Cooler Master 690 - A Closer Look
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A Closer Look
The first thing that interested me was that it was SLI certified. Now what does this mean? We know SLI certified motherboards can run SLI, and there is SLI RAM that has some benefit over regular memory, but what does a case do? It provides no performance to the PC, so what makes some cases SLI certified? Googling around and visiting nVidia's website, I found the official definition and reasoning for SLI certified cases:
NVIDIA SLI certification ensures a quality user experience by doing both a full thermal qualification test and a mechanical fit test on each SLI-Ready case to ensure that it's ready for all of your SLI-Ready components.
Only cases that pass NVIDIA SLI certification can be called "NVIDIA SLI-Ready certified." Be sure to look for the NVIDIA SLI-Ready badge when you buy your next case.
Here is a shot of the externals of the case. It's a rather plain black case, but don't let that set you the wrong way; it has lots to offer. It is a mid-sized ATX case with the ability to accept mATX motherboards as well.
The front is almost entirely mesh. This is great for airflow and I think excellent for the optical drives and hard drives on the other side. While neither of these devices would require active cooling, they do warm up, and the constant air coming in will keep them nice and cool, not to mention allow more air into the rest of the case. Don't worry about all that dust that might be coming in your case. The mesh is all filtered to keep only air coming through.
On the right side we find the power and reset buttons along with the power LED and HD activity LED. It's very sleek and subtle in the whole design of the case. This is either a hit or miss spot. People with the case on their left will love this as the buttons are right there in easy access. For people that have the computer on their right, this is an annoyance, as they are lunging over the case to turn on the computer.
On the left side of the case we find two fan mesh spots. They are perfectly placed over the traditional spot of the CPU and also around the GPUs. This case is "SLI certified" so I guess this is one of those perks for having a case made for SLI. This should really help get air into the coolers of the GPUs and also bring cooler air into the case.
The case doesn't ship with a side window. This bums me out some. I enjoy having a window so I can see my hardware hard at work, but I think it still looks good without one. If you really must have a side window, you can buy one from Cooler Master. The window side still gives you a 120mm fan for GPU cooling. You will, however, lose the fan by the CPU.
The back is a little different from traditional cases. The spot for the power supply is on the bottom of the case, and the motherboard I/O area is pushed up to the top. It's a newer design that originally debuted a few years ago. There is a 120mm fan sucking air out of the case. Something interesting here: two holes for tubing, specifically for water cooled computers. This certainly beats my attempt when I tried making holes in my old case by removing PCI slots. It isn't big enough for ½" tubing, however.
On the bottom we have some big feet on this case. This is to help lift the case off the ground and allow air into the case from the bottom. We also have air intakes for a 120 or 140 mm fan and also one for the fan on the PSU, which is sitting on the bottom of the case.
Next: A Closer Look continued >>
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