Review: Cooler Master Stacker STC-T01

Thoughts

It's big, very big. And with that size comes a lot of advantages for the power-user, power-cooler or computing show-off. There's scope for all manner of sane, and indeed insane, drive configurations. You have scope for installing many different kinds of cooling systems without worrying about internal chassis space. It's made of aluminium so you won't have a hernia picking it up either.

It takes all ATX mainboards you'll ever throw at it, it can be converted to BTX without much fuss, it takes two power supplies. The list goes on. I mentioned that the Stacker's size would afford its creators options for new and useful internal case cooling schemes, if they were smart. Cooler Master are smart, the X-Flow fan really doing the job in terms of keeping the mainboard area cool with the minimum of created noise.

It's obviously not a chassis for everyone. If you've only got a single optical drive, one HDD, basic CPU cooling and a mATX mainboard (even though the Stacker accepts them!), it's not for you.

However, if you're looking to install some serious cooling, have a large collection of HDD or optical disks or just want to show off to your geek peers, the Stacker most definitely is for you.

Personally, I love it. If it were just a few inches shallower from front to back, it'd be my project chassis for a VapoChill modification I'm planning. It's got the disk capacity and cooling potential that I need but it's simply too big. And that's really its only downfall.

One thing defines the Stacker; size. That size will either make you love it or laugh at it.

Look out for a very special project on HEXUS using the Stacker in the future (hopefully this year). We'll show you what it was really made for.

If it fits your needs, the Stacker is seriously recommended.

Score

Pros

Mammoth size
Can take up 14 hard disks or 10 optical drives, or large combinations of the two
Dual-PSU capable
The X-Flow fan moves serious air and is quiet
Stylish
Not too expensive (£130 or thereabouts in the U.K., including optional X-Flow)
Supplied case fan triplet are very quiet, even at 12V

Cons

If you need that kind of internal space, none

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Doesnt seem like a review, not very indepth, not tested the crossflow, the 4in3 modules and the cooling.

Dont mention the 4in3 comes seperately and costs almost £20 a pop.

Dont mention that the crossflow fan seems to be a gimmick and no other review has found it to lower temps by more then a degree or two.

Still a great case, and I'm looking at buying one, but the review seems rather one-sided.

One 4 to 3 comes with the case. I would like to see an independant cooling test with and without the cross flow, but in my own case it is doing the job keeping all components (using Enermax four sensor temp gauge and temp utilities) well within the lower end of accepatable operating temps (FX 53 runs relatively cool anyway). This case just looks good with the window side (optional) and has room for everything including liquid coolers. The only other case I considered on this build was a Lian Li and I liked this one better. All the CPU tower coolers fit and it is just flat easy to work on!!!

Will come in Black shortly.

My previous CF fan test was flawed as I had a much cooler room temp on the CF fan test. Just ran it again with same ambient temps and noticed only 1C improvement with CF at med setting vs off.

Was looking at getting one of these but its too deep for my desk! lol.

Does look awesome though. Would also like to see some cooling experiments as there are so many places to mount fans.

Just got one of these as my ATC-201 was too shallow to take my dual Opty board. Very pleasant to work with, bags of space, doesn't look too bad (although with the beige optical drives I've got in it, mine does… :D). Like it a lot. That said, I wish that motherboard and case manufacturers would just agree on a standard motherboard connector for USB ports. I mean they can agree on one end of the wire, why not the other?

i like my lian-li v1100