reviews

CoolerMaster CM690 Case Review

Author: Dennis Garcia

You may not know this by looking but the CM690 is actually pretty big measuring in at roughly 20" deep x 19" tall x 8.5" wide and comes with 5 external 5.25" drive bays.  The case features what we like to call a "reverse" design in that the motherboard is positioned at the top of the case with the power supply at the bottom.   Given that most power supplies were designed for placement at the top of the case you'll need to make sure the ATX connector cables are long enough to reach.

Inside the case you'll find 5 3.5" HDD "trays". We say trays because the drives are no longer physically attached to the cage but rather sit in these plastic trays that are then slid into place. This is almost like a hotswap setup however without all of the nice features found in your typically hotswap system.

The front of the CM690 features a black metal mesh to fascinate open airflow while still masking what is on the inside. Because of this the power and reset switches have been relocated to the side of that case along with the power and HDD leds.

There isn't a lot of room to get cables to the back of the HDD cage so you'll want to reserve a multidrive setup to be of the SATA variety.