Reviews - Cooler Master ATCS 840 - The return of a legend?

[Brewster0101]

according to this review, the case does have holes in the mobo tray http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuqZuE5YKT0

Thats the PC-A7010 which we know has the newer motherboard tray. Also have the newer PSU holding bracket on the bottom.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

well its been nearly week since this review. any word on the proposed price cut?

[WoLFe]

Cool Master. Awesome cases! Nice mousemats too.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

awsome price tag too

[arthurtwosheds]

well its been nearly week since this review. any word on the proposed price cut?

this model was recently reviewed on custom PC and advertised at £188 (incl VAT) in their magazine. However, on Scans website the case is priced at £239. I think at the latter price for this case is way to expensive and there are a few cases that can match this model for features and at a more importantly cheaper price!

[j.o.s.h.1408]

this model was recently reviewed on custom PC and advertised at £188 (incl VAT) in their magazine. However, on Scans website the case is priced at £239. I think at the latter price for this case is way to expensive and there are a few cases that can match this model for features and at a more importantly cheaper price!

everywhere you look the price is over £220

[spac3d]

Gotta milk it for aslong as they can haven't they..

[icq3800846]

Just thought I would post a quickie as I got this case last week after LOTS of manic mind changes between high end Lian Li, Silverstone TJ07 or TJ10 and this chassis. I upgraded from an ageing TJ03 which I have loved for a few years now but which is now way past it's prime with out of date cooling (80mm case fans.... rremember them?)

So, why did I buy this case? The rugged good looks? The useful top panel? The giant fans?

No, put simply, I bought this case not for what it is "off the shelf," I bought it for it's potential in the future.

It's large. So large in fact I have to lock it at night to prevent people from squatting in it. It is built to take an internal triple radiator. I could park my car in there overnight.

There are two 230mm fans at the top. You can see right down into the chassis and I have to prevent my children from climbing on top of the chassis and parascending up to the ceiling. One criticism of the chassis is that there is no sound proofing, but in all fairness when there are two holes at the top almost large enough to attract the local pot holing community, no amount of sound proofing on the sides is going to make any difference at all.

I also doubt that anyone who forks out 230 squid for this case is going to baulk at the idea of buying a tenner's worth of sound proofing IF for some strange reason anyone actually wants it, which they aren't.

Why? Because unless you are possibly clinically insane, nobody is going to buy a chassis like this and simply use stock cooling for a processor or graphics card. It just doesn't happen in the real world. Buy a chassis like this and you are almost certainly going to watercool it, or at the very mininum you are going to install some nifty after market heatsinks and fans on anything that produces any noise.

If you weren't that interested in after market cooling solutions then you wouldn't have been interested in buying this kind of case, it's not small, it's not bijou, it's roughly the size of Switzerland and it is possibly one of the cases with the most potential for watercooling that's on the market at the moment.

With the PSU mounted at the bottom, in it's default position, the entire top section is free apart from at the very front where the multi function pop up panel is located. It comes with brackets for a triple radiator. It has the space to actually HIDE a Laing D5 pump, reservoir and triple radiator so you would actually have to put your head inside the case and look for them.

Personally I am in love with the case. My only criticisms are that some idiot put the wrong icon on the pop up multifunction front panel. On the case, the red socket has a headphone icon over it and the green socket has a mic icon over it. In real life, connect the headphone to the green socket (marked with a mic icon) and you will be fine, same with the mic.

The pop up panel itself doesn't so much pop up as spring up as if it is a launch pad for a low earth orbit satellite.

And finally, those plastic 5.25 "optical drive" retention things..... well if you fiddle with them you can remove them altogether, which is a good thing as they aren't very good. If you use them then the optical drives kind of wiggle about and are not very secure. Come on, don't cheat, if you have a case like this then you are an enthusiast, so use proper screws and secure things properly.

As I said before, I bought this case for it's potential. I am a skin flint at heart, I penny pinch, when I buy a case I want it to be the basis of my computer, a good solid building foundation, for at least 5 years, and in my opinion that's exactly what I've got.

I truly regret having moved from Silverstone, I love their products. Put simply, they have fallen behnd the times, the TJ09/TJ10 is an old design now and the TJ07 which made me drool is even older.

If you want a platform which will serve you with endless tinkering, upgrades and just plain fiddling around, get this case. If the worst comes to the worst when you've finished with it, you can use it as an extra garden shed, it's certainly big enough.

[Philipp]

Have to agree with icq3800846 on this one, cracking case tbh.

Below are some pics of the first one we have ever built in....

http://forums.hexus.net/3xs-systems-...ack-widow.html

[Syd]

Have to agree with icq3800846 on this one, cracking case tbh.

Below are some pics of the first one we have ever built in....

http://forums.hexus.net/3xs-systems-...ack-widow.html

Good afternoon Philipp - hope you don't mind me 'borrowing' from your experince but given that you have built a few PC's in the TJ07 and this which one do you prefer. I will initially be aircooling a mildly o/c'd E8400 and stock 285GTX with air - but would look to move to w/c a I7 rig when they come down in price. BTW are the SxS w/c rigs you build whisper quiet??

Thanks awfully in advance

[dirtyH]

Just bought one at scan yesterday and am very happy with it, the price was £166.74
on today only i think its about £179 normally.

[tonschk]

I went last week to Yoyotech and this case was there , I touched the side panels and the feel was like to be touching something unbeliveable flimsy and thin

[miniyazz]

The motherboard tray looks a little restrictive on the PCI expansion slots... with the advent of multi-GPU setups, on many motherboards the seventh PCI expansion slot will take dual-slot graphics cards. It isn't entirely clear on this case whether it'll be possible to make dual-slot graphics cards fit in the seventh (overhanging into the 'eighth') expansion slot, any word on this?