The Cooler Master CM690 Club (Reviews and More Inside)

theDarkDisciple 26-02-2008, 09:15 AM

Rating: ()

Finally got me a good chassis after going through 4 within a month. Its the Cooler Master 690. Been using it since the past 5 days now.

Some of the features include:
- Completely tool-free, which includes the 5.25" drive-bay, the HDD cage and the PCI card slots.
- Kickass cable management system.
- Its pretty big, but not as large as the Cosmos 1000.
- Room for upto 8 (!) fans. The fan arrangement is as follows:

• 1 x front intake - comes with a blue LED CM fan, factory fitted.
• 2 x side panel - comes with one CM fan, factory fitted.
• 1 x rear exhaust - comes with one CM fan, factory fitted.
• 2 x top panel
• 1 x bottom of the case
• 1 x mobo tray backside, yep behind the mobo, where the processor is placed on the mobo to be precise.

- The HDD racks are terrific. Basically, you can fit your HDD in em and simply remove the racks individually. Totally tool-less. Plus, the enclosure is positioned side-ways, towards the outside of the case.
- I/O panel on the upper panel, with an eSata port, apart from the 2 USB and Audio ports.
- A full mesh top and front panel.

Thats that for the good stuff. Other than that, Some of the fan mounts allow for many types of fans to be installed, 80mm, 90mm, 120mm and 140mm (That pre-installed 3 are all 120mm).The PSU is mounted on the bottom of the case. There are even pre-drilled holes for liquid cooling in the back of the case. The overall build quality is amazing, inside and outside. It doesn't come with much stuff, reason being it is a tool-less chassis. There's a box with 5.25" to 3.5" converter panel, a cable tie and thats about it. Furthermore, there are cloths on the inside of the 5.25" panels to prevent dust from entering the case.

There is however some 'not-so-good' stuff with the case, but only if you nitpick:
-One major disadvantage however, is the uber-weird placement of the power button/reset key/power & hdd LEDs. They're placed on the right side of the case, reason of which I haven't been able to figure out. Plus the power and reset buttons seem to have been made out of really cheap plastic, considering the excellent build quality of the rest of the chassis.
- The CM fans, 3 in quantity, which came with chassis are rubbish. A bit on the noisier side, and dont aren't very fast, in other words, not high CFM.

However, the cooling is really amazing, even though the CM fans it comes with are rubbish. I'm still getting a bit higher temps than my previously owned ASUS Vento.

Here's a really cool review on the chassis: MADSHRIMPS - Hardware Reviews ,Crazy Projects, Modding Tutorials and Overclocking

Its priced at around Rs.5300 at Galaxy.pk.

I'll add more stuff here with the passage of time. Until then, here are the pics (next post).

__________________
Teh Rig:
CM 690 Chassis
E4400 @ Stock
XFX 650i Ultra
GSkill 2GB (1x2) DDR2 800MHz @ 933MHz
ATi X1950 Pro
WD 74GB Raptor (10K RPM) & 250 GB SATA
Logitech G5
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung Syncmaster 940BW
\m/

theDarkDisciple

The front side, with the Aerogate Fan Controller and the DVD drive on the top, and the 120mm LED intake fan on the bottom:



From the side:



The inside:



The inside x 2:

theDarkDisciple

Tool-less clips for the 5.25" bays on the top, and the HDD cages on the bottom.



Another showing the HDD cages:



With the lights out (Aerogate on top, LED fan on the bottom):



Apologies for the absolutely appalling quality of the attached images. I'll get a hold of a better camera soon, and post more snaps later.

__________________
Teh Rig:
CM 690 Chassis
E4400 @ Stock
XFX 650i Ultra
GSkill 2GB (1x2) DDR2 800MHz @ 933MHz
ATi X1950 Pro
WD 74GB Raptor (10K RPM) & 250 GB SATA
Logitech G5
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung Syncmaster 940BW
\m/

ARMANI101

Congrats Disciple bro..
Finally u got it..
Thats a cool looking Chassis u have got..

__________________
~Bud-haal Pakistan, Khush-haal Hukmuraan.~

Asad

Nice review!

__________________

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ali.tayyab

really happy for u!
enjoy ur new chassis!

theDarkDisciple

Thanks guys.

__________________
Teh Rig:
CM 690 Chassis
E4400 @ Stock
XFX 650i Ultra
GSkill 2GB (1x2) DDR2 800MHz @ 933MHz
ATi X1950 Pro
WD 74GB Raptor (10K RPM) & 250 GB SATA
Logitech G5
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung Syncmaster 940BW
\m/

ali.tayyab

lower maybe????

theDarkDisciple

Nope, higher. 3 to 4 celcius higher infact. Idle temps were around 19-20 celcius in the vento, but they're 25 celcius as we speak (idle). I'm guessing thats because of the rise in ambient temps, the temp readings with the Vento were taken in December..

__________________
Teh Rig:
CM 690 Chassis
E4400 @ Stock
XFX 650i Ultra
GSkill 2GB (1x2) DDR2 800MHz @ 933MHz
ATi X1950 Pro
WD 74GB Raptor (10K RPM) & 250 GB SATA
Logitech G5
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung Syncmaster 940BW
\m/

ali.tayyab

could it be that the intake fans are working better than the exhaust fan thus creating a a build up of loads of warm air inside???

if i replace my exhaust fan with an ultra uber 137 cfm my temps drop 2-5C, but the noise levels go through the roof as compared to a 90cfm fan

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