Castors

Imy · 20 Jul 2006 at 15:06

I'm planning on getting a full tower case. Most are heavy and most don't come with castors. Was wondering how difficult it is to fit my own. Will it require drilling?

h2ocooler · 20 Jul 2006 at 15:52

It would be easy to fit casters to most cases but it will require drilling unless you are very lucky that the case has holes and these holes line up with the mounts for the castors, make it the first thing done when you get your case BEFORE ANYTHING goes in it and make sure ALL the swarf is removed. You will need to get nuts and bolts as well as the metal will be too thin to either tap or use self tapping screws on, they would hold for a while but will come loose.

Why not just get a case like a CM Stacker that has them already!

Imy · 20 Jul 2006 at 16:59

Think I might. Can't believe there aren't very many full towers that come with castors. Do all versions of the stacker come with castors or just the original dual-psu version?

Yewen · 20 Jul 2006 at 18:31

Original.

Most of the Lian Li cases can just fit cases, pop off the standard feet and replace with some hardware store basic castors. About £8 in total to do a PC7+, the larger Lian Li's wont be any worse to do.

What case you looking at getting?

Imy · 20 Jul 2006 at 20:42

I've looked at every full tower I can find. There's always something I don't like about each one

I don't want to drill etc so I can't rely on a case maybe being able to fit castors straight off the shelf - I would need to know for sure beforehand.

If the case was light then could live without castors.

Yewen · 20 Jul 2006 at 20:59

Well if you can say what tower it is, I can say if it would work if I know!

Imy · 20 Jul 2006 at 22:00

Well my short list is:

- Thermaltake Armour/Kandalf (Neither have castors)
- Coolermaster Stacker 830/810/STC-T01 (only the STC-101 has castors)
- Lian-Li PC V2000B PLUS Black (already has castors)

Yewen · 20 Jul 2006 at 22:22

Take the Kandalf and the Stacker 830 of the list, other cases listed are much better.

Well, worst case scenario is you drill 4 holes, but most case feet are already attached with a screw, so you should be able to replace it with a castor quite easily.

Why do you need a full tower anyway, most people who have them do not need them?

Imy · 20 Jul 2006 at 22:57

Like I said, drilling isn't an option. Last time I drilled something, I needed to learn plastering right after

Need to fit 9-10 hard disks, 1 dvd-rw, 1 raid controller lcd display and preferably a fan controller and dvd drive also.

Yewen · 20 Jul 2006 at 22:59

Easier to put the PC on a trolley then, a rig with that much kit in should not be moved about that much.

Messiah Khan · 20 Jul 2006 at 23:00

Lian-Li PC V2000B PLUS Black is a very good choice then.

Imy · 20 Jul 2006 at 23:19

Main dislike with the Lian Li is I won't be able to have front-access hotswap bays as there aren't enough bays. Would be a shame not to take advantage of such a feature.

Have looked at pc trolleys. They look a bit tacky don't you think?

Yewen · 20 Jul 2006 at 23:30

Yes but you have very very very hard to meet requirements.

Main dislike with the Lian Li is I won't be able to have front-access hotswap bays as there aren't enough bays. Would be a shame not to take advantage of such a feature.

What you mean? Lost you on that one.

Imy · 20 Jul 2006 at 23:39

Sorry I know I haven't explained the entire spec.

My original intention was to use sata backplanes to allow hotswap of hdds from the front of the case. I can't do that with the Lian-Li as there aren't enough 5.25" drive bays to do it with. The other cases I've mentioned all have 9 or more 5.25" external drive bays. Then again they all got their issues too.

Messiah Khan · 21 Jul 2006 at 08:41

Your looking at a rackmount server then, with a cabinet that has castors. Your not going to find a full tower with all the requirement your looking for tbh.

Imy · 21 Jul 2006 at 09:20

No way am I'm putting a rack in my home-office! There's barely enough floor space for a full tower case.

At the moment then the hot favourite is the Coolermaster Stacker STC-101 with its 11 5.25" drive bays and castors too.

If I decide against sata backplanes then I'll get the Lian-Li.

Yewen · 21 Jul 2006 at 13:07

The stacker is not hot swappable. :confused:

Ive lost completely what you want to do.

The Lian Li can change HDD's faster than the Stackers can.... :confused:

Imy · 21 Jul 2006 at 13:19

Oh its not hot-swappable by default. I wasn't expecting to find a consumer case that was. I was planning to use sata backplanes such as the one below to make the drives hot-swappable (hence the need for lots of 5.25" drive bays).

okimanoob · 21 Jul 2006 at 13:21

Imy said:
Need to fit 9-10 hard disks, 1 dvd-rw, 1 raid controller lcd display and preferably a fan controller and dvd drive also.

How is the v2000v2100 not big enough ?
It can take up to 12 HDD's in the two racks in lower compartment and has
7 * 5.25" bays.
If you only have 1 x dvd-rw, dvd-rom, raid controller/lcd display + fan controller that still leaves you with 3 bays left ?
:confused:

Yewen · 21 Jul 2006 at 13:23

Imy said:
Oh its not hot-swappable by default. I wasn't expecting to find a consumer case that was. I was planning to use sata backplanes such as the one below to make the drives hot-swappable (hence the need for lots of 5.25" drive bays).

Why do you need that on a home rig? Is it really necissary that you can't turn the PC of for 10 minutes for maintainance?