Fans in a Stacker 830

I'm soon going to be getting a Stacker 830 because my Tsunami is too small for all my drives and the cluttered wires. What I was wondering is how tolerable the noise will be if I use many many fans? I currently use 2 thermaltake 120mm fans that came with the case in the front and back, and an akasa 80mm one on the CPU - running at full speed which I think is 3800 RPM (its pretty noisy, but I don't mind - a certain whooshing noise has come to help me sleep).

I will be using 2 of the 4-in-3 drivebay doodads, each coming with its own 120mm coolermaster fan, another coolermaster 120mm on the back that comes with the case, another on the top panel and between 2-4 more on the main side.

My thoughts are this:

That's obviously more air going in than coming out, what should be done about that? Is it a problem? Should perhaps some of the side panel fans suck out?

Would a fan controller be useful? I would probably only benefit form the side panel fans when using games or running my card overclocked. I looked at this one:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=321723

...but it seems it needs all the fans to have 3-pin connectors, and I don't know if the ones I'll get will have them.

Will the noise of potentially 7-8 120mm fans be too much? I know its hard for you to say. I used to use a volcano 11 cooler on my last machine, it used a very noisy Tt fan which I always had set on full speed - if I remember correctly that was around 45dBA? And it wasn't too much for me. According to this page: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=184657 (the current CPU cooler I'm using) the fan I have is running at 43dBA. Anyway, I don't know very much about noise levels.

I don't think those fans should be too loud, but I have a high tolerance to fan noise. Also having more air going into a case isn't a problem. I actually prefer more air going in because it keeps dust out of all the cracks and crevices of the case.

The Vantec Nexus controller comes with 3 pin fan to 4 pin molex cables and it has 4 18w channels. I remember seeing it somewhere for ~$10, but I forgot where.

Another option is to wire up some of the fans to 5v or 7v.

hitokiri_808 said:

I don't think those fans should be too loud, but I have a high tolerance to fan noise. Also having more air going into a case isn't a problem. I actually prefer more air going in because it keeps dust out of all the cracks and crevices of the case.

The Vantec Nexus controller comes with 3 pin fan to 4 pin molex cables and it has 4 18w channels. I remember seeing it somewhere for ~$10, but I forgot where.

Another option is to wire up some of the fans to 5v or 7v.

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I have the Stacker and i have10 fans and the system you barly hear it.

But the case only supports 9 fans?

Anjow said:

But the case only supports 9 fans?

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I added 2 in the PIC slot for the Video card.....

Ahh I see.

What's the deal with noise levels - I don't really understand them completely - if you have 2 fans at 20dBA each, is their combined noise more than 20dBA?

I've got the case now. I'm using 8x 120mm fans - one in every available place bar the top of the drivebays and it really isn't any louder than the 2x 120mm in my previous Tt Tsunami. Both my case and CPU temperatures show as being 4-5 degrees less, there's much more air going around my HDDs (using 2x 4-in-3 modules, 2 disks in each) and there is no competition for space with my super-long graphics card.

Installation was a dream, it didn't matter what order I did things in because everything was so conveniently arranged. Everything about this case oozes quality.

The only fault I found was that you have to remove 2 levels of the drive-locking bits when installing a second 4-in-3 module. If you are going to be frequently removing HDDs then it will be inconvenient.

I can't imagine how big the other stackers and the armor must be if they are bigger than this...

If you're concerned with noise, I really recommend hitting up the SPCR forums.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/

They are extremely knowledgeable as far as silent computing goes; I've learned as much from them about silencing my rig as I have learned about overclocking it from the guys around here. Good luck!

Heheh, my machine is far from silent. I just didn't want anything that sounded like a rocket taking off, or an intolerably high whine like I get from the CPU fan on my celeron 766 machine.

Almost all the noticeable noise is coming from the CPU fan.

Anjow said:

Heheh, my machine is far from silent. I just didn't want anything that sounded like a rocket taking off, or an intolerably high whine like I get from the CPU fan on my celeron 766 machine.

Almost all the noticeable noise is coming from the CPU fan.

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let me tell you the case is the best case I have had with this many fans.

You barley hear it .....

ut it is on the fool and not on my desk..

Well, just the same...they have lots of neat little tricks you can do if you ever want something to tinker with.

As one of my friends said about this case: "You could paint it green and brown and go to war in it"

I won't be getting a fan controller as I don't have a problem with the fans running at full whack all the time, the noise isn't noticeable alongside my CPU fan. It turns out that I could have got the one specified in my first post as all the CM fans that I bought have a 3 pin connector and a 4 pin pass through adaptor.

I've been thinking about this case for a while now, but have hesitated based on a few things... here's some food for thought.

Stacker 830 issues

There are some issue with MB tray and it does warp.

But how many time are you planing to remove the MB tray not to have a little problem from time to time.
Yes it is a pain when sliding in the tray very tight when the built it...

ZGOZZ said:

There are some issue with MB tray and it does warp.

But how many time are you planing to remove the MB tray not to have a little problem from time to time.
Yes it is a pain when sliding in the tray very tight when the built it...

Click to expand...

That's one i haven't seen, but it does have PCI issues too.

PCI issues

and i think the front panel audio/etc cables are too short for some boards.

In addition, Cooler Master is addressing ALL issues mentioned and have some solutions already(awesome). But, that may not prevent you from getting a 'headache' type case. So, just be aware is all...

Overall, it looks like a decent case, and i'd still consider giving it a shot. I just wanted the author to be aware of everything is all.

I removed the mobo tray a couple of times during install and I didn't notice anything untoward, that's not to say it wouldn't affect others with very heavy stuff on their mobo though.

As for the cables I certainly wouldn't say they're too short - my USB headers on the mobo are right down the bottom and these things are long enough to reach and even long enough for me to tuck behind the tray for tidyness.

The PCI/AGP cards issue is a valid one. You know at the bottom of the card's faceplate it narrows into a smaller squared off end? Well the case has a little slot for that to go into for security's sake (so the card doesn't wobble and you can plug things into it without fear of it coming loose at one end). These little slots could certainly be a bit more accomodating, I did struggle to get some of my cards' faceplates into them.

To be in line with this case's fully-strippable approach, these little slots could perhaps be removable.

However, I found this to be a very minor issue compared to the case's other great features.