The 2000 over the 1000 may be viable as it's much more roomy. If you are going to watercool your case you'll probably be alright with the 2000. I've seen some pics of watercooled PC-V1000's and they all looked cramped as hell. My biggest gripe since I'm not using H20 was airflow which kind of sucks in the 1000 because the first thing the intake passes over is a bunch of HD's then where does that air go from there? I really LOVE the layout of the Lian-Li PC-V1000 and 2000 but question the air flow as I had tons of heat issues with the 1000. The Lian-Li's above both should have a top blow hole. I'm sure this would have solved my issues but I saw the 830 and couldn't resist.
I built my Stacker CM 830 Last night and took some pics, brought the CF card to work with me and forgot a reader DOH! So I'll post some initial thoughts and experiences here until I can get the pics up.
The Good:
Hot Looks. This is probably the most visually pleasing case I've ever looked at IMHO.
Airflow is Insane! (The reason I bought it.) 120mm Top exaust, 4 possible 120mm side fans (or 2 120mm and a crossflow fan), 120mm rear exaust, up to 3 front 120mm intake fans, the front intake fans are attached to the 4in1 drive module so you'd need to have 2 more for 3 intake fans which IMHO would be overkill.) Also to note even with my top, rear and crossflow fan.. the system was fairly quiet. 120mm fans are pretty quiet though anyhow. After playing WoW for about 4 hours I touched the case and it was still cool to the touch and my Opty 165 was running at 2.7 and I could even leave my fingers on the GPU NV5 Silencers on both boards. I could not do that before. I'm not going to start posting temperatures as I know for sure this case is doing a "far" better job at keeping my system workable.
Completely reversable. If you like the cases like the one I am getting rid of that open from the right side where the CPU is towards the bottom BTX style you can do that just by taking the motherboard tray out and putting it back in on the other side. Everything on this case is a mirror of itself (which also is a weakness described below.)
Plenty of room. Nothing hangs over the motherboard at all. It can accomodate a PC Power & Cooling 1000W SLI PSU very easily (if you were inclined to buy one )
Completely tooless. The 5 1/4" drive locks worked as advertised. The front 5 1/4" faceplates were real easy to remove once I discovered the to little thin doors (very clever) that run the length of the whole front along side of each faceplate. All you do is open them and there are two easily pryable clips to remove the faceplate.
Interfaces: Lots of external ports and well placed. 4 USB (2 top, 2 front at top), 1 FW on top and 2 audio (I won't be using as I got the Platinum X-Fi breakout box installed.)
Extras: I can't mention them all but there are alot of extras included such as extra faceplates, extra 5 1/4" drive locks, a floppy faceplate, a couple 3 1/2" drive kits and a BTX kit.
Ease to work with... The easiest case I've ever built a PC with.
The Bad:
As seen in other reviews I had a damaged piece of plastic that made one of the magnets fall out of the front door. I didn't notice this until I wanted to reverse the hinges. Luckily one of the other parts could be used to do this and I could get the magnet back in place. (More on this when I can post pics.)
The cable management really kind of sucks due to the fact the case is a mirror image of itself CM couldn't build anything in for cable management. You really have to be creative on the cable management. I haven't taken the time to do this yet.
It's a heavy ass case if you care about that.
The non-aluminum parts on the bezel really have a less than stellar paint job... lots of lil dull spots in the paint surface. I first thought some cleaning would fix but it's just a bad paint job or perhaps no clear coat was used (not my expertise.)
Contrary to the reviews the side panels are NOT easy to put back on. I had to try a few times each time.... I feel that the machining is so exact that it may take a few times to wear the joints so it is easier.
Due to the curvyness of the case it's really not that easily modable. Also the idea of watercooling is probably not that valid with this one if you planned on hanging an external radiator. If you're planning to watercool the Thai Chi is a better choice.
EDIT:
One more nasty is even using the supplied standoffs I had difficulty getting the cards to seat all the way. They seated fine towards the inside but not by the end where you fasten it in. I've only encountered this in some cheaper cases.
Final Thoughts:
I love this case and it exeeded my expectations for airflow and just looking damn cool. It's big and bulky so make sure you got the room for it as it's real deep. With everything installed it feels like your carrying a 19" CRT. Funny... I just got a Dell 2405 and don't have to tote my 21" CRT anymore but now I have a enormous case to tote to LAN parties..... OH WELL! Do I think it's really worth the $250+ for it..... not really..... more in the $175 range would be much more realistic. The Lian-Li cases really are higher quality. I think the bill comes from the R&D that went into it as it does have a lot of innovative features. If you plan on air cooling and overclocking and want a lot of room to grow as well as a badass looking case look no further! I'm going to contradict myself in another thread and say that if you are planning on watercooling go with a flatter edged conventional roomy case. You can do watercooling no prob with this one but it's kind of an oxymoron with all the air-cooling built into it. Lastly I really wish the power button wasn't right on top and lit up all blue as my 2 year old loves to turn off my pc on me now!