Stacker Project

[Thermaltke]

Heres what you've all been waiting for, come to think of it so have I!

I'd like to start with the packaging, my first thoughs were, my god thats big!!

It came in a massive box and i mean massive i even put my sister in it

A few chainsaws later i dived into the box and noticed the excellent cooler master packaging (shown in pic 3) and after pulling the monstrosity out I had to have a rest and a coke. Afterward i got to taking off the protective sheets and slung the case onto my bed noticing that the window was protected by plastic and that there was a lack of instructions!!! So onto my next part...

 

[Thermaltke]

After picking my chin up off the floor (check pic 1) i decided to take it apart.

First i removed the drive stealthing which was easy as they were on clips. Made out of metal i was very suprised at the front, it even had filters in to keep the dust at bay. Because the stacker comprises of eleven, thats 11 large drive bays you may be wondering where you put the three inch components. Well coolermaster have considered that too, by providing you with a gap which would snugly fit a floppy drive, and a holder for up to four hard drives (see pic 2) with a 120mm fan on the front which takes up three of the stackers many drive bays. This, the floppy holder and the multi pannel at the top means you have 6 more bays to fill.

The multi-pannel (see pic 3)comprises of six USB ports, one mic in, one headphones and a firewire, this is also where you locate the power and reset button. The pannel is put in at the top but can be simply moved by removing four screws.

The drive bays have an amazing idea, you need not use screws for a disk drive or anything else you want to put in there with 22 sliders which are provided. You can do this like so;
Fit a slider to the left of your drive, then to the right, clide it in and clip the two clips to fix in place, its really that simple!

 

[Reefsmoka]

Excellent pics, keep us updated on everything man .

 

[Thermaltke]

Next, because i bought the shinyest PSU in the world i checked where its going to go, knowing that the stacker has two spaces to put one, in the lower parts aswell as a higher one like normal. This allows you to have two PSU's and MORE POWER! I might put mine in the bottom to show off the shine and the radiator in the top next to the resevior. Here i noticed they had supplied me with a cardboard PSU (see pic 1), taking out two screws and sliding the mysterious object away, i opened it up to realise it was but a box, not a PSU (i wasnt actually expecting one by the way) this contained; (See pic 2)

Enough screws to hold up blackpool tower, Holders for the floppy drive, Two psu supports, FOUR WHEELS!!!, an extension for motherboard power which also allowed you to plug in the two PSU's (which i just realised!!) and an instruction mannual which is the thickness of a small pin. So great i'd just opened half of my case and scattered it everywhere only to find the instructions afterward.

After all this havoc i checked out the motherboard tray which i am particually pleased with. I took off the right side pannel and noticed a massive gash in it for the optional cross flow fan (check pic 3) which is aimed at blowing air sideways across the motherboard to cool even the trickiest spots. Unfortunately i havent got this add-on to show you, i'm sure i'll get it one day

SIXTEEN screws later i had removed the motherboard tray and also it had appeared that i'd removed the whole back of the case too, this is a must and if you want to take it off, a further four more screws are required to be taken out. (see pic 4) this i was pleased with too because it means things like VGA cards and card that you use in your PCI slots can be inserted while the tray is still out. Cooler master were very generous at this point supplying me with a thumbscrew for every PCI slot.

 

[Thermaltke]

Lastly im going to comment on the though that coolermaster have put into this, yeah people need good cooling.. what have you got?? people dont like noise, check the pic out, even the cage that supports the hard drives has anti vibration pads on them held to a metal frame by magnetism to no rattling, because im sure you can agree with me here that 4 hard drives can make some vibrations, i seen some people that have to pick thier case up off the floor every now and again becasue of it. It even has a fan in the top to dissipate to warmest of heat.

Anyway Cooler Master must have spent alot of time perfecting this case as it meets every one of my demands, its sturdy with aluminium brushed metal finish, all of the fans come with chrome grills, and the air flow is amazing. The only downside is that it's VERY HEAVY! So it looks like all the LAN parties are round my house from now on.

My final conclsion is that it is one awesome product and i highly reccomend it for anyone. priced around £130 its not cheap, but it's definately worth it!

thankyou for reading and more to come soon when i get the rest of the stuff, if you would like to know more just post in here.

Harry

 

[psd99]

very very nice prehaps u could ask th admin if u could move this post to the review section?

u seemed to have spent a heck of a lot of time writing out the descriptions!

looks very nice

 

[Thermaltke]

i tlked to him about it and he siad to put it in here, no problems Ian, this will do me untill i finishe the project.

 

[Techy]

FOUR WHEELS!!!

would be worried if it only came with two!

looks cool therm, cheers for the insight.

 

[muckshifter]

Nice, well designed ...

 

[Ian]

very very nice prehaps u could ask th admin if u could move this post to the review section?

u seemed to have spent a heck of a lot of time writing out the descriptions!

looks very nice

There used to be a "Project Log" section, but it never got used. If projects become more popular though, I'm more than happy to open it up

 

[Thermaltke]

so come on people, get modding, get ideas!!

Darn, no more coming from me untill after christmas, unless i find stuff out

I've also asked cooler master for sponsorship for a review website etc all we need is webspace and i can launch a decent review site, although pcreview will be frst priority

 

[Thermaltke]

right people, i build the computer, just finished it, BUT its got the DISK BOOT FAILURE, lol so i'll be sorting this out, (or attempting) so feel free to help me, i think i know what it is, but i've stopped it loking for a floppy drive, because it aint gonna find one, and its detecting the ATA drives, but not at the start where it looks for the CD-ROM drives, it finds it afterward... dont know if this is normal. ?

I'll be updating you all soon, maybe tonight if i get it running, although i'll probably be playing half life two, or UT04 if i transfer my 10 GIG ut2004 folder,,, lol.

Cya, harry

 

[Thermaltke]

Right i have some free time on my hands so i've decided to update you lot some more. I was quite pleased with the turnout at christmas as after unrwapping all my prestents i was able to compile all of this.

All of this being very nice

i got straight to work on my PSU, unpacking it from multiple layers and pulling off the molex connectors, which was made easy with the tool i had recieved with the blue molex kit, everything shown in this picture;

My cable sleeving kit was quite impressive as it came with more then enough sleeving.

This was quite a tricky job, i had to remove the molex connectors, tape them up, feed the sleeving over, cut holes in the sleeving, take of the tape, put blue molex connectors on, shrink wrap the ends so the sleeving doesnt frey, tip; if your using a lighter to do this it may turn the wrapping black, a damp cloth make this shine blue once again, then... hope they worked

 

[Thermaltke]

Next i started to unpack the other bits and peices installing the disk drive first leaving space for other things The black is very nice against the rest of the housing and stealthing, you can see the very shiny pci slots and thumb screws supplied with the case at the back too.

I wanted to whip some hardware out just to see why i'd spent so much money and went straight for the sound card knowing theres a few extras included

as you can see this is a monster of a card, supporting 7.1 it would be, a nice 24bit is supposed to be great for gaming so its mine, costing 117 smackers it best be. Also on the left is the little extra i was anticipating all this long, with alot of sockets, controls and an infa-red sensor it makes the platinum version of the audigy2 ZS different. The remote too is a pretty cool gadget so i can lay on my bed controlling playlists, volumes and some programs that are included in the package too. Heres where i put it;

Also shown in this picture is the hard drive cage, i screwed the hard drives in and it had lots of space for air circulation so i was pretty happy, especially with the fact that they are also hidden