Installation

Applying my motherboard to this chassis proved to be easier than I imagined. With the last case I reviewed I had trouble with the motherboard secondary power and my CPU fan: I couldn’t feasibly put one then the other in without cutting myself on some part of the case (Since apparently my CPU fan is made of blades…). This was not even a slight problem with the 690 II, there was plenty of room for me to work around both and not crush my hand between a fan and a wall of steel.

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I ran into a problem when I was installing extra fans which was the top grill; There was no viable way of removing it that I could find. It took a certain amount of deliberation to discover two rather small tabs that had to be unfolded and carefully pushed through a pair of matching slits in the case so that the top grill could be removed. One of these tabs instantly snapped as I attempted to unfold it;  such is the downside of using thin steel, it does not like moving. I never did manage to remove the top grill out of fear of breaking the other tab and never being able to put the grill back.

The tool-less HDD bays were almost a dream-come-true. Sturdy, easy to remove and assert, no need for any tools at all. It’s a shame that HDDs have to be placed in backwards. Like some other Cooler Master cases, there’s a lever that closes over the top of the tool-less part of the bay, and you can’t close the case without closing the lever. All this means is that you have to route some wires to the other side of your case in order to plug your HDDs in, but this is unorthodox and means that if you still have IDE cables you’re unable to slave a HDD to a CD/DVD drive.

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