Zardon

Read The Review Here
__________________________

A couple of months ago we looked at Cooler Masters Cosmos 1000 case, a high end model in every way. From the size to the design, to the performance, the Cosmos excelled. The only downside to this product was the high premium, so it immediately rules out a large portion of the enthusiast market. All is not lost however, as Cooler Masters CM 690 (RC-690) is priced at a more affordable £50/$80. The 690 manages to pack in some excellent features with a well thought out design.

Judas

These are my new case... after the Centurion 532's discontinued i was struggling to find a decent case without to much of a hassle installing and all the connectors at the ready..


But just a FYI to everyone that ends up with this case... there are a few "errors" in coolermasters design.

One being that the backplate for the mounting screws are a little on the "light side".... when screwing in the mounts (the goldish looking screws that you then mount the board ontop off), i've noticed that alot of them will strip out WAY to easily, barely any preasure applied while tightening things up and well, you've got a bad mount... Be soft...

Another is the fact i've found better results by moving the "default" placed 120mm fan from the side panel to the bottom bottom of the case.... Course a number of things may very depending on the hardware installed... but it works well...

Using a non modulare powersupply isn't all that big of a mess imo, it's a hell of alot neater then having the psu mounted at the top.... a little ziptie there and you've got a nice bundle of neat and tidy unused powersupply wires laying at the bottom of the case. Put the 120mm fan there, and you don't really even need to use the ziptie as there should be a perfect amount of room to lay the cables in and around the fan nicely and securely.

Additionally, while having a speaker is nice, this case doesn't include one.... for some this isn't REALLY a concern at all, but it would have been a nice addition for diagnostic purposes.

Lastly the PLED connector..... Every motherboard i've ever touched thus far has always had a triple pin connector..... only a handful i'm aware of has the 2 pin connector...
Hell even asus has alot of boards that only have an option for triple pin.
This case only has a 2 pin powerled connector, so if you have a motherboard with only a 3 pin (where occasionally the center pin is either not there at all in my case, all the Asus P5K SE motherboards for example don't have, you essentially won't have anywhere to plug in the PLED.) Not a huge deal at all, hell with the BLUE LED fan up front, kinda hard NOT to know that the machine is running lol.


Also one last note.

To keep fan headers and connectors neater.... you'll want to pop the front fan out and give it a 90 degree turn so that fan wires run at the top rightside.... NOT the bottom rightside... why is this? Becaus the length of the fan wire typically won't reach without getting an extension or using a molex adapter to power it... I'm a neat freak, i like to keep the mess to a minimum, it doesn't take long to pop the front off and move the fan around.

__________________

Veridian3

I dont think they are errors... they are design decisions which dont match what you need in a case.

I had to do several builds during the time i had with the case and never had any problem like this.

As you say results may vary. Personally i would say just install all the fans you can... covers all angles really.

Most decent motherboard nowadays come with diagnostic LED's and many are starting to appear with external displays which do a much better job of diagnosing problems compared to the old beep system... the lack of a speaker/wire on the 690 really means one less cable which will be used less and less in the future.

Seems Cooler Master went with the main connector that Intel use (wise decision?) personally i believe that motherboards shold have both connectors rather than cases.

I'd have to check what the orientation was on my sample, I cant remember it being an issue so maybe its down to luck?

slugbug

I like the look of this case. It definitely is a cheaper alternative to their Cosmos case.

Judas

In the hopes to get a case that's as universal as possible without all that much clutter, i was mentioning it for the sake of what i've found so far...

I've had about a dozen of the cases.... all of them "feel" very weak in the mounts, and the FIRST case i made the mistake of stripping out my first 2 because i was used to the centurion 532's being MUCH stronger.... It's just the software metal used for the backplate... as the screw itself didn't strip out, it was the holes themselves just tearing away easily.... Initially i was disappointed because it made the case seem all that much more cheap.... and consdering the case is a bit more expensive then the centurion 532 which you could really crank on, i was hoping for more...

While that's a solution, it's not very efficient imo, excessive overkill comes into mind when your building different types of machines using the case. Obviously if your running nothing overclocked, no substatial amount of hardware, hell possibly a mATX motherboard with intergrated graphics and that's about it..... obviously filling every fan spot is way over the top...


But my statement was meerly a suggestion, from experience building with this case over a number of months now..... It also gets rid of the irritating fact that if you remove the sidepanel, you don't have to wrestle with the connector and wire running to the motherboard... just a little simpler overall.

True, but a PC speaker can always be removed.... then again added, course there isn't any mounts available to try and put a speaker.... As i said, it's not nessary, but it would have it's advantages...


Actually using the new P35 Intel Chipset based motherboards, the ones i ended up with don't have the 2 pin connector...

While yes a motherboard should have included both, i know some that do...

But the overall standard has been 3pin, even in the case where i've seen previous cases where the pled actually provides a 2/3pin within one connector... Why they didn't stick with this is beyond me.... keeping the 2 wires seperate so reguardless of how far appart the pins are you could still connect it.... BAD decision, the previous centurion pled connector wasn't broken..... there wasn't ANY reason at all to get to a solid 2pin connector.


No it's not down to luck, it's down to board design..

Likely with a FULL SIZED motherboard, (i'll have to look closer at your pictures in the review), that the fan header pins were much closer

Where as in my builds, the pin headers aren't as close.... also even in the readjusted fan position, the fan header wire is just BARELY able to reach the closest header available..... Making it impossible for the fan to be connected at all if a mATX board was used....

__________________

Veridian3

The more i read your responses the more it seems to me that you are unhappy with the motherboards you have chosen rather than the case itself... but thanks for the feedback on the case anyway.

Judas

Unhappy?

No, just spoiled by the other motherboards i've had where the extra dollars have shown where there are some benefits...


But i'm speaking in the practical sense that not everyone is going to be buying a full sized motherboard, or even the midsized version, might go mATX or something.

I was just trying to mention the things i've noticed.... which if someone is in the market for a case, while i highly recommend this case, be aware of the things i mentioned.

They are technically the ONLY cons i have ran into... many of which are NOT the big of a deal.

__________________