Cooler Master CM 690 II Case Review

1. Introduction2. Cooler Master CM 690 II (External)3. The Cooler Master CM 690 II Case (Internal and Installation)4. Testing Methodology and Performance Results5. Acoustics Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

There has never been a better time to purchase a sexy, svelte chassis for a new system build. You no longer have to pay a small fortune either as prices continue to drop and discerning customers keep demanding higher levels of build quality. Unfortunately in such a crowded marketplace it can be difficult to make the best decision for your particular demands. Has the product on test today got what it takes to stand out ?

We are looking at a chassis that has been on the market for many months, the Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced. With recent price drops you can now pick it up for around £70 inc vat, a price that most people will find very affordable (it was originally £90 inc vat). This case is the follow up to the successful CM 690 which was released in 2007.

The CM690 II is a mid tower case which can support up to 10 fans with top or bottom mounted watercooling radiators. The drive bays are tool free and there is sophisicated cable management and CPU cooler support.

• Oversized front and top mesh design for superb ventilation
• Accommodates 120 x 240 mm radiator inside the top and bottom
• Dust-control filters for all meshed areas
• Front blue LED fan on/off switch
• Rear retaining holes for water cooling kit
• Cable managment and CPU retaining hole for easy maintainence

The CM 690 II case arrives in a stylishly designed box with an angled shot of the case and the name highlighted on the side panel.

Inside, the case is protected between two heavy duty polystyrene pieces and it is wrapped in a plastic covering to protect against scuffing during shipping.

The Cooler Master case looks fantastic from the front – we love their trademark shape and mesh panels. The chrome strips down the sides also give it a very elegant appearance. The case weighs 9.8kg so it is quite heavy for the modest size, due to the steel chassis with moulded plastic edges in matte black. Obviously, using steel instead of aluminum helps to keep down the cost.

There are four 5.25 inch drive bays at the front and Coolermaster supply a 3.5 inch to 5.25 inch adapter as well as twin bracket rails for installation.

In the middle of the front mesh section is the Cooler Master logo which is modestly sized so it doesn't take over the design ethic. The case is supplied with two 140mm and a single 120mm fans preinstalled. If this isn't enough, the case does support up to ten 120/140mm fans and it can also accept 80mm fans.

At the front is a 140mm fan (intake) that can be moved to cover any four of the six internal 3.5 inch drive bays, this is protected with a dust filter. Cleaning the dust filter means you have to remove the front fascia of the case, it simply unclicks to remove. At the top of the case is another 140mm fan which is used as an exhaust.

The top panel at the front has two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone connectors, and a handy eSATA port. There is also a reset and power button on the far right. We like the fact that the USB 2.0 ports are a distance apart, to ensure that even the fattest devices can plug in without blocking the other port.

Behind these ports is a glossy plastic door which slides open to reveal a sata and power connector. You can slide in a 3.5 or 2.5 inch drive here for backup and extra storage if you wish. This was a feature we liked on the Antec Dark Fleet DF85.

The rear is neatly designed with two watercooling holes at the top. Underneath is a 120mm fan and 7 expansion slots. The PSU is installed at the bottom. Underneath there are rubberised feet which keep the case very steady indeed and these are designed so as not to cause marks on sensitive surfaces. The feet raise the case about 2-2.5cm above the ground surface ensuring good airflow for the power supply.

The side panel is very cleverly designed as it can take both 120mm and 140mm fans (and others) with the seperate mounting holes. It is a pity to see these not populated out of the box, and while I appreciate they would add a little extra cost, they really do need to be populated to give the case a finished appearance.

Removing the side panels was initially quite frustrating, because although they are closed by two simple thumbscrews, we found that they could only be removed with a screwdriver, they were screwed in that tightly.

Internally, the case is finished in high quality black paint which looks great in the flesh. There are no inconsistencies or finishing issues with any of the surfaces.

The internal structure and design is first class, with no sharp edges and a tidy clean layout.

There is a CPU cutout for back mounted coolers and the dual fan configuration is a classic exhaust design which is proven to work great. It is possible to fit a water cooling radiator at the top of the chassis. On the right hand side panel you can fit an 80mm fan to help cool the motherboard if you wish. It is a nice touch although unless the system is in a massively overclocked state I don't think this would really be needed. Cooler Master also include a dedicated graphics card support and cooling system, but more on this later.

A two fan radiator can also be installed at the bottom of the case, you have to remove the bottom section of the drive cage however which leaves you with two usable bays in total. Plastic rivets for an extra fan are provided.

The top drive slot has an adapter for 2.5 inch drives, so its really easy to fit an SSD as seen above. It only takes a few minutes – you need a screwdriver for this however. We don't fit optical drives anymore at KitGuru, prefering to utilise USB drives for OS installation – however the Coolermaster fitting system is a pleasure to use. There are little levers to lock and open the drive bays, meaning any 5.25 inch drive can be easily slotted in.

Installing a power supply and motherboard is straightforward and painfree. The locking system for expansion cards is a traditional design with thumbscrews. Again we found them to be rather tight and needed a screwdriver to release the first time. We couldn't fit in our Arctic Cooling Xtreme HD5870 card at 31cm length, but a standard size HD5870 was fine (304mm is the maximum Cooler Master recommend). The drive cage in this area isn't removable either so it is impossible (without a hacksaw) to get a HD5970 installed. Another centimeter is all it needed, so this is quite a disappointment.

Cooler Master include a graphics card support bracket which is used to help stabilise a heavy card, especially for transit. This case system can also fit a 80mm fan for additional cooling, but we try to stay away from 80mm fans at Kitguru.

On the side panel we fitted a Noctua 140mm fan as intake (bottom) and a 120mm as exhaust (top).

For our testing today we are using a Core i7 920 D0 system which we will overclock to 4.1ghz later.

Chassis: Cooler Master CM 690 II
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 D0
Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme 6
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer (thanks to Crucial as always for this)
Storage: GSkill 60GB Sandforce SSD
Graphics: AMD HD5870
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W

Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64bit

Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2

Firstly let us have a look at the chassis design and airflow, as it comes ‘out of the box’.

The Cooler Master case follows a traditional front to rear airflow system which has been proven to work well. There are two 140mm fans, one at the front acting as an intake and one at the top acting as an exhaust. At the rear we have a 120mm fan which also acts as an exhaust. We are not using the 120mm and 140mm Noctua fans yet on the side panel and the system is running at reference clock speeds so we can get a baseline result. Room ambient temperatures are maintained at 25c throughout testing.

Thanks to good airflow from the front of the case with hot air being expelled from the top and rear the system maintains strong ambient temperatures throughout.

Now we want to overclock the 920 D0 to 4.1ghz to see how this will effect not only CPU temperatures, but ambient flow.

A few of the diodes rise by a single degree and the CPU peaks around 78c at these settings.

Now we will add the 120mm and 140mm Noctua fans, with the 140mm acting as intake and the 120mm acting as exhaust.

Adding the two high quality Noctua fans drops ambient temps as recorded by our diodes. Memory, motherboard and graphics card temperatures all decrease by a couple of degrees also. This case clearly benefits from side mounted fans.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the chassis we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from the case. The room rates as 21-23dBa before powering on the system (air conditioning unit in the far corner of the room causes this).

We have removed our Noctua fans from the side panels to measure a ‘out of the box’ scenario. We tested with fan controls on high and low.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

We have replaced the graphics card with a Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate edition.

The system is relatively quiet, however we noticed that most of the noise is coming from the 120mm fan at the rear. By simply removing this the noise levels dropped 5.5 dBa. If we were using this case long term we might look at replacing the 120mm with a more expensive, quieter model.

There is no doubting that the Cooler Master CM 690 II is a fantastic looking case, the front fascia design and build quality is top class and especially impressive at the modest sub £75 asking price.

Technically the cooling prowess is fantastic, and while the rear mounted 120mm exhaust fan is rather noisy, the airflow is more than enough for even a high powered system build. With dual 120mm radiator support and installation support for up to 10 case fans, this is pretty much as good as it gets in this price range. We would like to see the side panel shipping with two 120mm or 140mm fans, because not only is the cooling performance significantly improved, but the case looks much better with these installed.

The interior is well thought out and the design inside has not skipped any corners. All of the edges are rounded and no sharp surfaces are felt anywhere. There are also plenty of cabling routing options which enhances the appearance and the majority of the chassis is tool-less in design which helps considerably with the build speed. Sadly the case will not accept the 31cm HD5970 which disappointed us a little. Another centimetre in this area would have resolved the fitting issue … it seems such a minor point, but it is a noticeable oversight.

There is a a lot of competition in this price sector and while the CM 690 II doesn't walk away with our highest accolades, it does deserve serious consideration, especially as the price has recently dropped by £20. This saving certainly helps fund a replacement rear mounted 120mm fan and two high quality units for the side panel.

KitGuru says: Cooler Master have certainly got the build quality down to a fine art. We like this case – it combines fantastic looks and styling with solid engineering and good cooling performance.

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