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| Date Reviewed: 10/11/2007 |
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Strengths: Cooling Cooling Cooling, there name isnt Cooler Master for no reason!
Weaknesses: Heavy, case is all steel. Alone it is about 20 lb's and with all the components inside it tops the scales around 40 lb's.
Summary: I bought this case for the great value ($40 after rebate at zzf). Also I bought it as it was one of the few cases that came with 3 120mm fans. It also had room for 4 more fans but I only added the one fan behind the motherboard for now. Also this case is great to use with the geminiII cpu cooler (big cooler that many places have for cheap).
Overall I cant complain about this case it fit everything perfectly, 8800GTS fits w/ room to spare. My power supply just barely had enough wire to make it to the top of the motherboard (p/s on the bottom in this case). The heavyness I can get over as it wont be move much at all.
I give it a 4 because it isnt perfect but I would purchase again.
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| Date Reviewed: 01/22/2008 |
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Strengths: Size, cable organization, price, ventilation, looks, top-cover usb, firewire, esata, audio/mic ports, comes with three fans
Weaknesses: Slight misalignment of silver finishing
Summary: Solid case; it is heavy and feels solidly constructed. Rubber feet lift it off the ground and there is room for a bottom mounted fan. This is a bottom power supply mount case so make sure your main 24(20) connector is long enough to reach the motherboard.
Comes with three case fans installed, the front one has a blue led. They are placed for good ventilation but I found the side fan to be loud so put the front fan up at the top and the side fan in front so now the whole inside glows soft blue and the temps are pretty much the same.
Some people complain that their hdd's don't fit in the trays, I think this is more of a problem with IDE drives than with SATA. It is easy to hide cables behind the side panel as well..
I think dust may be a problem but overall this case is excellent.
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| Date Reviewed: 12/09/2007 |
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Strengths: It has great airflow, where it sucks in air from the front and side panel, to exhaust to the upper back. I like the hard drive trays and top panel for USB and stuff. Tooless installation on cards.
Weaknesses: The PLED light is very bright compared to the Activity Light. HEAVY, but who moves it often? A little hard to install the motherboard. Awkward power switch location.
Summary: Despite having an overwhelming PLED light, power switch, heaviness, and slight difficulty in installing motherboard, it is a great case. The cable routing things made it slightly difficult to install my ABIT IP-35 and made it difficult when installing my IDE cables to my motherboard. Take your time installing your things into this case. Other than that, it is a darn good case. Larger than my old mid tower too. Case comes with SLED which is like the PLED. So for those who don't know what to put into your 3 hole PLED slot on your motherboard, it goes to the 2 hole SLED. And it doesn't come with a case speaker because most modern motherboards have an onboard beep. This is a great case and all those weaknesses are just because I am picky, and those are negligible. Rated 5/5.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/08/2007 |
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Strengths: GREAT AIR FLOW, MANY FANS INCLUDED, MANY MORE FAN BRACKETS,
PRICE, GAMER CASE
Weaknesses: NO SIDE WINDOW, TOO LOUD FOR HTPC
Summary: Cooler Master has also given the user the chance to add two further fans on the ceiling of the case. These two fan grills can also take any fan between 80 and 140 mm. That makes for a maxmium of seven large fans within a mid tower case - very impressive. Once everything was finished, the side panels were placed back on the case and the entire PC was turned on. Even though there are three case fans, an OEM CPU cooler, 120 mm PSU fan and the graphic card one thing was missing - vibrations. The fans emit a clean "wooshing" sound if connected directly to the power supply, but are nearly silent when plugged in directly into the mainboard.
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| Date Reviewed: 01/02/2008 |
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Strengths: Mesh Design, Room for 6 120mm Fans, Cool Front LED, Dust Filter in the front and Bottom of the Case, Tool-less design on Hard Drive Rack and 5 1/4in drive bays, Peripheral ports on top for easy access
Weaknesses: Tool-less design on add-on cards is not very good and does not provide much tension so the cards do not fit in very tight, Hard Drive Cage limits airflow into case, included 120mm fans have low cfm
Summary: Overall this is a very good case that is quite inexpensive after mail in rebate (mine was about $35 and I've seen it go for cheaper). However, the original airflow with this case is less than stellar. After I switched from a Raidmax Smilodon to this, my temps went up by about 2 degrees celsius for each part except for my hard drive, which went up by 5 degrees celsius. However, this can easily be fixed if you have a screwdriver and/or some extra 80mm or 120mm fans laying around. All you need to do is flip the side fan that blows in cool air to the motherboard so that it exhausts it instead. Then, you simply add the other fans to the top and side so that they exhaust the hot air as well. This way, a negative air pressure will be created inside the case for cooler temps. After I did that, my temps when down considerably and it ended up being cooler than my old Smilodon. I would definitely buy this motherboard again.
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| Date Reviewed: 12/17/2007 |
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Strengths: Cooling galore!!! Very easy hookups on everything.
Weaknesses: NONE that really stand out.
Summary: Is this heavy? Yes. If you want light and portable, buy a notebook. If you want a gaming monster that gets hot, and needs help staying cool....THIS is the case. Whats that, you want to add water cooling? YEP, you can do that with this also. Pre-drilled holes to run your lines through the back of the case. Quick install of hard drives and optical drives. Plus, no more using screws for your additional cards (video, sound), because of the quick connects for these items also!!!! NOT TO MENTION THE PRICE!!!! you can NOT beat this case!!!!
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| Date Reviewed: 12/30/2007 |
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Strengths: fan placements, roomy
Weaknesses: mobo tray not removable, IDE HDDs do not fit without slight mod, my HDD activity LED is not functional, because my mobo (ip35-e) doesn't have the + and the - side by side, they are split over 3 prongs
Summary: Roomy case, but my cables all still reach. I have 6-7cm left, after my 2x120mm fans on top of my GeminII, until the inside of the side panel. And, my PSU cables, Earthwatts 430, all still reach. I had to run my 12v 4pin up behind my PCI cards to reach the top of my mobo. But, the rest I was able to route through the hole right at the end of the PSU and bring back around the edges of the mobo tray.
It's like Cooler Master didn't even try to fit an IDE HDD in this cage. Both the PATA cable and molex hit a 90degree bend in the metal at the back of the cage. However, all you need is a small set of pliers to straighten out the bend. I have two in the cage, one out of it, because my IDE cable coming from my controller card wasn't long enough to reach :(
If you have a longer than normal PSU, you will cover up the hole in the mobo tray they intended for cable management.
cable management clips: not really a con because you can just unscrew them, but not useful at all
included fans: useful, but don't move a lot of air, they would be ok for running stock, but if you plan on OCing get at least 4 120mm medium flows
speaking of fans: I drilled some holes and put a 120mm above my floppy and below my optical, and then cut out as much metal as I could in front of the fan
I plan on putting a 120mm behind my HDD cage, to help the one in front of it pull air across my HDDs.
I could (with some careful razor action) get my HDD activity LED to work, by cutting the jumper in half lengthwise, but I don't care that much about it.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/15/2007 |
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Strengths: Great airflow. Quiet. Fan locations galore.
Weaknesses: Power buttons on bottom right of case. USB, Firewire, Mic, Headphone, and eSATA connectors are on top of the case. No removable motherboard tray. Not really a weakness as I wouldn't expect one.
Summary: This is a very well built case. The power supply mount is on the bottom so you'll need one with long cables. The PS fan can be oriented facing down with the bottom being vented underneath. There are places for additional (up to 140mm) fans on the case with 2 on top, an extra on the side, and another on the bottom of the case in front of the PS. There is also a spot for an 80mm fan on the right side behind the motherboard's CPU location. The front and top are metal mesh so the addition of a few fan dust filters would have been nice and should be used on any of the intake fans. I listed the location of the external connectors and power buttons as weaknesses only because they're not where I would have preferred to have them. This is a very good case at a reasonable price. Highly recommended.
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| Date Reviewed: 05/21/2009 |
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 PROVANTAGE Strengths: Haven't got the item yet
Weaknesses: It's been 3 days since I placed my order and still no sign of shipping. I emailed the shipment department 24 hours ago, and no response yet. I think they build the case themselves before shipping.
Summary: Horrible shipping speed compared to neweggs. Should have just ordered from there. I have all the other parts delivered from neweggs within 2 days, while Provantage takes 3+ days to even ship.
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| Date Reviewed: 07/21/2008 |
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Strengths: Airflow, space, sound, easy to use, SPARE SCREWS in the perfect place. cable routing. tool free design, with option to use screws.
Weaknesses: Doesn't play well with IDE, The side panels like to fight. The power button is a bit odd. Not enough room for 38 mm high fans.
Summary: I bought this case to alleviate some problems with my Antec TX 1050.. This (CM690) case has good hard drive air flow for 6hdds, and the hard drives don't block the video card. The drives fit in, but the side panel needed some slight coaxing to close up the back side.
While I was able to install a 38 x 120 mm fan on top of the case, it obstructed the 4 pin mobo power connector. The 38mm fan was too bulky to fit in to bottom intake spot as the PS cords were all pushing against it. The 4 pin power was able to reach to reach the motherboard plug, but it was tight, so I added an extension.
The HDD screws are in the case screwed into a holder, where they are hardest to lose.
The power supply was mountable in two orientations. The tool-less mounting works well. This has reduced HDD noise by a considerable amount. The case lets sound out easily.. However with quiet parts this case becomes quiet as well (fan-less CPU cooler and graphics cooler).
If fans aren't screwed all the way down this case amplifies the fan rattle.
The top connections are easy to deal with. with removable cables
If you use the bottom IO card slot for a NIC, removing the cable can be a trick (possible physical obstruction depending on the nic cable lock orientation).
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| Date Reviewed: 03/04/2008 |
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Strengths: Great airflow, good cooling
Weaknesses: Little bit difficult to install the motherboard, powerswitch is easy to break
Summary: Despite of the little bit difficulty in installing the motherboard, CM690 has very good cooling with great airflow. You can even install extra cooling fans to cool the system further down, you can install up to seven fans. This is a good case at a very reasonable price, people who interested in overclocking shall take a look at this case. I like this case and will recommend it to other people.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/28/2008 |
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Strengths: 10 drive bays, mounting for many large fans, attractive design.
Weaknesses: Thin, somewhat flimsy door panels that don't slide on easily. Bad pushbutton design for power and reset.
Summary: This case is roomy and can hold many drives (10 total, 5 exposed). Hard drives mount in plastic carrier/rails that help reduce noise/vibration but may not be durable long term. The power supply is located at the bottom of the case which requires long cables for some motherboards. There are many places to mount large fans (which is good) but side panel mounts may not be ideal due to thin panels that may vibrate. Another minor complaint are the power and reset buttons that operate via a poorly designed lever action that makes the buttons feel awkward.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/19/2008 |
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Strengths: Affordable, Great cooling, Plenty of space
Weaknesses: None yet
Summary: This is a really great case than can be had for a cheap price with the available Cooler Master rebates. I picked up mine for $19.99 after rebate. This case has several fans and has the option of adding more. Just make sure you select quiet fans or the noise can become significant. With all the cooling, this is a great choice for a gamers case or someone who wants to overclock. Overall this is a great case at a great price.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/02/2008 |
- Unclefunnyman
from NC
- Member Since:
Dec 2005
View Member's:
Reviews
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Strengths: Value
Weaknesses: None
Summary: This case is a solid VALUE. If you shop around and time it right, you can get this case for under twenty bucks. It's well built and allows quick swapping of internal components with mostly no tools required. The included blue led fan is a nice touch. The ability to hold seven fans allows for plenty of cooling for a gaming PC or a server.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/01/2008 |
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Strengths: Very versatile
Price
Design/Layout
Tooless Features
Roomy
Front ports (HD audio, mic, rc97, usb, esata, firewire)
Weaknesses: Restrictive Grills
Noisy Side Panel Fan
No removable motherboard tray
Hard drive vibration
Steel (heavy)
Summary: 2008-02-01 22:06:47 This is probably my second favorite case after my main case (lian li v1000). It has so many features to name. Installation was very easy and there was plenty of room left over. Cable management is made easy by routing things behind the tray/panel so things look neat and organized. It's got plenty of holes for routing cables and water cooling. It's just a great basic case that has potential for modding.
The steel grills should be removed for better airflow as some are just unecessary. Another thing that bothered me was the sidepanel seemed kind of flimsy and was catching on the fan (i think) and it was causing a bunch of noise.
Other than the weaknesses I named, it's a great case for the price.
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