I'm buying the CM Stormtrooper, corsair TX850M, and corsair vengeance 8G ram to upgrade my rig. Anyone know much about this case. Looks like its got good cooling and the reviews are good, I just want some personal assurance.

Also, I currently have two 4Gig sticks for my ram, to upgrade can I install one more 8Gig to make it 16?

I have the storm stryker which is exactly the same but in white; I like it but:

-it is really huge and very heavy, I don't move my PC so not an issue here, but if you are buying because it has a nice handle and you are maybe thinking it's easy to move around, dead wrong, this thing is a beast.

-you have to open the back side of the case to access the hard drives which is extremely inconvenient; you can change their direction but I never bothered (lots of screws in less than ideal places)

Not planning on moving much. Just looking for more space and better cooling than my very basic case I currently have.

When you say open the back of the case for hdd, you mean back of the hdd enclosure, not the tower, right?

You sure you need something that big? With HDD sizes getting so large most are going to smaller cases. Unless you need to run a RAID5 array or have tri-sli, I'd go with something more modest such as a Corsair 500r or 550D. Personally, I went from a watercooled 800D to a tiny ITX build and couldn't be happier. I got tired of moving a 80lbs rig and wasting so much space. That CM Stormtrooper weighs 32lbs empty!

@mars: I have that case and I love it. The handle up top helps a lot because I'm often taking my rig to friends houses. Also it can fit pretty much anything, and the wire management is amazing. I love it. If you are thinking about it pull the trigger.

@squidc00kie: I pulled the trigger. Probably a little more than I need at this very second, but I'm looking towards the future. Are the stock fans sufficient for cooling or did you add?

@mars: you have to open up the backside of the case(the side that the mb is attached to, the HDD enclosure is mounted sideways with the cooling fans for the HDDs pointing out the left side of the case. It's dumb but once I set it up I never really had to go back in so I never bothered rotating the enclosure.

there are 4 fans in the case, 2 for the HDDs, one at the back, and a huge fan on the top, the are all next to silent

I like the Cooler master towers. I got the Haf something or other. It's a somewhat more developed case, but I like your carrying handle. I did not mind a huge case in the living room, and the CM's at least have a decent look, though I had to return my first one to New Egg, the panel at top (actually the board behind it) was defective.

When I built both my friends computers I used Cooler Master. Both seemed super rugged as well and well built. i don't think you can go wrong with Cooler Master.

As for the RAM situation, I believe if they are of the same make and model that would be fine. Also in regards to case size always remember cable management gets way harder the smaller the case.

I have a Cooler Master HAF 932. It's heavy as fuck, but it came with wheels (!) so it's not so bad, but I still need help getting it in and out of the car. It's a nice sturdy case, and it has really good ventilation. It's about the same price as the Stormtrooper, so you should take a look at it too, if you're still looking around.

Definitely no not underestimate how large and heavy full size Cooler Master cases are. I have one and I love it, it's so large I feel like I could build two complete PC's inside and still have room to spare. I have the HAF 932 as well.

While I do like the case, I wish I had one that was a little more manageable since I really don't need twelve full size bays and room for four giant video cards, water cooling, multiple disc drives, 20x 120mm fans, etc. Recently I've been looking at moving my current PC gaming build into a smaller and quieter HTPC case.

Yes you could do that, buuuuut adding more RAM is unlikely to improve you performance unless you doing very specific work. If you are just playing games, almost not games use beyond 2GBs of system RAM. Also you would be better off getting two more 4GB sticks and filling all your RAM slots. Your RAM configuration needs to be the same on both channels (usually marked by the colors on the RAM slots) to get the added speeds of a dual channel configuration. I think using not mirrored pairs will knock you to single channel and may actually lower your performance.

The terminology "dual-channel memory" is being misused by some in the memory industry, which can mislead the consumer. The fact is there's no such thing as dual-channel memory. There are, however, dual-channel platforms.

When properly used, the term "dual channel" refers to the DDR or DDR2 chipset on certain motherboards designed with two memory channels instead of one. The two channels handle memory-processing more efficiently by utilizing the theoretical bandwidth of the two modules, thus reducing system latencies, the timing delays that inherently occur with one memory module. For example, one controller reads and writes data while the second controller prepares for the next access, hence, eliminating the reset and setup delays that occur before one memory module can begin the read/write process all over again. Think of it like two relay runners. The first runner runs one leg while the second runner sets up and prepares to receive the baton smoothly and carry on the task at hand without delay. While performance gains from dual-channel chipsets aren't huge, they can increase bandwidth by as much as 10 percent. To those seeking to push the performance envelope, that 10 percent can be very important.

If you have a dual-channel platform and you want to take advantage of the performance gain it offers, our advice is to simply purchase your DDR or DDR2 memory in pairs. However, be very careful to order two modules with the exact same specifications; the modules must be identical to each other to perform correctly.

http://www.crucial.com/kb/answer.aspx?qid=3751

obviously DDR and DDR2 are out of date, but the information is still correct.

ok this thread interests me cause I really hate my case, its too small. it was very inexpensive and thats what I needed at the time. but looking forward I will need a bigger case for future upgrades. interested in recommendations. the one that op got looks cool but I havent even looked around yet, this thread just caught my eye.

Do you plan on adding anything to your rig besides the obvious mobo, CPU, GPU, PSU, and HDD (e.g. dual rad watercooling, an insane amount of HDDs, etc)? And what is your budget?

Can't go wrong with Cooler Master, they run well... really cool. I love mine. But damn that thing looks like its going to warp up to a planet and destroy it with a death-beam.

I know you've already pulled the trigger, but I must say it's nice to have a bigger case, than a smaller one. As long as "portability" isn't a concern anyways.

I built a bunch of friends computers after mine, and I must say, My mid-sized tower is getting really cramped with a newly added, 3-slot 680.

@devil240z:

I got the case yesterday, got everything installed today. After booting it up and playing some games for a while I thought something was wrong because I couldn't hear the fans. Upon opening the side panel, I saw that all of the fans were working properly, just very quietly. As people have said, don't underestimate the size of this case. It's huge (even bigger than I imagined) but, so far I'm in love with it. I read and watched a lot of reviews before I purchased and I'm not disappointed.