machinegoesping

anyone have any photos of the case with a side window? i want to see what it looks like to decide whether to buy one or to just cut one out myself. of course, i've still got to get the case!

also, if someone has a bit of time, can you measure from rail to rail at the top of the case? i was thinking of mounting the rad vertical to try to get a push/pull with shrouds. to do that, i'd need 174mm with 25mm fans and 200mm with 38mm fans.

thanks a lot!

defiant107

I'm seriously considering this case for my next build. My other choice is the Antec 1200 and I have a thread pertaining to this, but I wanted to ask you guys a few specific ATCS 840 related questions:

How's the cable management? I've seen lots of pictures of the case and it doesn't seem like it has much in the way of places to tie down/hide the cables.

Is the front fan bezel's plastic tabs something I should worry about breaking over the long term? I'm not generally a very brute force kinda guy, but I'm worried that after a few years of removing it to clean that filter that wear will eventually win out.

How about dust? I know it's loaded with dust filters, but being a negative pressure case, I'm worried about drawing in dust from other non-filtered holes. I live in a very high dust environment and I'm wondering if it'll be much of a problem. I don't expect it to be completely free of dust, but if it particularly seems to attract dust like clothes fresh out of a dryer, I'd like to know.

How's the finish on the case and how durable is it? I've noted that it obtains fingerprints easily, but does it scratch or otherwise blemish permanently easily?

How's the construction quality? I've read that it's pretty high quality materials, but some reviews talk about odd gaps between pieces and things like the side panels bowing out has me worried.

I know on earlier manufactures of this case the headphone and mic jacks were mislabeled as well as the HDD and power LED's. Any idea if that has been rectified?

Finally, why are there so few ATCS 840 owners in your opinion? You'd think they were giving the Antec 1200's away looking at that thread, but here...well, you know.

Anyways, thanks in advance for your responses and I'll probably come up with some more questions later on.

Chunky_Chimp

There are screw holes for tie-downs on the side of the mobo tray frame facing the optical/hard drive bays, which means that's all in the open. So no, not a lot of places to tie down. The completely open area around the frame also means no way to completely hide everything; the front drive connectors and the leads for the top ports/buttons/LEDs will ALWAYS be visible somehow. But there are ways to make exposed wiring look nice, I know I've seen it done before (albeit in much smaller cases).

As long as you use only enough force to remove and re-mount it, then no, you have nothing to worry about. Just follow my removal method in the OP and it'll be fine.

Ah yes, this old issue. I did in fact notice, before the 3 new fans, that I had a small film of dust around the open vents on the back of the case, as well as the water cooling grommets. If you can fashion something out of old pantyhose (like has been suggested for the HAF932) and just downsize it for those areas, you shouldn't have any problems, especially if you have spare non-vented expansion cover brackets to use.

Only sharp plastic, glass, and/or metal will visibly scratch the finish, and even then, the hairline effect on the unscratched finish around it will minimize the effect. Otherwise you can buff fingerprints out of it very easily and it should hold up well to plenty of (accidental) blunt force.

It's extremely well constructed. The only thing that I can see being an issue, if only an aesthetic one, is the right side panel (when facing the front) for some reason was not built in a manner that allowed it to sit flush with the top front corner; through 5 minutes of muscling with the side panel I've drastically diminished the effect of this defect (heh...). You can see how it worked out in the attached image below.

I wouldn't know. Being the forum's first (known) owner of the case, I didn't mind it much even knowing it had only been on the market for a month when I got it, and didn't pay much mind to if CM's QC had ever started screening the top front panel for these mis-labels. As I said in the OP, if yours comes mis-labeled, connect the audio by COLOR, not by print, and since the power and HD activity LEDs are the same color, well, you might as well remove their labels, it won't matter either way since you'll know which is which when you turn it on.

At first I suspect it was the 280 dollar price tag. Now that 80 of those dollars have been shaved off, I don't know. I suppose some people thought that the price would never drop, especially as low as it did, and just never considered it. I know I didn't, I was shocked to see such a drop and wondered why it happened.

No problem.

Here's the image to show how the right side panel lines up, by the way.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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defiant107

Thanks for the detailed responses. I'll probably get another 3 fans to put in the optional mounts as intake to make it positive pressure and hopefully alleviate some of the dust problems.

To tell you the truth, the ATCS 840 won some major points with me last night as I fell asleep. This computer would be in my bedroom and as I was falling asleep, I started to think about how much the Antec 1200's multiple LED fans would brighten up the room and interfere with my sleeping...

Chunky_Chimp

I recommend this. As you can see from my post before the last one, that's what I did and I'm thoroughly pleased with the results (the cooling results, not the cabling results... haha).

I dunno, the top LEDs are extremely bright. If you have electrical tape or masking tape to put over them, then you should still be able to sleep.

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vis213

Considering selling mine with the broken front clips. Any interest?

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430

Hi all,

I'm from HK and my ATCS 840 is still building up

let me post some old config which will stay in my new case



I give up my LianLi and get ATCS 840 is for my dual power system

the C.M. real power M 1000 respon to the 12V loading and

the Enhance ENS 0560G 600W respon to the 3.3V & 5V loading

Attached Thumbnails

   

Chunky_Chimp

Did you ask Cooler Master if they'd send you a new front plate? I wouldn't sell it just yet if they'll send a new plate.

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vis213

they have a parts request form I filled out a month ago with no change

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Oupavoc

Here is a pic of my case with a window.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2564/p4230575.jpg


IMO the cable management is great

You can always order that part if it breaks

Since buying that case back in January I believe, Ive only cleaned the filters twice. its an easy task and only takes 5 min. you can always remove the top two 230mm fans and replace them with 3 120mm fans to reduce the effect of negative pressure, also adding an intake fan at the bottom of the case will also help.

IMO the finish is great, one of the best I seen. You will notice finger prints but starches will take some force to make them visible.

Again IMO the construction build is awesome, all aluminum is great, mobo tray with ball bearing is great. I never noticed any issues with any gaps on the panels of any other part on the case. The panels are a bit on the thin side but they are still well constructed.

Is that really a bit con, IMO I really don't care about the mic and headphone jack as I go through straight into my sound card. the HDD and Power LED's are fine for me only the mic and headphone are miscolored.

IMO its because of the price when it first came out, not everyone is ready to shell out $280 on an case but now this case can be had for $199. I think this makes us exclusive. Unlike the ATCS 840's smaller brother the HAF932 lol :P


I don't have any issues with either side panels.


I would simply call there CS surly someone there will help you out.


Great work there

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Oup <°)))><™