Customer Reviews

Cooler Master ATCS 840 Aluminum ATX Full Tower Case Black - (RC-840-KKN1-GP)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've built maybe eight or nine PCs over the years, and previously favored Addtronics full or server tower cases. I like lots of room in a case so it's easy to work in, there's room for anything I might ever want to add, and there's plenty of space for good air flow. I thought those were excellent cases, but moving up to the ATCS 840 is like jumping from a 1939 pickup truck to a late model luxury SUV. Every detail of the layout and construction of this case demonstrates superb engineering. The immense 230mm fans move a ton of air, but do it while spinning far more slowly than smaller fans have to. That means little noise, and what there is is much lower pitched and unobtrusive. Just one of the engineering details is nice, easily removable, easy to clean filters for each intake fan. I could go on and on, but you can find a number of extensive reviews with large numbers of closeup photos online. Just Google for "ATCS 840 review". All the sites catering to serious builders and overclockers have reviews of this case, simply because it's one of the best to come along in quite a while. The only other brand with build quality to match this case would be Lian Li, and you should see what some of those cost. One last comment: if you're an adult who doesn't want a case that looks like it was designed to appeal to 14 year-olds, you will appreciate the clean elegant style of this case. I can tell you that it looks even better in the flesh than it does in the photos.

THIS IS A GOOD CASE. I HAVE TWO OF THEM.

The good:

It's roomy. It's light. The documentation is good. It is even written in what appears to me to be passably literate English. Be sure to pay attention to the pictures in the manual, especially the one showing how to properly remove the front bezel. They clearly show the proper method and it's easy as can be!

If you're a water cooling fan you can replace the two stock 230mm top fans with three 120mm fans and a 3x120mm radiator without having to modify the case in any way. Very good!

Please note that none of the not so good points below have made me seriously regret purchasing this case (I have purchased more than one BTW). Personally I've never found a perfect case. I pretty much take the good points for granted. I'm good at finding faults though, so here goes in case any of these might bother you.

The not so good:

Both side panels are thin and lack mass so they end up vibrating like drum heads and amplifying otherwise small innocuous internal vibrations (such as from a typical graphics card fan) into big annoying loud noises.

Any sort of dirt or even a minor scuff on the black brushed aluminum case finish shows up badly and can only be properly cleaned off (without making it look even worse) by using a lint free cloth and wiping with the grain.

Both bottom air intakes are blocked when the case is placed on carpeting, but especially the middle bottom air intake (because its filter is on the outside bottom of the case and the case floor is inexplicably molded a little extra far downwards there as well). That could be bad news for your power supply if you mount your power supply on the bottom, it has a bottom fan and you face it downwards.

Placing a fan on the optional middle bottom air intake makes it impossible to remove the filter from the rear bottom air intake without first removing the optional middle air intake.

The forward top fan steals cool air from inside the case and exhausts it prematurely before it has had a chance to cool anything inside the case. Solution is to not hook up the forward top fan.

The two fans in the top of case "beat" against one another like the props in a propeller driven aircraft, causing excess noise that comes and goes in harsh low toned "waves." Solution is to not hook up the forward top fan.

If you don't hook up the forward top fan, then the rear top fan just pulls cool air in from the forward top fan grill rather than exhausting hot air from inside the case. Solution is to cover over the forward top fan grill. Makes one wonder why that forward top fan is even there...

The motherboard tray hole for the 8-pin motherboard power connector is not in the proper position for every LGA1366 (Core I7) motherboard that I've ever seen.

The blue power and hard drive LEDs are blindingly bright. They light up the whole room at night. The blinking of the power LED can become very annoying when the system is in sleep mode at night if it's in your bedroom.

The four front (top) USB ports are placed too close together to permit all four to actually be used at once in any likely real world situation that would cause you to want to use the front ports rather than the rear ports on your motherboard.

Other thoughts:

A somewhat amusing (to me) observation is that front 230mm intake fan seems to expend about as much energy cooling off the solid aluminum front face plate in front of it as it does cooling the 3.5 inch disk drives behind it.

Absolutely beautiful case. I was really glad when I can find something that wasn't a gaudy 12 year old gamer type of case. Cooler master really have outdone themselves by bringing back the classic ATCS aluminum structure. Some people thing that the side panels are flimsy. I think they're fine, though they do not close all the way (about a 2mm gap between the case and the edge of the side panel). Please be advised, as other have said this case is BIG, as expected from a full tower. The cooling is good. Ambient temperatures within the case are kept low, however, users may find that it is not as cool as the HAF cases by the same manufacturers. This is because those cases actively blow air over your hottest components. the ATCS cases have always been about keeping ambient temperatures within the case low so that active cooling by just the components themselves will be sufficient.

I bought 4 extra fans to fill the slots in the case (including the one that is attached in the back) and the case is still very quiet. That doesn't mean the noise is non existent however. There is always a low whisper of air being moved, but I've always found that to be a good thing. means the case is working.

As far as components and modularity, everything installs and comes out easily enough. The motherboard tray is a bleeding godsend. I'm using a cooler master v8 cooler on this computer and it fits inside it with PLENTY of room to spare, about a 2-2.5 inch clearance from the side panel. Large video cards fit in without a problem since the length of the case is generous.

I highly recommend this case for anyone who's grown up and ready to toss out the angry-with-your-dad teenager gaming case and move on to something with a little more class and sophistication. The investment is worth it as this case will easily last 10 years.

OMG! I haven't seen a case as pretty as this one and not only pretty but feels good quality no cheap plastic and also A LOT of room this case is VERY silence and soon turning into liquid cooling and I think I will still have room. Before my motherboard looked huge and cramp up on my old case now it looks like a micro ATX but over all great shipping FAST and everything works perfectly! I will recommended !!!

Everything being already said by other reviewers I just wanted to confirm and agree with the most.

This is the most spacious and the best looking case I have ever owned!

Plenty of room for all your hardware, great air circulation with addition of few aftermarket fans and all aluminium construction for light weight and even better heat spreading.
If you want that next build to be a monster in a beautiful, elegant suit get the ATCS! Nothing else compares!

I have mounted a Corsair Hydro Series H70 High Performance CPU Cooler CWCH70 radiator on the back wall above the MoBo I/O plate with two high flow 40mm wide fans and a eATX Motherboard and there is still space to operate around it! BIG BIG BIG!

This case is HUGE. It is so easy to work in. It keeps my system cool and it's so quiet considering there are fans everywhere. It is a builders dream. It has all sorts of advanced features such as being plumbed for water cooling. It IS worth the cost. It's Big & Brawny but you won't regret it.

MY BUILD:
Cooler Master ATCS 840 Full Tower
ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 X58 DDR3 USB 3.0 SATA 6 Gb/s -Motherboard
Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366 Desktop Processor
24GB Ram, (240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-10600 memory module
Cooler Master Silent Pro M1000 Modular 1000W 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply
Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Hard Drive
LG Electronics 10X Blu-ray SATA Writer Drive with Software
EVGA GeForce GTX470 Superclocked 1280 MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
Avertv HD DVR High Definition / Analog Video Capture Card
HP 2509m 25-Inch Diagonal Full HD LCD Monitor

Excellent case. Has tons of room to add water cooling and all of the biggest components you may have. Allows for excellent cable routing also.

My ATCS 840 arrived without bag of screw required to assemble all the parts, and even 3 out of the 9 stand-off screws needed to mount the motherboard. I contacted customer service through their online support. They responded quickly and is sending me the replacement screws right-away, despite the fact that I got this case from someone else and not a retail/online store without a receipt.

The case is beautiful, side panel is a bit thin and easily bended, so use caution when moving the case around. It is also huge with no handles to grab, so its hard to lift it. I put 4 extra felt feet on the bottom so at least it is much easier to slide it around.

The case's default air flow configuration is with 2 top 230mm fans been exhaust fans blowing air out of the case, this creates serious problems: as the case only have one 230mm intake fan and it is hardly drawing any air into the case because of the way the hard drives are mounted in front of it. So the exhaust fans including the fans on my PSU and graphic card are working really hard to draw air out of the case, but with no success. To test this, simply put your hand in front of any exhaust and you will not feel much air is coming out of there. Open one side of the case and do it again the air would flow strong and freely. The exhaust works so hard that it created some air sucking vibration, because the fans are sucking air from little creeks and holes on the case instead of the front intake fan.

To fix this problem, I flipped the top 2 fans from exhaust to intake, thus crating a positive air flow inside the case. This solved all the previous problem with negative air pressure and made cpu idle temp lowed by almost 7 C. Degree, and graphic card idle temp lowed by as much as 8 C. Degree. Now all the exhaust is blowing the air out of the case as they should. I then proceed to add an air filter for the top fans since they are now blowing air into the case.

Now the case runs cool and quite, I love it.

By the way, the optional air duct is useless and uber ugly.

If you don't want a HUGE case, don't buy this. It doesn't look as big in the pictures, and the dimensions don't seem too bad when you hold a tape measure up, but once you get it, this thing is really a MONSTER. I did some custom mods to it, and it's an awesome case, just would be better if you could get a mid tower size version.

I was really in love with this case at first. I went with it because it had good initial reviews, and was Maximum PC's choice.

After having it for about a year, I have come to despise this case and want an annulment!

First, the one I received had a defective USB jack in the upper flip-up panel. I called Cooler Master support and they said they would send me a replacement module. Guess how long it took to get it. ONE FULL YEAR! That's right folks, it took a YEAR for the replacement part to arrive.

Second, the little clips that hold the front cover over the fan are brittle and break easily. They sent me replacements, but not enough.

Third, the bottom of the case flexes so much the fan in the bottom of the case will warp and start making ticking noises due to interference. I had to jack up one corner of the case to get it square enough so the fan wasn't stressed.

The filters on the lower part of the case are designed extremely poorly as far as access is concerned. I'll just leave it at that.

Now, my biggest gripe. I have nicknamed this case "The Kirby" because of how well it sucks up and retains dirt. It has so many air leaks around the drive bay covers, switches, ports, everywhere that having filters are pretty much useless.

All of this is a shame since once you get inside the case, it's a nice piece.

Next time I'm going with Corsair. Those folks have their act together on all of their products.