Maximum PC

I'm looking into getting a new case, seeing as mine is getting a little small and I have no more room in my comp. I want either a CM Stacker, or a Lan Boy . I was just wondering which one would be easier/more fun to mod.

Also, if you know of a case that's even better to mod, feel free to suggest somethin.

Thanks

Rabbit

I went with stacker because It looks cool

stacker, you can so a whole lot, lower psu mount, lotta room. i think chumly was modding one if you look around here a bit

I voted for the CM because... the Lanboy is pretty much modded for you.

I voted lanboy. I love that case!

The Lanboy is kinda modded, but theres plenty of stuff you can do.

It WAS around here...sorry that I haven't put the pictures back up yet. I quit comcast and got a new server, but I'll get the pics back up in that "Painting" thread.

I will vote against both I guess. I love the stacker for what it is and not for anything I could add to it (aka: mod). There's really nothing to mod on it, but it does allow for plenty of room and space for a small family inside of one. The entire front plane is open and you can't add anything to it easily.

Many ask about the fans up front, so: there's no way to add fans without adding HD cages, and they're about $35 a pop. So...if you want to add 3 more fans, you need three 120mm fans ($50) and three cages ($105 plus S&H). To simply add three fans, it'll cost ya $155! Do you need them? No. This thing is NOT confined at all, and the need for fans due to this is almost nill. 120 over your HDD's, one 80mm blowhole, and one 120mm exhaust...that's all about any will need. If not, add the 80mm to the side and upgrade to the huge blower. If that won't cool ya, nothing will dudes.

Using two seperate boards in it so far has lead me to believe that I will never ever really need to turn on that blower. I have it, and I do turn it on, but I really can't find what's hot that the blower needs to cool. But, if it does arise at some point that I need better cooling, I'm ready.

There's PLENTY of room (which will be the recurring factor here) to do what ever. I had an unlimited choice on how to place the watercooling equipment, and on top of that, how to route the tubing. That was a first. It's worth noting here as well that the floor of the case isn't flat. There's a vent on the bottom too with a perferated screen hump. So, rule the floor out as any mounting place unless you're looking at removing the screen or stuffing it further forward into the drive area.

The largest down fall i can place on this thing is it's strongest plus...it's huge. Many will find that it isn't good sitting on their desk. I had it down by my right leg until I painted it, then it was proudly pearched atop my desk. But by doing so, I now stand to hit the CD eject buttons or place disks in them. I'm pondering moving them further south to avert all this, but with my wiring job*, it'll be a full day just moving everything down and getting it neat again.

*There'll be an update soon, I hope, on the drives. I have stealthed them about a month ago, but did it a bit different. I didn't like the "tilt-o-matic" method of having the cover taped on, and you press the cover to hit the eject button. Seemed sloppy to me. So...on the stacker's I/O bay up front, there's two little jacks for headphones or whatever. I left those, but turned them into momentary switches and hardwired it to my opticals. So, now I press the seamingly OEM mini-jacks and the stealthed tray pops out. Way cool I think! And leaving the monolithic look of the Stacker's front end clean. I'll get that up in the Modders' workshop once my connection situation is more stable. I'm not sure if I'm happy and may go back to comcast:p

When you say that there isn't much you can mod on the Stacker, what do you mean? Do you mean that they pretty much made it so that you can't be creative, or would a creative person still be able to do a lot with it?

return of the biggg gun.

Sonofa... I KNEW they were gonna pull that shit. You pay $160. or so for the case, then find out that you gotta pay for all this 'optional' shit. I thought you were supposed to get the 300mm fan... Nope. Optional.(I couldn't use it anyways. My supermicro board covered the hole up )
Now to find out those extra 3for4 bays are $35. ea? If they charge that much for 'em, the least they could do is provide the fans.

I also HATE that side panel w/ the fan. Why did they feel the need to make such a HUGE hole for a friggin' 80mm fan? Now I can hear my CPU fans loud and clear. I'm wondering if the left side panel could be used on the right side? If so, I'll probably order another of those to help keep the sound down.

On a positive note, my Xeons *do* seem to be running cooler.

I feel I'm a creative person, and find very little left to play with. Not that it's a closed canvas, but rather a pretty much completed painting. What I see other stacker owners doing is pretty much loading the frontend of the thing with gadgets and doohickies...and I hate this style of "modding". It's nothing more than buying and bolting in.

Right out of the box, it's a great case and have no problems running it as-is. But I selected this case for it being such a canvas to work with...you just aren't limited by what you can't do. What I've found to be the best mod I've done is to stealth the drives with the mesh bay covers. I've always harped on and on about how toweringly monolithic the case is, and I just love the long, constant strip up front. I felt that adding drives and such ruined it. What I did was the basic stealth, but went further by making push-button switches to activate the drive tray rather than the common "push the bezel to tilt it and hit the eject button" method. I'll never ever use the mini-jacks in the I/O panel, so I gutted the actual guts to the jacks and installed some microswitches behind the OEM jacks. Then I tapped into the eject circuit of my opticals and added a plug to the rear of the drive using the audio cable to patch up into the switches. It's hard to explain I guess, but once I figure out how to link to pictures on SBC, I'll post the mod. But you just push the green mini-jack and my #1 optical ejects, and pushing the red one ejects #2...and it looks dead stock in and out.

I don't understand the desire to load fans into the stacker though, and find additional drive cages only needed if planning for more than 3 HDD's. I ran for half the year with 2 raptors and a Hitachi 250 and found no need until lately when I added in 2 more raptors and swapped the Hitachi for a Maxtor Diamondmax 10 (god bless Asus and their abundance of S/ATA ports!) I run watercooling, but feel that I'd be more than happy with the 2 120mm fans and the 80mm blowhole if I were just running air. The case is just so open that there's just not a flow problem. It's just like running without a case IMO.

Hmmm....what else? I just feel that the case doesn't deserve general modding. But, for those that like to do real modding, it's a perfect platform. It's all on what you think modding is or isn't...and I think you think like I do;)

Yup, it's part of the BTX switch. You just pull it off, flip it over, then put it on the other side. They do make windows now, but *Suprise* they're extra. CM's been pretty cool in their forums, and if you bring up that you'd like a bare panel I'd think they'd offer a trade or something along that line. I'd also be willing to bet that some stacker owners wouldn't mind doing a trade with you for the side you don't want. Mine's painted up, so unless you like orange, white, and blue...mine's ruled out:D

I'd love to see that. Sounds pretty cool.


For me, this was why I bought the case. I wanted to have a few of those 4in3's for my arrays. I'd also like them because I also want to get rid of that side panel with the 80mm fan. I figured as much as I hate that side panel, it does provide the case with a nice amount of air. So, I'd have to compensate for it not being there with a couple of those 4in3's with some nice quiet 120mm fans.

ohh damn its to be modded. THen no to the lanboy.

Hey TWBalls, I didn't say that, so... can ya change it? TY.

LOL...ya you did, it says so right there in his post!

Hopefully he shows up soon, eh? Otherwise, you're stuck with some idiot's post...opps!

Fixed.
*sigh* Damn UBB and it's selective Email Notifications.... I just happened to stumble upon this by dumb luck.

I don't think there is a case you can't mod. And as for which case is better to mod, that's a personal decision no one here can make for you. What's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander.

The Stacker is an interesting case. A little huge for my taste, but definitely modable. A really simple mod would be to cover all the slot covers in an attractive material -- a not too high stitch count cotton or a gauze type material. It would add a unique look, filter out dust and even reduce noise. I'd do the same for that round mesh side panel.

Of course, there's always the finish -- black and brushed aluminuminuminum is not my style. You could have the whole thing chromed, or powder coated. Painting is an option, even a cool air brush design or mural -- hell, it's plenty big enough for a mural.

How about mounting small colored pieces of acrylic behind each slot cover. Maybe remove all the slot covers and make a cathedral front out of a stained glass kit at a hobby store. A series of nickel plated rods, like those from a barbecue grill or radio antennas arranged in a vertical or horizontal configuration would look cool.

This is just off the top of my head for "simple" mods. What I'd really like to do is chop that baby. I think that style would be nice for a SFF case. You could almost make 2 cases outa one with the CM Stacker.

My Best R'gards, Grump
The Mad Modder

Wow Grump...the same from the CoolerMaster Forums!? VERY nice to see you pop your head up in MPC.

Great ideas too. I love the chopped idea, and if you don't mind...may steal that later this year. I seem to build in these huge towers, but when they're no longer the main PC, I'm left with huge cases to deal with. A couple mini-me's would be great to have around. (I think all you'd really need for this is the bar-stock for the front edges and the slot covers, and any decent "small" case).

I also love the Stainless grill idea. Add to that cloth and some epoxy and you can make a real neat indented type (sagging?) design. Or just leave 'em nice and shiney like you stated.

It's also possible to nix all the covers' retaining clips and bond them all together for one large door to be formed. Very interesting idea that I've pondered, but it didn't fit my plans. I, myself, like the current layout for my first application.

Anyway, great ideas to spark the interests! From the recent modding contest this past summer over at Coolermaster, I'm pretty disappointed that the majority of entries (and the winner) was a bolt-on extravaganza.

Stick around, and prod us with a stick...these ideas rock, and these guys here really are interested in these directions! If I had to say one thing about the MPC modders, they're inventive with class. There's not a lot of action, but the ones that are active are doing more than adding CCT's.

Hi Chumly,

Yeah, it's me. I still hang around the Cooler Master Forums a bit, but since I quit working for them and stopped co-admining the forums, I've kind of distanced myself. The contest was the last straw for me. There were so many cheaters and I wanted to disqualify them all, but the bosses wouldn't let me. They wanted numbers, not fairness.

Thanks for the welcome and the nice comments. I appreciate it. I love modding. Wish I could make it work for me -- I'm gettin' tired of crawling on my hands and knees for a living.

You go ahead an' steal any of my so-called ideas you want. The really good ones I'd keep to myself anyway. . I did a mod using part of a barbecue grill once -- it was featured in that other magazine a year or so ago. It was part of an automotive themed system and kinda looked like the grill from a '32 Deuce.


I'll try to stick around a bit, thanks. I like what I've seen the past couple of days. I never cared much for the old forums -- I like the order and interface of BB type forums. I'm an old guy though and seem to have less patience for rambunctious and reckless youth with no manners and even less common sense. I'll do my best to hold my tongue, but I wasn't given this name for nothin'. I don't wanna end up on the ban list though.

My Best R'gards, Grump
The Mad Modder