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.