Introduction

There are extremes to everything in life, and products are certainly not an exception - especially technology products. Earlier, we looked at one of the ends of the extremes in computer cases with Dynapowers' super-affordable E68 in addition to two more moderately-priced cases in a price-point comparing shootout, but this time, we're going to examine two cases at the other end of the spectrum. Barring solutions such as Zalman's TNN-500A, which attempts to handle all cooling needs for a computer on its own in complete silence, the Tai Chi by Thermaltake and Stacker 830 that we'll be looking at here represent some of the very finest in case design - and have a price to match.

We've looked at products from both of these companies for several years now, and it's apparent that they both know what they're doing. The last several models of Thermaltake's have had exceptional capacity for drives, but don't have quite the same "quality of construction" feel that cases from others like Lian Li tend to have. With their latest, that's all about to change. The Tai Chi sets a new standard for case construction and "modability", and provides the lucky few who can afford such a unit a tremendous wealth of configuration choices including wide support for multiple water cooling loops.

Cooler Master's last several cases, on the other hand, seem to be focused more on the realm of exuberant venting for the sake of cooling performance, and their latest simply takes this idea and stretches it to a new level as we're about to see. The Stacker 830 gets rid of all the difficulties of installing hardware with a vengeance - offering effective tool-less solutions and a multi-part design that are more numerous than what we've ever seen before.

For a quick overview of what each case offers, we've made up a feature chart for the two products:

(TL: Tool-less, TS: Thumbscrews, SS: Standard Screws)

With the obvious features out of the way, let's go ahead and examine the older of the two - the Tai Chi - in more detail.



Thermaltake Tai Chi

Thermaltake knows how to make a good case. This has been shown to be true time and time again both by our site and many others. A subdivision of theirs, Thermalrock, ran away with a gold editor's choice award in our large 8-way comparison for its excellent Eclipse case, and although never published, a close examination of their Armor case also bore out this claim as it is a fine unit capable of just about anything that one could ever want in a computer case. So, how does one improve upon cases as nice as the Armor and Eclipse, exactly? Well for starters, you don't remove any of the features that made the predecessors so popular.

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Like the armor, the most prominent feature of the Tai Chi is the staggering number of externally available 5¼” drive bays – 11 to be exact. While there is one bay that's already assumed used for the 3½” drive/ power+reset buttons/LED indicators unit, it's still technically optional, as is the accessory tray and hard drive cage. Even with all three of these units in place, however, the Tai Chi could hold any of the following possible configurations: an additional six 5¼” drives; three 5¼” drives and an additional three hard drives; or two more hard drive cages for a total of nine hard drives. The storage options alone will be reason enough for some people to jump right on this unit. With this much capacity comes a price – and that price is size. The Tai Chi is massive.

Getting past the amazing drive capacity and size is just the beginning, however; the Thermaltake flagship case doesn't look like a giant radiator for nothing. Solid 1/8” think aluminum panels lining both sides absorb much of the computer's excess heat and passively vent it to the surrounding air.

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The right side of the case, being almost entirely void of anything interesting, is even more monolithic in appearance than the left. To break up the monotony and give the case its own flair, Thermaltake uses two overlapping flaps to conceal the front drives.

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The inner flap is anodized black, and when partially covered by the silver flap, helps to spice up the otherwise all-silver look and give the case a very stylish curved theme when viewed from the front. Besides simply looking cool, these over-sized half-doors should provide some decent protection considering their thickness, something that we questioned with the Armor's “flaps”. In addition to beefy door panels, the Tai Chi comes with two solid aluminum handles to help move the beast around, which are not even really optional anymore on a case this size. Nonetheless, they are a well-executed addition, and are completely removable if desired.

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Here, we can take a closer look at the actual finish of the Tai Chi and the layout of the top of the unit. Notice how the paint job actually leaves the aluminum with a metallic speckled look. The pictures don't even really do it justice, as it almost comes across as a brilliant platinum more so than a normal silver anodization. The port cluster for the Tai Chi is on top, and unfortunately, it places all the ports very close to each other, but that's starting to become less and less of a problem as USB devices continue to shrink. With the USB, FireWire, and audio jacks so far back on the top of the unit, Thermaltake was locking themselves into users placing this case on the ground, but with a case this large, we don't think that many users would object to this restraint – this case would simply look out of place on top of most desks.

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The left side of the Tai Chi is all business. Massive holes open the warmest area of the interior completely to the outside, while large aluminum fins do the rest of the work in terms of whisking away heat from the computer. The various visible screws are what hold the three individual panels in place, but can be taken out if work needs to be done on any panel.



Thermaltake Tai Chi (cont’d)

An inch and a half long extended thumbscrews hold each part of the hinged door at the top and bottom, and since it's a double-hinge design on the left side, a total of four thumbscrews can be used – however, the front flap overlaps the main door and thus a single screw on the front panel at the top or bottom is the minimum needed to hold the side shut.

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Moving further backwards, we can take a close look at the rear handle and rear backing plate. The thickness of the aluminum panels is very evident in this picture, as is the fact that the case can be completely separated into component parts and screws.

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At first, this feature might seem rather unimportant, but the more that one thinks about it, the more obvious it is that to the enthusiast and even casual modder, this component nature is exceptionally valuable. For instance, the default ports visible in the back plate here for water cooling are 3/8” in diameter, which is fine for 3/8” O/D water tubing. However, 3/8” ID (inner diameter) tubing is pretty popular too, and without the ability to remove this plate from the rest of the case precisely enlarging these holes to the proper size would be much more difficult.

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The over-sized rounded edges on the back resemble the look of the corners at the front of the case, but more importantly, they simply provide protection from the rest of the back of the computer and the rear-most fins of the side panels. Notice also how the rear of the case and the back of the motherboard area are completely separate, so that with a different motherboard standard such as BTX, all one needs to do is replace this back plate.

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Turning the case on its side to inspect the bottom reveals that just as much attention to detail has been paid to it as the rest of the case. First off, notice that the heavy-duty casters are removable, should one decide they really would have the case take up less vertical space or simply have replacements that they'd rather use instead. When raised, however, the case benefits from the additional airflow capabilities of the hole in the front area and large perforated steel section. With the default casters left in place, a standard 120mm case fan can actually mount directly to this mesh from the bottom and still have enough clearance underneath it to function well.

Before opening the case, we really felt that this case deserved an extreme close-up to show off the immaculate finish and heavy thickness of the aluminum used.

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The Tai Chi is really almost an entirely new kind of case, and the construction and sheer quality of materials used are some of the easiest ways to really see what we mean by this. In this photo, notice for instance how nice the contrast between the brushed finish of the front doors and the brilliant finish of the rest of the case look. Aesthetically, there simply isn't any other case to which to compare the Tai Chi – its marriage of passive radiation with other functionality-driven design choices gives it a unique, stately, and downright intimidating style that really requires seeing it in person to appreciate.



Thermaltake Tai Chi (cont’d)

To keep the case as tool-less as possible, Thermaltake simply chose to use thumbscrews to secure drives into the 5¼” bays. While this requires opening the right side of the chassis, there are a couple reasons why this isn't as much of a problem with the Tai Chi as it is with most cases.

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First, this area of the case can open entirely on its own as shown in the picture above, which we found that it actually makes for an excellent place to hide additional cables, ensuring tidiness in the rest of the PC. More importantly, however, the Tai Chi's free-turning casters make turning the case a cinch, so access isn't as big of a deal. Two of the same large extended thumbscrews mentioned previously are used to hold this latch secure when closed.

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The left side of the case is where the real attraction on the Tai Chi comes though. Here, a hydraulic arm is used to actively swing the oversized access door open, which simply consists of two of the solid passive vent-lined panels connected with the black solid aluminum bars visible in the above picture. The third panel on the left side opens as well, mirroring the panel on the right side that was just discussed.

This active opening mechanism has its own benefits and drawbacks; in using the case, the main advantage to this approach that we've found is that it stays fully open when working inside. Besides that, and the “wow factor“ of showing off the case, there's not much of a reason to incorporate the arm; especially if lots of equipment are installed to the inside of the door, a forceful opening might not be what the user desires. However, if preferred, the entire hydraulic assembly can be removed without hurting any other functionality.

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The front of the case is exceptionally accessible, thanks to this dual-door design. Notice how there's another area here between the forward door and the drive bays (about one full inch in width) that could be used for any number of things. This picture is also a decent shot of the bottom mesh and motherboard tray, and also gives one an idea of how neatly they can route the cables from the top-mounted external ports, considering their plentiful length.

Focusing on the inside rear of the case, we find one of the only two main active cooling components, a Thermaltake 120mm blue LED fan. These fans move plenty of air without making enough noise to even really notice that they're on, especially if controlled to use slightly less voltage than the standard 12v.

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The punch outs for 3/8” OD water tubing are also visible, as are the same tool-less expansion card locking mechanisms found on the Eclipse, which was recently reviewed by AnandTech. One frustration with this particular scheme is that they can be very difficult to unclip with certain cards. A SoundBlaster Audigy for instance made it darn-near impossible to unclip the green part in our test system due to a bolt on the card as seen here.

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We'd prefer here if Thermaltake had simply opted for large thumbscrews like what other manufacturers are doing for the expansion cards. Take comfort though that this is pretty much the only complaint that we have with the Tai Chi after working with it for several days.

The spaces between the PSU area, crossbar, and motherboard assembly are all generous and, combined with the wide-opening dual doors, make working in the case a real pleasure. One last point of interest in this picture is the slots in the motherboard tray near the rear – they're not just at the bottom, indicating yet again that the case is truly designed and ready for BTX motherboards.

Moving on here, two of the included removable parts are a three-drive hard disk cage with fan, and an accessory tray that fills one of the 5¼“ bays. This picture also shows the magnets that hold the doors closed and part of the venting holes in the black part of the front door. Thankfully, the tray IS big enough to hold standard CDs, but only if they're in paper sleeves or bare. It's also very useful for extra thumbscrews and such.



Thermaltake Tai Chi (cont’d)

The Tai Chi doesn't really do anything too out-of-the-ordinary when it comes to its components, and, in fact, is very similar to the hugely popular Armor and Kandalf cases released previously. For instance, the hard drive cage with attached 120mm blue LED fan is identical; however, this means that it inherits the not-so-appealing trait of requiring either a magnetic screwdriver or simply a little patience to secure drives in the cage with standard bolts.

After putting in the hard drive and fixing the cage in place in any three adjacent empty bays, the power supply area deserves our focus next. Unfortunately, the Antec supply pictured here was defective and couldn't be used for the actual testing. It is, however, in all the pictures of our assembly in the Tai Chi, and it is a standard size, so for getting a sense of the Tai Chi's PSU compartment, it is perfect.

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Notice how the vents shown earlier are now obviously positioned smartly, directly above the PSU with a little space for extra heat to find its way out the holes. Another couple of nice features about this area are that even large supplies can be slid into place without removing the crossbar or anything else, and the supporting pieces on both sides are thick and sturdily attached.

Moving downwards, we find the Tai Chi's motherboard tray. This concept is simple, but the Tai Chi executes it slightly differently than previous incarnations, with it only being the plate itself instead of the plate plus back of the case. This is what allows the change from an ATX to a BTX style to be relatively simple – only the rear needs to change.

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Besides being able to handle just about any motherboard form factor besides extended ATX, this black plate is thick and strong – the same 1/8” thickness as the rest of the metal in the case.

The overlapping construction and design choice to put the handle right at the join of the plates makes for a very solid feel to sliding the assembled motherboard + tray assembly into place.

After putting the motherboard on the tray, putting it over the standoffs, and sliding it towards the back, two screws (one at the top and one at the bottom) are used to keep the tray from sliding forward.

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With the ample space inside of the Tai Chi and the wide-opening door, putting this tray in place is quite simple, even after installing the hard drive cage. Another nice feature of the layout of the case is that if not all the drive bays are needed, a water cooling pump and even radiator can be placed on the bottom mesh/drive bay area. The options for setting up lots of additional components in the case are quite numerous.



Thermaltake Tai Chi (cont’d)

After putting in the video card and securing it with the green plastic clips and connecting the cables, our install was complete.

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For an even better idea of what an installed system looks like in an open'Tai Chi, we stepped back a few feet and took another straight-on picture. Notice the clean, open areas – it's not a window, but opening the Tai Chi (read: letting the case open itself) sure is a neat way to show off its internals.

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With the unit closed and the hard drive cage in a lower position, a soft blue glow emanates from behind the black door's mesh.

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The rear 120mm fan makes a much stronger impression, glowing through the large open vents on the side and fan grill on the back.

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Cooler Master Stacker 830

Cooler Master's first Stacker received huge praise from the community for an abundance of space and a wealth of options in terms of how to place components inside the case. The 830 continues these traits, but extends them with a more stylish design and additional options aimed at making this a truly enthusiast-friendly case.

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While the Tai Chi is one of most massive cases that we've worked with lately, the Stacker 830 puts up a good fight. The case is extremely deep, with a total front-to-back measurement of 25½”. This is 4” longer than the Tai Chi – however, with the casters, the Thermaltake case is two feet tall - 3” taller than the Cooler Master. With the same relative size, but a significant difference in the two main dimensions, users will have to take care in selecting a unit that will fit where they intend to put their computer. Neither unit is that well suited for being on a desk, but with the flared feet, the Stacker might not look too bad.

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In this shot of the front, most of the various materials that make up the case are visible. Brushed aluminum is the predominant finish, but black painted steel, gray plastic, and a slightly darker gray plastic (now black plastic on many units) are all present as well. The front mounted ports are at the top, but face forward, and unlike the X1 reviewed last month, they don't get covered up when the door is closed. The recessed area above that is actually the front handle, and slightly in front of that is where the power button is located.

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The front-and-center Cooler Master logo is very nicely made - it was difficult to capture the real look of it, but this close up does a pretty good job. Overall, the fit and finish of the 830 is fantastic just like the logo. This is a stately case for the serious enthusiast just like the Tai Chi, but the approach to get to this feeling is pretty different.

The main design aspect that sets the cases apart is how complex the styling is. Where the Tai Chi is very monolithic, the new Stacker has quite a few intricacies and a whole lot of functionality. When the main door is open, some of this complexity is revealed.

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Like the Tai Chi and other similar cases, the 830 has many external 5¼” bays accessible externally, but only nine as opposed to the Tai Chi's eleven. Another difference is that the covers are vented in this case, and each one has a second filter behind the metal grill as well. The covers hold themselves in place very loosely, but aluminum flaps span the height of the case to provide additional holding power.

This next shot turned out much better as a collage of three separate pictures, and serves to show how these flaps and the front ports look up close.

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In this shot, we've opened the main door and left flap too, and towards the far right, the spring-loaded latch that keeps the door on its hinges is visible as well. Notice the ample spacing between ports and intricate molding of the plastic. Overall, this is one of the most unique port clusters that we've seen yet in terms of visual appeal, and although it might not appeal to everyone, its functional design is hard to criticize.

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Viewed from a more perpendicular angle, the layout of the top panel is easier to get a sense of. Two more USB 2.0 ports, the de-emphasized reset switch, and HDD activity LED are present along with the blue backlit power button. Cooler Master's choice to label these elements is certainly an issue of taste, but at least the font that they used is futuristic and consistent with the theme of the case.



Cooler Master Stacker 830 (cont’d)

If the Tai Chi's approach to serious cooling is extreme conduction and convection, the new Stacker's approach is extreme venting and support for fans. In total, the 830 can hold 9 (yes, nine) 120mm fans. Four fit in the side panel (more on that later), three in the front attached to hard drive cages like the Tai Chi, one on top, and one in the rear. Now, we'll take a step back and examine the case from above at a further distance.

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The top mounted vent on the 830 is passive by default (yet wasn’t in the system shipped to us), but a 120mm fan can be placed here if one desired. Something that pops out better in this picture than others is the handle configuration, which isn't as prominent as it is on the Tai Chi, but it is still just as useful and comfortable. Also in this shot, the holders for the four 120mm fans in the side are quite visible through the black mesh metal on the side.

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Looking at the back of the case, we get an even better idea just how configurable this case is going to be. The first clue is that the side panels are very easy to remove – a clearly labeled black plastic tab on the top is all that keeps them from sliding back and detaching. Right next to these tabs are screws, which hold the plate that attaches to the PSU in place. While still slick, we prefer being able to slide a PSU in from the side of a case as it's slightly faster and easier, although modular power supplies are making this less of an issue. One of the three included 120mm fans is visible in this picture as well, exhausting the bulk of the warm air directly out the back.

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With the left side panel off, much more of the Stacker 830 finally makes sense. The main feature, the 4x120mm fan array, is clear plastic and can swing out and be removed completely if desired. Only one fan is included in the panel, and it's identical to the fan in the back. It's also easier to notice that it's pretty much impossible to fit a power supply in from the side or underneath – it will have to fit through the back area.

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Leaving the interesting left side for a bit, we should note that the right side is, for the most part, identical – but without the fan array, it looks pretty drab through the black grill and we'd caution users against exposing the right side of this case more so than the left considering how transparent the venting holes make the panel.

To keep the Stacker 830 tool-less, it uses removable plastic and steel locks, which slide pins into the respective 5¼” drives. They work well enough, but we prefer Thermaltake's more elegant thumbscrew solution, for aesthetic reasons. Screws could always be used here too, of course, but Cooler Master doesn't provide the same large thumbscrews Thermaltake does with the case.

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One might notice that it could be a little harder to work inside the Stacker than most cases with the side fan cage in the way, but as noted above, it is a cinch to remove.



Cooler Master Stacker 830 (cont’d)

Cooler Master made the side fan cage's implementation nearly perfect, which really makes it one of the nicest aspects of the entire case.

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Two clips, just like the one pictured above, hold the door shut at the front when it's in its hinges. They're simple, effective, and since they are built like small springs, they help to absorb any extra vibrations, which helps minimize noise.

At the back on the top and bottom, the door is suspended between two springs.

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These spring-loaded stubs keep the door aligned perfectly for swinging, but release to make its entire removal easily possible. It really is a great feature and goes a long way to make the case a delight in which to work.

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Along with the side panels and fan cage, the motherboard tray can be taken out as well, but unlike the Tai Chi, the Stacker's tray includes the rear and comes out the back. The black clips halfway down the left side and at the top and bottom on the right side in this picture are what lock the tray in place; once unlocked, the tray slides along plastic rails, which brings us to our next picture.

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After only a few cycles of removing the tray and putting it back in, we noticed that plastic shavings were accumulating at the bottom of the case. While certainly it won't affect the case in any huge manner, it does mean that eventually the fit of the tray to the rest of the case might not be as snug as it is initially.

With the tray out, the 830 is amazingly open. In this shot from the rear, we can barely see the third and final included 120mm fan at the front of the hard drive cage. Also take note that there is almost perfect symmetry to the new Stacker – even the rails for the motherboard tray are on both sides. More on that to come.

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Cooler Master Stacker 830 (cont’d)

Speaking of the hard drive cage, here is the 830's with a side plate removed to expose the rubber shock-mounts.

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All in the all, this hard drive cage is superior to the Tai Chi's in almost every way. It can hold four drives as opposed to the Thermaltake's three, it has rubber mounts to minimize transferred vibrations, and it is not as difficult to get screws into the drives with this cage.

The fan on the drive cage is quite different cosmetically from the other two fans included with the case, but it can be used interchangeably with them.

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Once the drive(s) are in the cage, the assembly can be secured in the case, which is easy if a single black plastic clip is on each side already in the bottom position.

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Here are the black clips in more detail. The outside has a plastic stub to grip, which when moved towards the lock position, it forces the metal prongs outward.

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The larger plastic tabs at the bottom of the clip serve to align drives properly in a vertical fashion, which helps in some ways, but is not completely needed either.

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To accommodate a floppy drive or fifth hard drive, a 5¼” to 3½” adapter set is included, as well as a front bezel piece with a 3½” sized opening.

Cooler Master Stacker 830 (cont’d)

The last aspect of the 830 that needs to be addressed is its ability to morph into a BTX compatible system. In showing how this is possible, we'll also highlight some of the other fine details of this complex case. It all basically comes down to a very well designed motherboard tray. Notice how thumbscrews are used instead of problematic plastic clips to hold expansion cards down.

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Since the main difference between ATX and BTX systems is the orientation of the expansion cards in relation to the I/O ports, those two components of the rear plate of the motherboard tray are separate, and can be put back into the tray reversed.

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After removing a total of six screws, the two panes of the back hinged right off. Once off, they can be attached to each other in reverse – exactly how BTX motherboards are laid out.

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After assembling the motherboard tray in its reversed configuration, the tray is slid into the opposite set of rails in the case. Next comes the fan juggling.

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The fans, fan cages, and fan grills are all interchangeable on the Stacker 830. The unit on the far left is a fan in its cage, the unit in the center adds the grill, and the unit on the right is simply an empty cage with grill. Each of these are needed in various places, but generally, the unit on the far left goes at the rear or top of the case, the unit in the center goes at the front if one wants additional air to be brought in at the front, and the unit at the far right is a passive vent that fits in front of the BTX duct.

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In this shot for instance, three of the standard bay place-holders have been removed in favor of the single cage and cover unit. In the bays themselves, one may install the BTX duct to direct air appropriately in terms of the BTX specification.

Without the extra adapter, the duct could still be utilized to simply channel air at a particular height of the case, but putting the extra adapter on is a piece of cake.

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Lastly, here are a couple of shots of the lighting of the case. In a completely dark room, a well-loaded 830 can put on quite a show.

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And the aforementioned power button:

Benchmark Comparisons

To get as meaningful a comparison as possible between the two cases, we installed the same set of hardware into each one; our new standard ATX test bed. Each system used the default fan configuration that was in the case. Note that our Stacker 830 came with four fans total, but now the product is being released with only the front, rear, and side fan – the top one would have to be added to achieve similar results.

ATX Test Bed
DFI LanParty UT 915P-T12 Pentium 4 530 Prescott 3.0ghz OCZ 512MB DDR2 x 2 Thermaltake Golden Orb II Seagate 120gb SATA Hard Drive Chaintech GeForce 6600GT MSI DVD-CD/R/RW Combo drive MadDog MD-600SCPS PSU

These cases both tout themselves as being the best of the best in terms of thermal capabilities. So, how do they perform? Here's a culmination of the results of averaging the temperatures read over a period of half an hour of various components both at idle and load in our ATX test bed.

To call these two cases' performances a virtual tie is an understatement. They both do an excellent job at keeping temperatures to their absolute minimum. In fact, most of these numbers are all-time lows for our new hardware, suggesting that they simply aren't going to get any lower unless different heat sinks are used on the components themselves. The only differences that might be worth noting are that generally, the Stacker is doing a better job at keeping the motherboard components cooler (which isn't a surprise, considering the direct side fan) and the Thermaltake is exhausting warmer air out of the PSU, which also doesn't come as a surprise, considering its lack of a top-mounted fan. The Tai Chi is also cooling our SATA hard drive slightly better, which hints at the fact that the Thermaltake fans might simply be pushing more air, since otherwise the design of the cages is practically identical.

As for speculation of performance when these cases are loaded up with additional fans, one could safely expect the temperatures in both cases to scale similarly when adding side fans. The difference here to consider is that the Stacker can hold four 120mm fans, while the Tai Chi can only fit two. Even without a fan in the side at all, the Tai Chi nearly ties the 830 in the motherboard temperature arena, suggesting that it really is doing a better job at passively dissipating heat. This is a testament to the radiator-style design of the side panels, reassuring us that it isn't just a gimmick.

With the finding that the Tai Chi cools just as well as the Stacker 830 with half as many fans, one has to wonder if that means that the Thermaltake fans are making substantially more noise. To see if that's the case, we used our sound pressure level (SPL) meter and rated the system's noise subjectively on a scale from 1 to 10.

Surprisingly, the Tai Chi didn't register any louder than the Stacker 830 on our meter, which must be due to the Stacker's greater total number of fans. However, we did notice the sound of moving air ever-so-slightly more with the Tai Chi, but to be fair, both cases fall under the category of “extremely quiet”. With a simple fan controller and the right components, one could easily build a very, very, quiet computer inside either of these cases, and with watercooling and the right radiators, a fanless system would be entirely feasible.



Final Words

Now that we've compared these heavyweights in gory detail, it's time to decide a winner, right? Well, the tough part is that both cases are simply amazing, yet still have a couple of quirks. For starters, these were two of the easiest units that we've ever worked in, yet each one had small annoyances in this arena. The Tai Chi's automatic door is sweet, but turning four thumbscrews each time you want to open it up is not. Sure, one could leave only one screw in, but that's not really the ideal solution. Then there's the Stacker 830's great motherboard tray that eats itself away in normal usage. Again, a simple solution exists – perhaps one could just sand the sharp edges that sit at the entrance to these rails, but is that a perfect solution either?

Minor annoyances aside, these cases both cool amazingly well, offer loads of expansion, and look good to boot. What then are you gaining by spending the premium for the more expensive Tai Chi? First off, casters. On cases this large, it's amazing how much of a difference this simple addition makes. Also, the configurability of the 830 is awesome, but the myriad of various pieces and thinner aluminum construction left us questioning the unit's sturdiness over extended use. The Tai Chi leaves one feeling confident in taking a computer in it anywhere – it's really built like a tank. This, of course, makes the Tai Chi heavier as well, but who are we kidding - neither of these is remotely near “ultra portable” status.

When it comes right down to it, these are both units that an extreme enthusiast with funds aplenty will want to consider seriously for their next mega-rig. We see there being just a few key factors that will sway a potential buyer in the appropriate direction. In no particular order, here's a list of factors, an opinion of what case does a better job in each category, and the degree to which that case beats the competitor. (In order from most to least severe: Extreme, Substantial, Somewhat, Minor).

The only extreme victory is due to the Tai Chi's use of bolts to attach everything, which is practically a first in the industry and makes it a modder's delight. Its plastic retention clips, which we found problematic with an Audigy 2 – a very popular PCI card indeed – aren't going to be an issue for plenty of people, so we'll forgive Thermaltake for this one small mistake, considering that everything else about the Tai Chi is fantastic. The ability to hold various (even multiple) water cooling pumps and radiators, and the inclusion of 3/8” holes, 1/8” thick aluminum paneling throughout, huge ability for holding drives, and passive radiative design are all strengths of the Tai Chi, and in our opinion, nearly justify its exorbitant price tag (~$320!).

The 830's pros are its ease-of-use and configurability options out-of-the-box (to get BTX support with the Tai Chi, one has to buy the appropriate rear plate separately). For roughly $70 or so less (~$250), the Stacker 830 gets a strong nod of approval from us for value, which along with the fantastic performance and great ease-of-use also almost justifies its relatively high price too.

We want to extend our congratulations to both companies for pushing the envelope in case design – desktop computer cases simply don't get much better than this, and if these designs are any indications of things to come in this industry, the case and cooling world is in for a treat.