Customer Reviews

Cooler Master Centurion 690 ATX Mid Tower Case Black - (RC-690-KKN1-GP)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just built my new computer in this case and found: the cooling is awsome. With 7 possible case fans you can use the slowest (and quietest fans) that are available. The side fans will make a whine because they are against the inlet grille, so move them away with spacers. I used two old 12cm fans, cut the guts out and used the outer rings for spacers. Lots of room even if you buy one of the Orb series cpu coolers. The ON and hard drive LED's are on the right side prompting you to place the case on your left if you want to see them. Mine had a weak red hard drive LED, so I replaced it with a super-bright red LED and all is well. The case is very sturdy and all components mounted easily. I recomend buying the add-on 12cm fan filters for the side fans to keep dust collection on inside parts to a minimum. The wire management clips do a great job keeping things neat inside for max airflow. All done, my computer is the quietest rig I've built and it looks great! I would buy this case again and recomend it to my friends. Oh ya, the plastic retaining clips for the cards are marginal, but they do have the holes drilled and tapped so you can use screws for a stronger mount. Good job, Cooler Master!

This is a great case, I had considered the Antec 900 before ultimately buying this one (not just because it is cheaper)

Pros:
-Budget friendly
-Great Looking
-3 120mm fans included
-Tons of airflow
-Very easy to wire to keep airflow restrictions down
-Bottom mounted power supply
-Tool-less (except motherboard mounts & PSU)
-Extra drive/mounting screws along 5.25 drive bay cage
-2 USB, 1 2394, & 1 eSATA external ports on top of case (slightly inconvenient, but very handy)

Cons:
-NOT IDE Hard Drive Friendly, I had to bend the bracket out where the plugs meet to fit it in there, but it doesnt impede the funtinality or look of the case.
-Clear window panel available according to Cooler Master's website, but nowhere online to purchase.

Boy I was I happy when I first opened this case.

Everything smelled so fresh and new when I opened it, and when I took it out of the box, I was already please. The design is simple but very sleek and pleasing to the eye.

Having the 2 USB, Firewire, eSATA, and audio ports on the top is very convenient. No bending down to reach anything, and they don't poke out above the surface of the top, so there are no worries if one needs to put anything on top of it.

Also, even though the power/reset buttons are on the far right, they're very nice. No ridiculous design. Just simple. Plus, they're firm, so there is no risk of accidentally hitting the button and shutting off the system.

As for the ventilation, I am very satisfied. It comes with two huge fans already installed with room to install more. Not to mention that there are pockets for air all over the place (top, front, back, even underneath).

The movable hard drive bays are a big plus (Although they're made with seemingly fragile plastic. The whole rest of the case is pretty much all metal.) I like having the power supply on the bottom so it's away from the hot motherboard and CPU up above.

Another good thing: The case has little, rubbery legs on the bottom so the metal doesn't scratch on hard surfaces.

Everything is VERY organized. Cords aren't nearly as entangled as they were in my old system.

Only cons:
1.) As previously mentioned, the hard drive bays are plastic, which may break.
2.) It only comes with one front slot replacement for 5.25" drives (Not really a big deal.)
3.) If one has short power supply cables, it may be a hassle with the power supply on the bottom. But, my GameXStream 700w supply has very long ones. :)
4.) The side door takes a good pull to take off. This may be a good thing if one has children. But, it also takes some practice to put back on.

Overall, excellent job, Cooler Master!

Great features like eSATA. I would rather have the front panel connections actually on the front panel and not on the top. Other Cooler Master cases have better screwless mounts, e.g., Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW. LED's, power switch and reset button are on the front corner which is a little inconvenient. Plenty of ventilation.

Look no further for a great gaming case! The case is well rounded in features - comprable to Cooler Master's $200+ cases. Sturdy, excellent ventillation, and practically noiseless fans, to boot. This is my first Cooler Master case, and definitely is the nicest one I've built into in the last 10 years. In effort to not sound like a blubbering fanboy, I'll mention some points:

1) I was hesitant about the bottom mounted PSU, but it turned out my PC Power & Cooling 610 fit just fine. In fact, I was impressed that the mobo tray had holes near the bottom that allowed me to route the SATA HDD power cables between the mobo tray and the back panel, neatly hiding them out of the way.

2) The HDD mounting system seemed flimsy at first. However, the trays do have screw holes and the case comes with plenty of screws conveniently attached to the 5.25" cage (no hunting for the screw baggie if I want to do a Bluray drive or more HDD's!) After screwing 2 screws to each of the HDD brackets and the HDD's, the whole setup felt secure and solid. Going back to my first point above, the HDD setup is quite slick in that it puts your HDD cables in the back of the case and out of the way.

3) The front fan's power connector (blue one in the product picture) was too short to reach any power source on my Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R!! While some people might be in a Nintendo64-kid-inspired-freakout (just youtube N64 kid) and couldn't be bothered to abate their frenzy, I found it trivial to pop off the front, reposition the fan, and be on my way. Alternatively, one could use a power adapter from the PSU.

4) After installing an Intel e8400, 4gb pc8000 g.skill ram, 2x250gb seagates in RAID0, nVidia 8800gt, Vista, and OC'ing the bad boy to 4.0ghz (8.0*500mhz with ease!), I decided to try out the top mounted connectors. They all work just fine, and are really handy for me since I can now lay my usb devices on top of the case while they are plugged in. ***Minor bad mark:*** The headphone/mic connector seem cheaply manufactured. My headphone/mic plugs stick out of their inputs about 1~2mm, which seems to randomly trigger Vista to tell me "an audio device has been unplugged/plugged in". Not a deal breaker, and I'm not 100% sure what the root of the problem is, but it is worth noting.

Ok! That's it!

This is the best tower I have ever owned. Air flow is great!!! Makes sense to have the power supply on the bottom to suck in cool air instead of hot CPU exhaust. Top is vented to allow the natural flow of heat to work in your favor. This case or one like it is a must buy for gamers or anyone for that matter. Case is easy to install hard drives and DVD drives etc...

I own two of these cases and they are amazing. One is built into a WHS 2011 and the other is a home security video system. The case is classified as a mid-tower case but they hold a lot of equipment. It has 5 drive bays with 5.25 inch size and 5 internal HDD bays at 3.5 inch size. It even comes with a 5.25" to 3.5" drive bay convertor. My server has 10 SATA drives mounted in it.

It comes with 3 case fans but I load the case up with fans for high end cooling. The drive bays features tool free drive installation which is a nice feature. I did install a 3 bay 5.25 inch drive to 4 bay 3.5 inch HDD convertor. It is nice to have a big case to hold that many drives. There is also a top IO panel that I use to put a USB memory stick into to make sure that I have all the drivers up to date and when I need to flash the motherboard BIOS.

The case features room for 7 expansion slots and I use most of them for SATA PCI cards to handle that many HDDs. The case will hold seven 120 mm fans for high efficiency cooling and I use 6 of them plus one in the bay converter because I have so many hard disk drives in the case. This is a great case and it is priced right. You can't go wrong with Cooler Master.

The Cooler Master Centurion 690 is a great case for the price. Most of the installation was tool free as said. The removable HDD racks do seem to be made of cheap plastic but on installation they all went in with no problem and seemed a lot more sturdy with a hard drive in them. They include little handles that make them very easy to pull out. Plus with the side installation you wont have to take apart your computer just to fit another in.

The optical drive installation process is also very easy, you just push out the slots that you need, move a switch on the side over and up, slide in the drive, move the switch down and over. Very simple.

I am less impressed with the tool-less expansion slots, I installed a Geforce 98000GT and could not get the clip to close all the way.

The cable management is average, it includes plastic clips on the inside that work ok, I would prefer more holes in the frame for small zip ties. Also the included cable management makes the room to slide the motherboard in very snug, but it was no real problem.

One advantage in my opinion is that this case did not include a power supply. If it did I would have just replaced it with my own. I also enjoyed the power supply installing in the bottom of the case, although it was slightly difficult to get enough of the wires out of the way for the bottom fan to be installed.

The case stays very cool and includes many places to mount fans. It came with 3 120mm fans that were average. I found them to be a little weak and replaced all but one, with 4 120mm case fans total (2 side, 1 rear, 1 front). The top and front of the case is a metal mesh, it seems to be a good quality material and allows great air circulation.

I do like that the USB, headphone, mic and eSATA slots are all located on the top, since I keep this case close to the ground its very convenient. I also like the rubber feet that are on the bottom of the case. They are large enough to let air beneath if you have it on a hard surface (and that's a must if you have a bottom fan installed).

Overall the case could be better but for the price I couldn't ask for anything more, looks good, works great and keeps my computer running cool.

This case is absolutely the finest case I have ever purchased. Amazon offers this case at a very reasonable price while many other retailers want over 100$ or do not even carry it. Do not bother getting the nvidia edition model as it is no different and 20$ more than this one. The pluses:
1. PSU mounts in the bottom of the case providing ample air flow and space up top.
2. Removable drive chassis, nuff said.
3. This case holds up to 7 fans!!!
4. cable assembly already setup and very clean.
5. other than the mounting screws for the mobo, this case is toolless.
the cons:
1. The patch panel for USB, headphone,etc. is on top, so you need space above the case if you put it in a desk cabinet or similar.
2. The case is slightly taller than a standard mid-tower.

this case still gets a 5 for value, and 5 for usabillity and 5 for sheer awsomeness. I give the overall rating a 4 only because I could not get any rebate for it bringing down the price. I always get rebates.

I bought this case from another retailer because my old case wasn't providing enough airflow. I haven't had one overheat since getting this Cooler Master. The case is very roomy. I have a GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard that was a bit too big for the cable organizer (it was very easy to remove...but it's too bad it couldn't be utilized) but there was plenty of room on the side for breathing space (and my bulky video card had breathing room too!). The hard drive bays are uniquely designed on tool-less racks so it makes changing them a breeze. The power supply has to go on the bottom which is also vented. I also like how the top can come off to add/replace fans. Great case...especially for the price!