Cooler Master CM 690 II Case Review

1. Introduction2. Cooler Master CM 690 II (External)3. The Cooler Master CM 690 II Case (Internal and Installation)4. Testing Methodology and Performance Results5. Acoustics Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

For our testing today we are using a Core i7 920 D0 system which we will overclock to 4.1ghz later.

Chassis: Cooler Master CM 690 II
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 D0
Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme 6
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer (thanks to Crucial as always for this)
Storage: GSkill 60GB Sandforce SSD
Graphics: AMD HD5870
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W

Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64bit

Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2

Firstly let us have a look at the chassis design and airflow, as it comes ‘out of the box’.

The Cooler Master case follows a traditional front to rear airflow system which has been proven to work well. There are two 140mm fans, one at the front acting as an intake and one at the top acting as an exhaust. At the rear we have a 120mm fan which also acts as an exhaust. We are not using the 120mm and 140mm Noctua fans yet on the side panel and the system is running at reference clock speeds so we can get a baseline result. Room ambient temperatures are maintained at 25c throughout testing.

Thanks to good airflow from the front of the case with hot air being expelled from the top and rear the system maintains strong ambient temperatures throughout.

Now we want to overclock the 920 D0 to 4.1ghz to see how this will effect not only CPU temperatures, but ambient flow.

A few of the diodes rise by a single degree and the CPU peaks around 78c at these settings.

Now we will add the 120mm and 140mm Noctua fans, with the 140mm acting as intake and the 120mm acting as exhaust.

Adding the two high quality Noctua fans drops ambient temps as recorded by our diodes. Memory, motherboard and graphics card temperatures all decrease by a couple of degrees also. This case clearly benefits from side mounted fans.

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