It is a mid-tower enclosure with some assets that its predecessors lacked

Jul 30, 2013 07:51 GMT  ·  By

Since Cubitek has the HTPC market well in hand at the moment, we have to look elsewhere for a chassis more suited towards the standard consumer, although that might be pushing it.

After all, the Cooler Master chassis we are about to look at isn't the sort that just anyone can or should bother trying to buy.

As a successor to the CM 690 line of cases, it not only has a lot to live up to, but it needs to set a new standard as well.

Thus, the CM 690 III is a high-end product. So while prices may vary by region and retailer once shipments start in August, they will be high.

Not that Cooler Master isn't justifying the price of course. If it failed to do so, it wouldn't last for much longer, especially now that PC sales are slowing.

First off, the CM 690 III mid-tower has enough room to hold microATX and ATX motherboards, be they Intel-based or made for AMD CPUs/APUs.

Secondly, the chassis has three exposed 5.25-inch drive bays (for ODDs, fan controllers, water coolers, drive cages, etc.), seven hidden 3.5-inch bays (for HDDs), and 10 hidden 2.5-inch bays.

That isn't to say the enclosure has 17 internal bays. The number of 10 2.5-inch bays is reached by converting the HDD/SSD combo cages, while one is located under the ODD cage, one behind the mainboard tray, and one at the bottom.

Lots of fans are pre-installed and/or possible to install afterwards, and there is enough internal space for VGA cards of 423 mm / 16.6 inches as well.

That will do wonders when buyers decide to implement high-end graphics setups, even multi-GPU ones. On that note, the maximum CPU cooler height is of 171mm / 6.7 inches.

Clearly, Cooler Master isn't cutting any corners. Even the I/O panel located at the top has more than the usual share of connectors. Sure, the audio in/out jacks are expected, but instead of the normal 2 USB ports, we have four: 2 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0.

Finally, drive installation should be possible toollessly.