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Cooler Master Centurion 590 Mid-Tower Case
Installation
This is as forgiving as a case can be for installing. Any parts, any sizes, and any order is possible, making it tops for the first-time builder or the weary-of-stupidity-in-design builder. About the only thing that needs planning is, in the case of very long expansion cards, making sure that the hard drives in the cage don't come too close and complicate things. Cooling Unless every single fan spot gets used for intake, there's absolutely no way this case could run hot. Even the back of the motherboard has venting. The real risk is over-cooling, which could turn the computer into a dust vault. That, and, with a full complement of fans, you could make it unbearably loud. Small price for some, but, even with the stock fans, there's enough passive venting to keep mortal hardware temperate. The stock blue LED fans are quiet, probably not as quiet as listed (17dB? Around the corner, maybe), and have 3-pin-to-4-pin Molex power adapters pre-installed. Quality Check There are no failings in the build, and nothing broke on me. I would rather see some kind of fan mounts, screwing them through the panels is a great way to really hear the fans spin, but I can't really argue. Not for this price. Each little tweak is non-intrusive; they're sound adaptations, none of which are taken too far. A side benefit to the steel-on-steel construction: you could probably span a desktop across two of these. Conclusion On the inside, it's very simple. In fact, it's downright friendly. Perfect for beginners or just hassle-free building. From the outside, the Centurion 590 got gaming looks boiled down to the basics: black mesh. It doesn't conceal any surprises, either. It's just as solid as it looks, and those looks are pretty good, even up close. Of course, it's all moot if you're looking for swanky looks and features--this is where those don't go. The case is more Spartan than Centurion. But, if you're tied to a budget and shopping for an ATX case, or are just looking for a case that holds your machine--why do those crazy people want those lights, anyway--this is the direction you should be headed. And no one's going to say it doesn't have airflow covered. Pros Classic Style Strong Tool-free stuff's good Much improved paintjob Nothing to fault Cheap Cons Fans screw directly to the panels Not special
Related Reviews Add Comment
3 User Comments 1 - Posted by
Tyler
on May 29, 2008 - 8:08 pm How can you have a case review without pictures of a system installed? In fact one can infer from the review that a system wasn't actually installed at all. What gives?
2 - Posted by
Kurtis
on May 29, 2008 - 8:55 pm We always install hardware in our case reviews. Max just didn't take photos of it all installed.
3 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on May 29, 2008 - 9:02 pm Yeah, I'm still learning how to use my camera, and I haven't quite gotten a hang of changing the order in which I do things. For what it's worth, I installed a full ATX system (Asus nForce 4 SLI 32, Zalman 9500 heatsink, 8600 GT w/ Zalman heatsink, some kind of hard drive, another kind of DVD rom, and a Seasonic S12 PSU) and didn't have any problems. Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
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