Computex 2005: CoolerMaster CMSTACKER 830
Computex 2005: CoolerMaster CMSTACKER 830
Never a company to sit back and hug the wall at the disco, CoolerMaster have unveiled what has to be one of the biggest, boldest and brashest, yet most practical cases yet. The CMSTACKER 830 measures a meaty 250mm x 536mm x 638mm and is made entirely of aluminium, a metal well liked for it’s heat dissipation abilities. But the CMSTACKER doesn’t just give it large on the size front, the design allows you to use the entire front panel for stacking in up to 10 5.25” drive bay devices and also sports 4 hidden 3.5” bays.
Crafty workmanship doesn’t stop there though, take a short(ish) stroll round the back and you’ll find the standard ATX case configuration. Not much good if you fancy a crack at BTX, eh? No worries, the entire bottom two third of the back panel can be swapped around to accommodate a BTX board… or E-ATX and in fact M-ATX, M-BTX an even Pico-BTX!
For the cooling fanatics out there, the mesh sides hide an array to hold up to for 120mm fans, with a possible three 120mm fans resting in the front drive bays… and a further 120mm exhaust fan round the back with another 120mm exhaust fan on top AND finally, there’s a two thirds height cross flow fan to blow air straight across the CPU and GFX coolers.
Back round the front, Cooler Master have thrown in a switchable front door panel, so you can have it opening either left or right. This hides an I/O array of dual USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, microphone and speakers. On the top of this panel are two more USB 2.0 ports ad well as the usual power and reset buttons.
All in all, the CMSTACKER is probably one of the most flexible cases you’re ever likely to see, and while it looks as if it’s aimed at the enthusiast power user, it might well be the only case you’ll buy for a while… if ever again… and, given it’s size, once you’ve shuffled off this mortal world they can bury you in it too.
