I did have a little trouble with the top fan clearly coming into contact with something, but after having left it running for a while it stopped before I had chance to properly investigate. No idea about the PSU issues; the PSU fan in this build is face down and I've had no trouble at all.

Cool, thanks.

Got any pics yet?

Apologies for the lighting, my room is pretty crap for that. The USB cables haven't been put in down at the bottom of the motherboard yet, but the rest of the build is in, inc 5 HDDs.

That looks nice in there

Is that graphics card full length? In your opinion, does having 5 hdds obscure the airflow from the intake (in a problematic way)?

I meant to do pictures of my new case - Coolermaster ATCS 840 - but its happily under my desk now - might do some at Christmas.

Good points:-

1) Its huge - no problems fitting a dual gpu or a watercooling kit inside
2) 6 hard drive bays which are a 30 sec job to install a new hard drive - just click it into the caddy and slot into place.
3) Has 3 x 20cm fans - 1 on front and 2 in roof but very quiet and seems to keep cpu around 36 at idle (i7 950)
4) Lots of places to hide the cables around the back of the motherboard
5) Removable motherboard tray which glides out nicely on lots small ball bearings.
6) Not too heavy.

Bad points:-

1) No wheels - for an expensive case it would have been nice to have some - the feet sit rather too low to the ground for my liking to help suck-up the dust from the carpet into the vents on the base of the case - in the end I have built a little "trolley" with wheels which the case sits on - makes it dead easy to wheel out to work on.

2) Coolermaster logo on front of case too big - looks tacky.


Would I buy one again - absolutely although somewhat pricey - around £170.

13kg is not too heavy?!

Aside from that, sounds good. However, if the Fortress is £40 less and as good as it looks....

My Cosmos is hovering around the 20kg mark now, and I don't find it overly heavy tbh. At least you know it's going to be solid.

Wanted to revisit this as I will be looking to build in the next fortnight or so. Just moved into a new flat and I need a machine to serve as a HTPC (not bothered about specific features/cases) and also game at 1920x1080. Funnily enough the 840 has been in my thoughts a lot. I like the space and the quietness but it has perhaps a little large for the lounge. Anything else to consider? At the moment the shortlist seems to be 840, FT01, and Lian-Li PC-P50B. The Lian-Li is short on drive bays but, well, it's Lian-Li! Haven't heard that much about it's quietness though, which is important to me.

Also, Jon, is that a Noctua product in your Fortress?

Yeah, that's a Noctua fan on the Thermalright.