New Case

[Disturbedguy]

Hey all

As title really, am after a new case and ive made my mind up that its going to be either the Antec P182 or the CoolerMaster Stacker 831.

Now the thing is I cant make my mind up which case I want out of the two, I can afford either one of them so price isnt really much of an issue.

I was wondering if two people on here, one owning a P182 and one owning a CoolerMaster Stacker 831 could maybe, give there own little review of the case they have with pros and cons in reguards to the case.

I know StaffsMike has a P182 and was wondering if he would be so kind as to write a little revieew, if you dont have time Mike then no worries hopefully someone else has the case and would someone with the 831 be able to write a review.

Im in no rush to purchase a case as I cant see me spending the money I have any time soon, but I think having someones opinion who actually owns these case, rather then go off what some video or website says.

thanks in advance for anyone who does this.

[staffsMike]

To be honest I couldn't do a much better job than something like this
Antec P182 Advanced Super Midtower Case: P180 v.2 | silentpcreview.com

My reason for buying was ultimate silence. I use the corsair HX PSU and a passive gainward 8500GT silentFX as well as WD AAKS hard drives which are inaudiable inside.

There is very slight whispers from the Antec Tri-Cools which are so quiet that a gnatt coughing would be heard. You can replace these with something like nexus fans to go for total silence

The air flow is very good in it's relative compartments and as I said in the other thread you can add two fans to give some direct graphics cooling

The door is something that people find annoying but it is double hinged so will sit flat against the side of the case

It's heavy so don't plan on moving it very far lol.

Cable Management is a piece of cake especially with a modular PSU.

If you have any specific questions i'll be happy to give them a shot

[Disturbedguy]

Thanks Mike..

I wont be moving it very far..infact it will never move tbh.

hmm questions.

Does it scratch easy?

Cable management, is there ample space at the back of the Mobo tray for plenty of wires and plenty of areas to tie the wires to?

Would I have any problem fitting my system in, including a Scythe Mugen?

[staffsMike]

Doesn't scratch easily in my experience. Looks as it did out of the box.

There are 3 major loops for cables but to be honest I threw them in the bin as they wern't really needed and I prefer wire ties. There is plenty of room there though for anything you might want.. and plenty of places to hook your cable ties. You get the slightest of bulges with the mobo power cable behind it but it's barely noticiable and doesn't stop the case side going on or make it difficult.

Ninja fits with the greatest of ease so the mugen should be no different

[Disturbedguy]

Thanks mike that sounds good, anyone with the 831 wanna give an overview of the case?

Edit: - Another question, how easy/ hard is it to actually install the components? I mean is there enough space to get both hands in and have a fiddle?

[Disturbedguy]

Anyone got the 831?

[GaryRW]

If it helps, here is a bloke with a P182 who likes a really tidy box:
silentpcreview.com | View topic - Konnetikut's Quad Core P182 [Update III] pg 3 (16 NEW PICS)

Lots of pics of the inside which should give you a good feeling for space etc... and what you can do with cables.

One thing I would mention when putting it together is this article:
AnandTech: A Lesson in User Failure: Investigating the Serial ATA Connector

I managed to do exactly what they did with this case, i.e. snap the SATA connector on a HDD in the lower cage - the lower fan doesn't give you much room so when ordering it, order a couple of right angle sata cables. I was being a idiot though, and in hindsight I was clearly trying to force it too much. (the fact that anandtech guys did it as well did make me feel better!)

My first build so can't really compare, but I really like it.

[Disturbedguy]

thanks Gary ill read through them.

Anyone with an 831 here?

Hmm ill look into the right angle connectors, dont want mine breaking.

When and if I get the P182 i think am going to spend all day cabling lol.

[staffsMike]

I've not heard of the SATA problem before, didn't experience it myself lol I have done that to a sata drive before at work


Seem to be posting this picture an awful lot.. lol

I've just ran it out to the metal bar which holds the fan and run it along that..

As long as you have both sides of the case I always found it quite easy to work on even with more than one HDD. It's certainly not as easy as my akasa eclipse as there is nothing blocking it's HDD's but it is nice to be able to remove the cage as it isn't the easist process to get the HDD's but well worth it for the utter silence you recieve for your labours

Staying at the bottom of the case, if you have a modular PSU try to figure out what cables you will want to use before you start buidling and then fit them before it goes in. The way I fit the power supply is to follow its guide in the manual but fit from the motherboard tray side with all the cables facing out (since they will all go behind the mobo tray eventually).

I find it a pleasure to work on. The bottom compartment might not be perfect but it all comes out so you can work on it in your own comfort.

The one thing you will struggle with is fitting the mugen with the motherboard inside the case. The fans around the HSF give you very little room to get to the base of the HSF on all sides so I would fit the HSF outside with the mobo out but I always do that with the ninja anyway to make sure the bloomin thing is on right.

[MSIC]

Wow, that's a neater case than mine. Must post mine one day too, but get around to tying some cables up first (the proverbial quick-tidy before the inlaws come to stay LOL)

[staffsMike]

Lol it's even better now I just can't be bothered to take more pictures

I havn't been as anal as the guy in GaryRW's post...

..yet

[Disturbedguy]

Hehe thanks for the second mini review, good to know about the sata cables as its an extra cost I wont need to incur.

As when I buy the case I will be buying the following: - Lightscribe Drive + media, second samsung spinpoint HD and obv the case.

The one thing you will struggle with is fitting the mugen with the motherboard inside the case. The fans around the HSF give you very little room to get to the base of the HSF on all sides so I would fit the HSF outside with the mobo out but I always do that with the ninja anyway to make sure the bloomin thing is on right.

Thats what I struggle with in this case, I can have the muggen passive if i wanted but I think having the Fan attached is better. With my mugen, i put the motherboard in then started adding the stuff, when it came to fit the damn thing it was a pain in the arse, such a tight fitting, cut my hands once or twice (always cut my hands when PC building) so when am transfer the bit over, ill keep as much as I can on the Mobo and take the rest of.

Staying at the bottom of the case, if you have a modular PSU try to figure out what cables you will want to use before you start buidling and then fit them before it goes in. The way I fit the power supply is to follow its guide in the manual but fit from the motherboard tray side with all the cables facing out (since they will all go behind the mobo tray eventually).

Corsair Modular PSU for the win , but thanks for the advice about choosing and figuring out which cables I will need etc, I just hope there is enough length in them to reach all my bits and bobs in the system.

The only thing that might look ugly is the fact that my CD Drive atm uses an IDE connector so it could be a pain to fit..hopefully ill be getting a SATA lightscribe drive so it will atleast be abit neater.

Thanks again mike and thanks GaryRW.

[staffsMike]

IDE might be quite nice to be honest. If you plug it in and then feed it through the hole the mobo power cable comes out of, round the back of the mobo and then back out through the top hole it'll be sweet especially if it's on of those wraped ones or is fairly rigid

[Disturbedguy]

its fairly rigid if i remember correctly but thanks ill have to make sure i give it a go.

[GaryRW]

Re the sata cables - definitely not something to put you off the case. Normal cables do fit, I think you just need to be a bit careful when pulling the cage out.

Having been through the hassle of RMA'ing a drive, I'm going to order right angle ones, and you had said price wasn't really an issue However, I only managed to break it by deciding that the cable would be better round the back and tried to re-route it without taking the cage out. Which was lazy and stupid.


Just out of interest, what's more important to you - airflow/overclocking or quietness? I've seen a few people say that the p182 is a good compromise but skewed towards quietness rather than best possible case temps.

[Disturbedguy]

I dont overclock so that isnt an issue, id say quiteness and airflow..which is why I will be adding atleast one more fan to the case and possible replacing the back one with another fan.

I have two spare Scythe S Flex fans to use up, i know i can put one on the HD cage in the upper compartment but other than that, i dont know where they could fit.