Cooler Master 690 Review

You are looking at the best bang-for-buck chassis we’ve ever reviewed at FPSLabs. Ever. Cooler Master shows how it’s done when you stuff as much features into a case and manage to maintain an extraordinary value.

Category: Case
Manufacturer: Cooler Master
Product: CM 690
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $59.99

Introduction
When reviewing cases we try to look for what works and what doesn’t.
Cooler Master has brought a certain aesthetic design that enthusiasts
commonly look for when choosing to upgrade their PC chassis. Cooler
Master’s niche revolves around pleasing their customers by offering
innovative designs beyond expectations.
The Cooler Master CM 690, or the 690 as we’ll refer to it throughout
this review, has some of the best and worst qualities we’ve seen in a
case of this size and price class. If you look back through our past reviews, you’ll generally notice that we really commend
designs that offer standout features that actually work. If it doesn’t,
we’ll say it no matter how good the rest of the specs are. It’s our
duty to show you what to expect when building a system inside this case
and what peculiarities you might run into while using this case on a
day-to-day basis.

Specifications

Test Setup

Hardware Configuration

Case: Cooler Master CM 690

Power Supply: Antec TruePower Trio 650

Motherboard: DFI Lanparty 939 nForce4 Ultra

Processor: AMD Opteron 146 2.0GHz (Overclocked 2800 MHz)

Hard Drive: Seagate 320GB SATA

Hard Drive: Seagate 300GB SATA

Hard Drive: Maxtor 250GB SATA

Video: eVGA NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express

Memory: OCZ Dual-Channel PC4000 Gold Edition VX 1024MB

Optical: Lite-ON 52x CD-RW

Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Cooler

Cooling: ThermalRight HR-05 Chipset Heatsink

Display: Samsung Syncmaster 710N 17″ LCD

Software Configuration

Motherboard BIOS: NF4LD406 BIOS Update Revision A (2006/04/06)
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4/500 Series 6.86 32-bit WHQL Certified
Operating System: Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Video Driver: NVIDIA ForceWare Release 162.18 32-bit WHQL Certified
Audio Driver: Creative SB Audigy 2 Series Driver 02.09.0016
Test Software: Orthos Prime v20060420
Test Software: Futuremark 3DMark 2006 1.1.0

{mospagebreak title=First Impressions}
For whatever reason Cooler Master decided to send us the 690 without
the actual product packaging. They should have since our 690 arrived
with damage to the left side panel in an upper corner. You’ll see that
it prevented us from closing the side completely since it was
impossible to screw in place. We love it when a case is well protected
by plush styrofoam and air bags that line the entire interior.
Fortunately, this seems to be an isolated incident as we’ve since
received additional review samples from Cooler Master relating to
enclosures that were shipped without damage. Jumping straight into the
aesthetic elements of the case you’ll notice there aren’t any doors or
gaudy design decisions that stand out. For the most part it follows its
Cooler Master Stacker brethren by providing multiple expansion bays and
an absurd amount of cooling options. For a mid-tower predominantly
constructed using steel it isn’t too heavy when empty, but fully loaded
you’re looking at around 38 pounds. Unfortunately while the paint job
is as standard as they come, it still shows fingerprints, but only
under direct lighting as shown in these snapshots.

Beside the Cooler Master decal lie the power and reset buttons along
with the activity LED’s. Although our LED’s didn’t work, it wasn’t a
big deal since the included 120mm blue LED fan (and the noise) would
alert anyone of the computers on/off status. This may or may not be an
odd placement for these buttons depending on your computer setup. If
you’ve got your rig on the floor then it’ll be quite the pain to have
to reach down every time to power on the system. The power and reset
buttons themselves feel perfectly clicky and must be pressed towards a
certain angle in order to prevent accidental reboots or shut downs. If
you have your system on your desk, you might have to stretch often to
reach the external peripheral ports at the top of the case. Perhaps a
design mimicking the recently debuted HP Blackbird 002, which this case
somehow reminds me of, could be looked at for v2 of this case. Moving
on you’ll notice the two 140mm or 120mm fan capable air inlets on the
left and the 80×15mm fan slot on the right. We always love it when case
manufacturers make their designs friendly towards different sized fans.
It’s something more, if not all case manufacturers should strive to do,
so kudos to Cooler Master on that front. What is a bit peculiar is the
inclusion of the 80×15mm fan slot. You aren’t directly blowing air on a
hot component, so what’s the point? It doesn’t exactly line up with
either the bottom of the CPU socket zone or the PWM area, so what’s the
point? Nonetheless, it’s a nice extra feature that doesn’t really let
the dust bunnies in due to the multi-layered design of the the chassis
and the motherboard itself.

The 690 is what you’d call a true mid-size tower, as opposed to say the recently reviewed Antec Sonata III,
which is more of a mini-size tower due to it’s extra-compact setup
perfect for home offices and dorms. Not so with the 690. This case is
meant for the enthusiast bent on putting some pretty high-end
components in his or her rig. From the get go we can tell you that the
longest NVIDIA video cards on the market today will fit perfectly in
this case, even in SLI configuration. ‘Round back the 690 offers water
cooling tube ports for 1/2″ diameter systems. Again, an excellent
feature for those of us who don’t feel like messing up our cases while
attempting to get some sweet tubing holes drilled. You might be asking
yourself if those purple clips are a part of another unreliable exotic
PCI device retention mechanism. Well, you’re right, but more on that
later. Note the multi-fan size capable slot on the back taking up the
top side as the power supply unit is relegated towards the bottom of
the case. If you’ll look closely you can see the PSU bay is actually
lined with protective insulation to minimize rattling from the PSU fan.
These details might seem ho-hum but in reality you’re starting to
notice the trend of extra details packed into the 690. Both top fan
slots (also multi-fan size capable) offer built-in dust filters that
help cut down on the amount of dust entering the case. That’s the thing
about the 690, it’s really fantastic that there are so many spots for
fans, we just wish that the actual inclusion of them physically onto
the case wasn’t so rough, especially when compared to the NZXT Zero reviewed a while back. Nevertheless for the price you pay you’ll understand why some corners may have needed to be cut.

This is where you can see the top external peripheral connection ports.
Cooler Master has wisely included the three major connection types in
USB 2.0, FireWire, and eSATA. Unfortunately we found that the two USB
2.0 ports are spaced a bit too close to each other and both our
Kingston DataTraveler thumb drives collided with one another.
Nevertheless, it’s nice that they are there. We just wish Cooler Master
would have picked a better location that would prevent dust from
accumulating in the ports. On the plus side you are able to disconnect
unused cables with the exception of the eSATA panel connector if you
aren’t using them. Since we’re using a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2
ZS we can’t even use the front panel hookups so we dumped the
microphone and audio jacks altogether. We sincerely wish manufacturers
would offer this feature, even if it isn’t intended to be a feature
because every bit helps when it comes to cable management. The bottom
of the 690 also offers another fan slot which should prove extremely
useful for SLI/CrossFire setups and overall airflow across the entire
system. We’re only testing what fans come with the case since we like
to keep it fair here at FPSLabs so stick around for the thermal
performance in a few pages.

The
actual case feet are some of the nicest and most well-integrated we’ve
ever seen on a case of this size and class. No scissor slide-out feet
here, you get full sized Shaq Diesel-sized footprints that don’t stick
out and tar up the aesthetic design. We know that messed up corner is
an eyesore, but remember, you shouldn’t be worried over whether or not
you’ll receive your case like this, it really is an isolated incident.
You may not like the looks in the first place, but there is simply no
denying the insane amount of features the 690 offers for the $59.99
price. When we received the 690 and began to study the user
manual we assumed the case would probably retail for approximately
$129.99 to around $149.99. When we found out that it was half that we
were stunned. It’s extremely rare to find such a feature-rich
system at such a low price unless it’s been out for a very long time.
Then again, deeper analysis into the case can reveal why a chassis such
as the 690 can afford the low price.

{mospagebreak title=Features}
Upon
opening the case you’ll notice a box that contains a baggy with plastic
push pins for the various optional fans you may wish to install and a
single cable tie for you neat freaks out there. The actual user manual
is clear and contains well-written English with diagrams showing how to
install components inside the case. This all may seem minuscule, but a
little adds up to a lot with the 690. From the inside you now see where
the 80×15mm fan truly resides in regards to the motherboard placement
and just how big the interior really is. The case accommodates both
standard ATX and Mini-ATX motherboard designs, but if you’ll notice
there’s a series of clips lining the right side of the motherboard
tray. No it isn’t some type of removable motherboard tray mechanism,
there’s no need; there’s plenty of space inside the 690 to work with
and those are actually cable clips designed to route the massive
clutter of cables from your PSU to your devices. For the most part they
work well, we just wished that the actual clips would lock together
because when you’ve filled them to the brim with fatty cables they tend
to open easily. We also wish that they were slightly farther from the
motherboard since systems with right-angled IDE and SATA connectors
could get blocked. The good thing is, you can remove any or all of
these clips by simply twisting them like you would a normal screw and
voila, they’re out!

Although there is no PSU included with the case, you’re probably better
off getting your own anyway. This way you can choose the perfect sized
PSU with long enough cables for your particular motherboard. If you’re
stuck with your existing PSU and the cables don’t reach, then you’re
simply out of luck and will either have to pass up on this case or buy
an extender. We suggest you get the extender otherwise you’ll be
missing out on some sweet features. Forget that the PSU area is
insulated for noise, the motherboard tray beside it has an opening
ready for you radical cable management freaks out there. This along
with the routing clips should really help keep the air moving in your
case. Around the right side of the case the hard drive bay is designed
so that the rear end of your disks are facing this side. Many
enthusiasts have been doing this on purpose for years on cases such as
the Antec Super LANBOY for aesthetic and wire lassoing purposes, and so
too does the 690. Don’t mistake this for your average monotonous HDD
mounting chore. The HDD mounting procedure is actually pretty special.
Unfortunately it is also one of the biggest misfires we’ve ever seen in
an enclosure here at FPSLabs. More on that on the next page.

While there isn’t much room on the right side of the case, you don’t
really need to use it unless you plan on taking your dremel and
performing some über cable management. Note the extremely useful screw
holder built right into the case. This built-in screw holder is
ingenious and gives you no excuse to ever lose a screw again. It’s
really nice to be able to unscrew what you need and screw it straight
into your devices. The funny thing is, for the most part you won’t be
using the screws very much besides mounting your motherboard and your
PCI devices. This is a real man’s (or woman’s) workhorse case, no doubt
about that. The reason we say you won’t be using screws much is due to
the included 5.25″ and 3.25″ drive bay latches. They really do work
well. We wish we could say the same for the PCI retention device, but
alas, you can’t always have your cake and eat it too. We recommend most
users purchase an additional fan and set it up in the spot at the
bottom. Warm air rises so forcing this natural phenomena to occur while
being protected from dust by the included filter is another nice touch
as you can see below.

Of course if you really want to rock the heat out of your system you
can install either a 120mm or 140mm fan up top to keep the air moving.
This is a tall case compared to some others we’ve reviewed, so if
you’re running a monster setup it might be wise to keep the case free
of any potential dead zones where hot air might get stuck. The
additional cooling will increase the noise factor so keep that mind.
The way the HDD bay is placed inside the case will restrict airflow to
your video cards and surrounding components. That’s why the orifices
above the PCI device area are still present and why you have the bottom
fan bracket in the first place. It also should work pretty well unless
you are a stinking pig and have an incredibly dirty desk. The case feet
are tall enough to bring in enough air and not create an empty suck
vacuum. Note how nice and neat the routing clips are compared to the
final fully built system and you’ll understand why a lock for the clips
would really have been nice.

Before we tear up the inside any further we still have to go over the
marvelously designed exterior face plates. Sure it might not be as
simple as swinging a door open, but all you have to do is reach down
under the front, insert your fingers and pull. The front of the case
should come off presto no problems. You’ll have to tilt it back a good
25 degrees in order to do this, so throw in last semesters chemistry
textbook underneath to prop it up, then go rinse off the dust. Yes, you
read that correctly, there is nothing preventing you from ripping off
the front and givin’ it a good rinse with your garden hose. There are
no electronic parts on this piece and you can still press the power and
reset buttons to your hearts desire, so nice forward thinking from
Cooler Master on this end. This exposes the 120mm blue LED fan that
runs at around 1200 RPM and claims to exude 21dBA. Whether or not this
is true we are unable to confirm, but simply staring at the rotation
and seeing the pattern of blue lets you know it isn’t going extremely
fast, so it sure isn’t making that much noise either. You can unscrew
the grill that holds it up and replace it with your own fan if you
want. Having a moist paper towel and wiping down the grill (or rinsing
it too) would probably be a good idea once every few months.

One thing we don’t understand are the steel guards that case
manufacturers keep inside their cases. These dangerous things are
extremely sharp and can cause some pretty gnarly cuts if you aren’t
careful. We tried using the screw and twist method but we ended up
using the blunt end of the screwdriver to bash the whole damn thing
out. Note to Cooler Master and every other manufacturer in existence:
get rid of this crap. It might be helpful in some way on your end, but
it doesn’t block a damn thing worth blocking except enthusiasts trying
to build their system, kapeesh? Because of how easy air can come into
the case through the 5.25″ area, users who are going way overboard in
terms of hard drives can use the 5.25″ drive bay area to install their
own HDD drive adapters. Whatever type of HDD enclosure or bracket you
choose you’ll rest assured knowing that you’re getting cool air that is
actually being fed in through a mini-dust filter on every single 5.25″
drive bay cover, straight to your hard drives. Talk about Cooler
Master…

{mospagebreak title=Features - Continued}
Not only is the front fascia removable, so too is the entire top panel!
The picture below shows how the top external peripheral connections are
removable and how they are routed through a large hole at the top of
the case. If you are really into water cooling it wouldn’t be such a
bad idea to permanently remove this top cover and affix your radiator
in this very convenient area. You might even be able to use the
existing internal slots to affix your fans and push air through the
fins on your rad if said fans are powerful enough. This level of
customization transcends what most cases, let alone $59.99 cases offer.
To actually remove the top panel you’ll have to open both sides of your
case and tug on tabs that line the top of the interior which lock the
panel into place. Just lift the top slightly as you unlock each tab and
it should be off in no time. Again, a simple procedure that didn’t
require the use of tools with the exception of opening the actual side
panels.

What doesn’t require a single tool is installing 5.25″ optical drives.
This has so far been one of the easiest and most welcomed of the
features we’ve seen emerging slowly on cases over the past decade.
Installing an optical drive into the 690 is a five step process. First,
push the latch lock back, then lift the entire latch, insert the drive
and make sure the holes are lined up, lower the latch and lock it into
place. That’s it. No other side to contend with, no screws at all. This
is just one of the many design elements that puts the 690 atop the rest
of the competition in the feature category. Although you might be
worried that securing your optical drive like this is a little risky,
trust us when we say it works perfectly. Once you install something
like this you’ll wish all cases had this feature. The only thing you
need to look out for is when and if you are installing a 3.25″ device.
Make sure that you don’t forget which way the adapter bay goes
otherwise you’ll screw in your device only to realize you installed it
backwards. A simple sticker with an arrow pointing towards the front
could alleviate this minor nuisance but the popularity of the 3.25″
drive bay has diminished anyway so it’s not a big deal.

Now the unfortunate part of the case. We love seeing exotic case
apparatuses, but only when they work. The good is that the HDD mounting
mechanism works incredibly well. Compared with the piss poor one found
on the NZXT Zero, the 690 actually makes sense and functions
wonderfully as a vibration dampener, tool-less installation module, and
easy to pull-out drive holder. All that you need to do to install your
HDD is place it halfway inside the holder and bend the plastic sides to
make the HDD slip in and into the plastic faux screws that actually
keep your HDD in place. If you do this correctly you should be able to
swing your HDD around like you would a jump rope and the damn thing
won’t fall out! We wouldn’t recommend doing such a thing but we really
wanted to test how secure one of the most fragile and important
components in a system would be. Thankfully by designing the HDD rack
the way Cooler Master did, in the event of a catastrophic failure your
HDD drives will only collapse on top of each other and not your video
and sound cards. The huge problem we found with the 690 that we
mentioned earlier is the fact that IDE/PATA hard drives cannot be used
at all with the Cooler Master 690.

The picture above shows two SATA HDD’s installed perfectly with both
the power and data connectors fitting fine as they should. However
because of the steel cage that wraps around the back slightly you are
unable to install any IDE (PATA) HDD. This is because when you install
either the IDE cable or the four pin molex cable you have to forcefully
shift the drive to the left or right just a tiny bit in order for
either connector to be fully inserted. That’s the problem. Once you
hook up one connector, it’s impossible to connect the other. We triple
checked with multiple drives to make sure it wasn’t just a fluke but
unfortunately every drive tested was blocked by the case itself. Talk
about disappointing, we’re sure you know that most hard drives on the
planet still revolve around the IDE/PATA connection, so to lose that
entire customer base and make it so you’re only able to use SATA drives
is a huge blow for both Cooler Master and consumers interested in the
690 alike.

Quality control missed this and for that Cooler Master must be reeling,
but if your system consists only of SATA hard drives then you have no
problem of any kind. What is also concerning is the exotic PCI device
retention mechanism. Ideally it can accommodate multiple types of
devices that use either one or two PCI slots and can actually fasten
the device as well as your everyday conventional screw. Regrettably we
cannot say this about the 690’s contraption. To actually use the device
you must follow another five step process. First you press down on the
locking ramp and then you pull it up so that it’s fully opened. Next
you remove the existing PCI plate and insert your own PCI device.
Lastly you press the lock down until a distinct click occurs. The
problem is that the PCI device isn’t being necessarily held in by the
small peg that fits through the screw hole - it’s held in by sheer
pressure. This is a huge problem since the actual peg is so small it
doesn’t do jack. It’s just sitting in the screw hole and doesn’t
prevent our eVGA NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT from sliding around. I was able
to freely shift the video and sound cards vertically with hardly any
pressure. This is unacceptable. Fortunately for Cooler Master, you can
still use good ‘ole fashioned screws to lock your devices in place as
evidenced by the photo above.

Don’t
get us wrong, we love exotic PCI retention contraptions, but only when
they work. It’s too bad that this feature has basically gone to waste.
Many case manufacturers try to come up with cool new designs that help
simplify the installation, but sometimes you just come up short. If
you’re thinking of transporting your system inside a 690, you’re
risking a lot if you don’t physically screw your devices into place.
Don’t even think about shipping a system cross-country without doing
it, you’ll be asking for serious trouble. Overall when it came to
installing the entire system, most of the process was hassle free and
quite enjoyable. We won’t fudge the fact that cable management in this
case (and most cases with PSU’s at the bottom) is a bit of a hassle,
but Cooler Master makes every effort to rectify the situation by
including as friendly a case to hide cables in as any we’ve seen in
quite some time. Since you can install devices into the 5.25″ drive bay
however you want you won’t have to worry about your cables reaching the
uppermost area of the case. What you will have to look out for is if
your 24-pin power plug is in a unfriendly position in relation to the
PSU.

{mospagebreak title=Noise & Temperatures}
The temperatures overall aren’t too bad for a system of this price
range. Obviously additional cooling fans would drop temperatures even
further but for fairness’ sake we tested the system with the fans
equipped as-is. For our testing purposes we used a combination of
software and hardware with the Hardware Sensor Monitor program and our
lab approved Fluke 62 Mini Infrared Thermometer. It offers the best
accuracy in its class, +/- 1% of reading. It also has a very wide
temperature range from -30º to 500ºC (–20º to 932ºF.) The Fluke 62 was
used at a constant distance of 10 inches from each surface and each
reading was measured at an ambient temperature of 25º C. Keep in mind
when running the system at 100% the entire rig was quite noisy due to
the increased CPU fan speed and the relatively high levels of noise the
stock fans emit. Personally, this writer wouldn’t want to sleep in the
same room with this case. Setting temperature triggers via the system
BIOS or using a third-party temperature monitoring program such as
SpeedFan would be a wise choice. While taking each measurement, Orthos
Prime & Futuremark 3DMark 06 ran on a loop for 60 minutes to ensure
100% CPU & GPU utilization at all times.

With
our test setup, the AMD Opteron 146 has a stock speed of 2.0GHz and was
overclocked to 2.8GHz, which required the OCZ Dual-Channel PC4000 Gold
Edition VX ram to run with 3.2 Volts and the nForce 4 chipset to run
with 1.8 Volts. This of course caused extra heat to dissipate into the
case. Yes, this system might seem outdated to our readership, but it
still emits a ton of heat compared to other systems at FPSLabs.
Considering the internal design of the Cooler Master 690 compared to
that of the Antec 900 and NZXT Zero, we were expecting a bit more.
Since the components are exactly the same, we’ve decided to show you
the difference in thermal performance. Obviously the Antec 900 blows
everything away but at any given point the Cooler Master 690 doesn’t
lag too far behind. Only in measuring the temperature of the PWM area
did we notice a huge 10 degree difference. This is no doubt a result of
the lack of airflow to that particular area. However, this can be fixed
by adding at least an additonal 120mm fan to the bottom of the case to
start pushing air more efficiently towards that area of the
motherboard. Keep in mind if you are interested in installing any type
of cards in SLI or CrossFire configuration we recommend that you
install the additional side fan as well in order to haul air as quickly
as possible over the cards and out the rear. All in all the performance
was dead last in practically every category, but for the most part it
wasn’t by much.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
The Cooler Master CM 690 offers a chassis that is perfectly designed
for the budget conscious consumer who seeks a deliciously feature rich
case. We said it before and we’ll say it again, despite the monstrous
mistake of being unable to install old school ATA/IDE hard disk drives
and the exotic PCI retention mechanism being practically useless, this
chassis still provides an impressive amount of value. Cooler Master
managed to pack so many small touches into this case that it’s hard to
ignore the potential this case has for housing your system long term.
If you want to pack in some of the longer video cards of today, you’ll
have no problem installing them. Just make sure you keep an eye on
those temperatures and if they are uncomfortably toasty, add in another
140mm fan for starters.

Pros
+ Lots of space to work with
+ Capable of housing multiple fans across multiple sizes
+ Ability to customize 5.25″ drive bay installation at will
+ Included routing cable clips help lessen wire mess
+ HDD mounting mechanism wonderfully easy to use
+ 5.25″ optical drive installation method is the easiest we’ve encountered to date
+ Superb external port variety with USB, FireWire, eSATA
+ Cable management chore is alleviated by overall design
+ Water cooling friendly
+ Built-in screw holder ingenious
+ Price!

Cons
- External peripheral connection ports exposed to dust
- USB 2.0 ports too close to one another
- Internal routing clips too close to motherboard
- External fan mounts are a bit unpolished
- Relatively noisy machine, especially under load
- ATA/IDE hard drives are blocked and cannot be used
- Exotic PCI device retention apparatus completely useless
- Side panels may be too stiff

Rating
9 out of 10

The Cooler Master CM 690 shows us what happens when manufacturers
attempt to come up with new designs, especially when it comes to
securing PCI devices. Although this and the anti-IDE HDD bay are pretty
big mistakes on the part of Cooler Master, the insane amount of
features at this price range is unheard of. Yes, it doesn’t exactly sit
well with us that not all of the devices work as they should, but for
the most part Cooler Master definitely has an ace up their sleeve and
the Cooler Master 690 is it. We understand that the Cooler Master CM
690 is certainly a great looking case but these physical faults and the
fact that it came in dead last in every single thermal performance test
prevents it from scoring any higher according to our rating criteria.
The thing to note is that it wasn’t extremely far behind and any
thermal problems can easily be cured by adding an additional fan.
Overall the Cooler Master CM 690 is a excellent case. If you’re looking
to build a high-end performance system filled to the brim with features
inside a sub $100 chassis then look no further than the Cooler Master
CM 690.

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