Cooler Master iTower 930

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2006/10/10/Cooler_Master_iTower_930/1.html

 

Looks really great, but it seems to have a bit to many flaws :/

 

As soon as I saw that I thought I had found my new server chassis, but after seeing all of the problems you had....nah.

Its a shame to see all that potential go to waste.

I just wish they would bring back the Black Widow with 120mm Fans, in both Midi & Server sizes. That would really put CM back on the map along side Lian Li again.

I bought the Black CM Stacker 830, which is a great case. I love it and I'm a little dissapointed all at the same time. For air cooling it must rock, but I'm having quite a struggle getting all of the WC componets into it, radiators are not catered for in the tooless setup. Its a case of comprimise...ok I want to add this radiator there...oh no then i lose that piece. Okay i will put that there....hang on then I cant use that other bit what to do??

I just wish they would stop with all of the fancy parts which seem good at first until you need to add a non default component.

Bring back the Black Widow Coolermaster....Super high quality Aluminium cases made you and plastic clips will break you!

 

the problem with cases that have doors, that it is a totaly useless function. (unless you never open the door in your live) Everytime you want to read/burn a cd/dvd you need to open the door. after a week you let the door always open. And in a month you have removed the door because you hit the door painfuly with your knee under the desk. (if you have it under the desk). Or you wreck the door when you swing around in your office chair...

 

Thats not true because they do help to cut down on drive noise.

 

I actually quite like it, even with it's flaws there is a boat load of potential there

What are those little fan header type connectors for underneath the molex connectors on the Sata board ? Status LEDs?

 

And I still think the wavemaster was the best, clean from the inside, stylish and god how do I love that brushed aluminium (yes I do have a wavemaster )

 

The switch on the back should be an open case switch... seems to be covered when the door is closed, doesn't it? It can set off an alarm when your case has been opened if you have a mobo that allows for it.

 

Damn, Motoivator beat me to it. I agree, that is probably a chassis intrusion switch, which are common on server equipment.

Will this thing take an eATX mobo?

I'm not sure the price is so out of line. A quick look on ebay has those 4 bay SATA backplanes at about $80 USD alone, so addint them probably contributted at least some to the cost of the case. I would rather have somthing like this with a half door that covers the drives (with mesh) but leaves the the 5 1/4 bays exposed. Just my preference though.

 

I See Your Point. This case is a bit of a bargain then if you need the facility

 

I really like the easy harddrive bay. ... Does anyone know where you can purchase that for a mod of a current computer?

 

See the link in the post above yours? Try there.

 

Looks like a case of Great ideas and Bad implimentation.

I really like the idea of the HD backplane - I've been waitng for that for years (thanks for the link dire_wolf ) but this one looks like it blocks most of the airflow

About the door (I'm not a fan of them either): It looks like openning the door with things (in my case: headphones & mouse) plugged into the front ports wouldn't work - It might be fine if the door swung the other way and had a notch where the plugs are but as it is it's useless.

 

Wow .... totally missed that ... in the famous words of Homer Simpsons .. "DOH!!!"

 

Power for SATA drives...

If that little board takes regular Molex inputs for power, aren't you missing the benefits of using an SATA power cable? SATA cables have that extra orange wire (which is totally left off when you use a Molex-SATA adapter...since the Molex power cord only has the black, red, and yellow wires.).

I always thought that SATA power cables/drives had extra efficiency capabilities, and I'd heard that you miss out on that if you use a Molex-SATA converter...so with that little board taking in only Molex power, won't you be missing some of the benefits of using SATA in the first place?

Also seems like it would have been easier/cheaper to just put the SATA connections in place of the molex ones on the card (maybe you'd need 4 though?) and let people use their own SATA-Molex adapters if their power supply didn't have proper SATA wiring.

 

Hmm, seems like i'm 3rd on the list of people to realise the case open switch. They were common on old workstations, my old compaq won't let you power it on with that switch out.

On the door debate, i have an Antec P180 and love the door, it makes the case look neat and it fits a lot better with the keeping of my room than a case without a door on it. Yes i pop it open about an inch to slick the power button, and occaisionally open it fully to put a disc in the drive. It also makes quite a large difference to the amount of noise emitted out of the front of the case. I've just mounted an additional fan in the front of the case to aid airflow over the passive mobo heatsink and even though its a 120mm akasa amber i could hear it quite clearly over the rest of the system without the door closed, with it closed the whole system returns to being barely audible. I doube i'd go back to a case without a door for my recreational use pc. Work computers i can see the door being annoying if you use discs on a regular basis.

 

The 3.3v line is still useless for SATA drives as far as I'm aware. Your idea might have been somewhat easier, but would have necessitated running four cables to the device, rather than two.

I too was going to suggest that the rear switch is for an open alarm... seems too logical for you guys to have missed in the review.

Anyways, I'd love this case for the hotswap bays, but they won't quite earn the title of "Godsend" until some company makes an external eSATA+USB(+FW) enclosure that natively takes the individual caddies. Closest you could do is get a one-bay 5.25" unit for an external caddy that uses the same racks, but that's just so messy.

 

They make em, Firehed, look on eBay in the hard drives section

 

should probably fix the review....

 

I've got a TT Xaser 3 and, due to lack of space, opening the door is a bit awkward (I can open it wide enough to reach the power switch witout moving anything, but If I need to access anything in the lower 3 drive bays it involves moving the base of my bed). Luckily the top bay was uncovered for the fanbus, so I removed it to put my DVD drive in. But on the other hand, a lockable door does stop my brother from messing about with my PC while I'm in work.