Cooler Master ATC-710 - Conclusion page 2
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Cooler Master ATC-710
Product: Cooler Master ATC-710
Price: $140 - $180 per Price Watch
Availability: Now
Written by: Chad (Memphist0)
Reviewed: August, 2002
A couple things to point out that are not listed in the official specifications:
the 3 1/2" drive bays are removable to make it a little easier to install you hard drives, floppy, or zip/jazz drive;
also, as you can see in the first picture above is there are little plastic strips attached to the bottom of the case, you screw these to the sides of your 5 1/4" drives so they can easily be slid in and out of the drive bays;
there is only a power button and power light, no reset button or hard disk drive activity light;
the power light is a blue led :)
the back I/O plate is removable so if you are currently using, or upgrade to, a motherboard that is legacy free you can remove and use the one the motherboard manufacturer supplied; and
the removable side panel and front door are lockable.
To give you a better idea how well everything fits in the case, here are some more interior pictures with everything installed.
The only problems I had with installation was the GeForce4 Ti4400 in my case came very close to hitting the backs of my hard drives so I just moved them up a few slots higher (this can be seen in the second picture above). Not really a big deal, but I lose out on the benefit of one of the front case fans being installed in front of the lower three 3 1/2" drive bays to help cool the hard drives.
And one of my favorite features of this case is the door over the exposed 5 1/4" drives. Its always a shame when someone buys a nice case and the drives' face plates don't match the color or material. But thanks to the door on the ATC-710 you simply close it to hide the butt-ugly drives. However, if you have a floppy disk in the drive, when the little button pops out it obstructs the case door from closing properly. You could mount the floppy a little further back in the drive bay to prevent this, but the floppy drive's face plate would no longer be flush with the case. Not a big deal considering hardly anyone uses floppies anymore. But something we felt warranted mention.
Conclusion: A very solid case that only looks even better in person. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to live up to the flashiness or pizzazz of some of Cooler Master's older cases, like the ATC-210 and ATC-410. Overall, I'm very happy with this case but really miss not having a reset button, hard disk drive activity light, or removable motherboard tray. I guess no case can truly be perfect for everyone. Lets take a quick look at the Highs and Lows.
Highs:
Great Looking Face Plate
Based on the Chieftec Case, hey I figure if your going to copy some one - copy someone good
Plenty of Air Flow
Very Roomy, although the drives could interfere with a GeForce 4 or Voodoo 5
Blue LED Light (its the little things I like)
Metal Screen to block cat hair and some dust from getting in the case.
Lows:
No Reset Button
No Hard Drive Activity Light
No Removable Motherboard Tray
It came with exactly 0 fans
Floppy Drive can get in the way of door
No fan on the side or top
Not Tool-less
We'd personally like to thank the Cooler Master Co., Ltd for giving us the opportunity to review one of their fine quality cases. And if your looking to pick one up, you'll find these and many others over @the CoolerGuys website. And tell 'em OCA sentcha. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the review. Feel free to head into the Forums for discussion, or stop by the Front Page and check out more GooSH!™ here at OCA..
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