as a benefit, but perhaps didn't stress enough that the design is for the most part a waste unless one attaches additional cooling equipment to the sides so that conduction of heat to the fins would actually take place. What is true is that the case cools exceptionally well with only two fans. Is it the fins helping? While certainly I agree with you that they're not helping that much, I would still say that they're helping a little.
    3) The cage itself lacks any active defense against vibrations unfortunately. Its design is of thinner material that has more bends to it, so inherantely it will aborb a little bit of the vibrations, but not much. We really preferred CM's cage in this regard, for this and the 4 drive capacity. That being said, seagate barracuda drives are still very, very quiet in the Tai Chi.

  • fsardis - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    making the case out of alu does help dissipate heat from inside. the hot air does make the alu hotter and the fins increase the contact area with the ambient air.
    the only proper argument against the heat sink design is that although it has fins to dissipate heat outside, it doesnt have a large contact area inside so the hot air of the interior wont transfer heat to the alu as fast. then again all this applies only in cases of passive cooling. with active cooling the whole heatsink design is wasted since the hot air gets thrown out and fresh air comes in.

    i am the owner of a stacker 830 and i am disapointed to say the least. there is not a single spot in the case to mount even a single water cooling rad. having read so many reviews on the net about how this case is good for water cooling, i seriously question the validity of other reviewers and not of the anandtech reviewer.

  • ATWindsor - Friday, February 24, 2006 - link

    I doubt the difrence between fins and no fins when the side only has contact with air is within uncertanties int he measurments, i see it as little more than a gimmick. And aluminum in itself also have little improvment in heat (over steel).

  • LoneWolf15 - Thursday, February 23, 2006 - link

    can be a pain already, but the dual-doors like on the Tai Chi are worse than a single one, IMO. It can make it really hard to put a case under a desk, or in a small area, and I would get really tired of having to open two doors every time I wanted access to one of my drives (which is why I got an Antec P-160, which stealths the optical/floppy drives quite nicely without needing doors).

    I like the CoolerMaster's design. Still not a fan of a door on a case, but it seems cleaner than Thermaltake, whose cases have always come off as somewhat gimmicky to me.

    Good review, guys.

  • JoshuaBuss - Thursday, February 23, 2006 - link

    The dual-doors aren't really as bad as you'd might think, but yes, it will definitely be a problem unless you have a large open space to the left of the tower... that is of course only if you care about opening it at all.. heh

  • kalaap - Thursday, February 23, 2006 - link

    I don't think this case is made for small spaces.

  • latino666 - Thursday, February 23, 2006 - link

    Uhh I can't see the pictures anyone know reason why?

    Also I did use Firefox and IE

  • ATWindsor - Thursday, February 23, 2006 - link

    For some odd reason i don't get up pictures on anand anymore if i disable referer-logging, could that be the case for you?

  • TallCoolOne - Thursday, February 23, 2006 - link

    I also cannot see the pics, and also tried both Firefox and IE.
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