Hi all, just a few questions regarding cases and accessories:
1) What are the relevant differences between the Coolermaster Stacker 830 and 832? Reading their specs and comparison sheets, the only major difference is the lack of built-in BTX support in the 832, and slightly different aesthetic design. I'd like to get the 830 (I like the panel designs better, and there's a rebate on the 830 this week), but I don't want to find out later that there was a small but interesting feature improvement in the 832 that I missed out on.
2) Are there any major pitfalls to using 3rd-party hot-swap HD cages (this includes both the multi-bay 2x5.25"->3x3.5" units as well as single-slot cage+tray units)? Any particularly good or bad brands? My goal here is to be able to swap storage HDs between three different desktop boxes and external enclosures for use with laptops. However, I will forfeit the convenience factor if there are substantial reliability or performance issues. One of my primary concerns would be any performance penalties or potential data corruption introduced by the SATA bridge that most (all?) of these cages use. The noise factor of additional HD cooling fans is irrelevant to me. The current brand I'm looking into is Icy Dock. Any recommendations or warnings are appreciated.
3) What are some recommended fan controllers? Either model of the Stacker that I go with will have slots for quite a number of fans, and I'd like to be able to change/monitor their performance (as there exist no motherboards that have anywhere near enough headers for all those case fans).
Thanks in advance for any help.
1) What are the relevant differences between the Coolermaster Stacker 830 and 832? Reading their specs and comparison sheets, the only major difference is the lack of built-in BTX support in the 832, and slightly different aesthetic design. I'd like to get the 830 (I like the panel designs better, and there's a rebate on the 830 this week), but I don't want to find out later that there was a small but interesting feature improvement in the 832 that I missed out on.
2) Are there any major pitfalls to using 3rd-party hot-swap HD cages (this includes both the multi-bay 2x5.25"->3x3.5" units as well as single-slot cage+tray units)? Any particularly good or bad brands? My goal here is to be able to swap storage HDs between three different desktop boxes and external enclosures for use with laptops. However, I will forfeit the convenience factor if there are substantial reliability or performance issues. One of my primary concerns would be any performance penalties or potential data corruption introduced by the SATA bridge that most (all?) of these cages use. The noise factor of additional HD cooling fans is irrelevant to me. The current brand I'm looking into is Icy Dock. Any recommendations or warnings are appreciated.
3) What are some recommended fan controllers? Either model of the Stacker that I go with will have slots for quite a number of fans, and I'd like to be able to change/monitor their performance (as there exist no motherboards that have anywhere near enough headers for all those case fans).
Thanks in advance for any help.
