Inside the Case
When you first open the case, you see the box of accessories, which contains the standoffs, screws, a filter to place under the PSU intake fan and an interesting GPU bracket. After removing the accessories box, you can see the inside of a well painted case. The finish throughout is the same texture and color as the side panels. Again, the paint feels very solid and shouldn’t easily scratch or chip with normal use (provided your normal isn’t ham-fisted).
 Inside with Accessory Box |
 Accessory Box Removed |
There are three fans included, one 120mm on the rear, one 140mm on the top and a 140mm with blue LEDs in the front. The front fan can be left as-is or moved down to another configuration. Whichever will suit your cooling needs better; a nice addition for versatility. While there are six HDD bays, the fan can basically reach four of them. Take your pick of whether it will cover the top or bottom drives.
 Top and Rear Fan |
 Front Without Cover |
There is a convenient CPU retaining hole designed to be behind the CPU socket for easy heatsink mounting. Unfortunately the design may not necessarily work for all motherboards, but more on that later.
Taking another look at the top fan configuration, there are spots for two fans, either 120mm or 140mm. It’s nice to see there is no additional, unnecessary mesh here either. The only mesh restricting airflow (and not very much because of its improved spacing) is the external cosmetic mesh.
There is room between the top cover panel and the top of the case to fit 25mm thick fans. 38mm thick fans don’t allow the panel to snap on, so there is a small limitation there. Cooler Master designed this part of the case to fit a 2x120mm radiator. Placing two fans on top and a (thinner) radiator underneath is a great way to have internal water cooling in a mid-tower case. It’s a rarity to have a mid-tower designed for an all internal water solution, so kudos to Cooler Master for making that happen.
 Top From Underneath |
 Top Without Panel |
Top Closer
But wait water cooling fanatics, there’s more!  In a nice piece of engineering, the bottom rack of four HDDs is removable, leaving two HDD brackets. This allows two 120mm fans to be mounted on the bottom of the case, with (or without) a radiator.
 Bottom With HDD Rack Removed |
 HDD Rack Removed |
The HDD mounting brackets feel a lot stronger than the original CM690. The bracket, which holds the HDD on metal rods mounted in rubber grommets, slides smoothly into the rack. It snaps into place with a swinging arm that grabs the right side and latches with the left. Click on the first photo below and click “next” two times to see it in action.
 Bracket In Action One |
 Bracket In Action Two |
Bracket Latched
Moving up a little bit, the four 5 1/4″ bays have received a new tool-free system with a simple “lock” or “open”, switch-style latch. These are surprisingly strong and easily hold an ODD without the need for a screw on the other side, (which felt necessary on the original). A screw certainly won’t hurt smaller devices with only one mounting hole (i.e. a fan controller), but you could probably get away without one if you choose.
The case does come with an adapter (not pictured) to convert one of the 5 1/4″ bays into a 3 1/2″ bay for a floppy drive / card reader / etc.
5 1/4" Bay Mounts
Turning the case around, there are plentiful wire tie mounts. This is a very welcome addition for wire management freaks like yours truly. They are in all the right places to keep your extra wires hidden from view. There are plenty of openings through the tray to thread the ends through so they come out exactly where you want them, but not so much that it’s difficult to hide wires.
The space between the tray and back panel feels deeper, if ever so slightly, than the original. This is also a welcome change. It takes significantly less effort to put the side panel on with well-hidden, thick wires.
Behind the MB Tray
On the bottom of the case there are tall and thick rubber feet on the rear of the case and equally tall plastic feet on the front with rubber bottoms. As mentioned before, there are two fan mounts for 120mm fans on the front and middle of the case (that can also work with a 120.2 radiator) as well as mesh for the PSU fan to draw air through the bottom of the case.
Like the rest of the grilles, this mesh is expanded for less restriction. There is a dust filter pre-installed on the front two fan grilles (seen below) and an extra supplied for you to install on the PSU grille (not pictured).
 Case Bottom and Feet |
 Dust Filter |
There is also a GPU bracket included with the case that we did not use as it wasn’t necessary. It’s a good design though and will treat those of you with multiple card or with a heavier multi-GPU in one card setup well. It can accommodate an 80mm x 15mm fan to assist in drawing cool air toward your GPU.
 GPU Bracket Front |
 GPU Bracket Rear |
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