The new standard in value

Anyone building a custom PC can take two routes: get a super cheap case for $20-$40, or get a really high-end one for $150. There's not much in the way of "middle road" these days -- Cooler Master aims to change that with the RC-690.

The RC-690 can generally be had for $40 or less after rebates, but it feels like it should cost $100 or maybe even more. Allow me to explain why.

At first glance, the RC-690 is a rather unremarkable case. The metal grille design across the front is plain and unobtrusive, and the sides are simply finished in semi-gloss black. For me, this simple case design is a big plus. I absolutely despise the flashy and garish cases that are in the mainstream. For people wanting to stand out from the rest of the crowd, however, the RC-690 isn't your best choice.

The internals of the case are where you will be amazed. Cooler Master went a long way to "do it right". Everything inside the case feels well-designed and fits well together. All the drive bays, mounting holes, and cable management clips work well together. Mounting a motherboard, internal drives, and running cables is quite simple. Clearly Cooler Master spent time on making this foolproof, as I wasn't confused by anything.

Everything has a nice "snap" or "click" feel to it. There's very little creaking or bending in the case -- incredible given the low price. I've had to work on some pretty flimsy cases before, and let me tell you that nothing sucks more than the feeling of "I hope I don't break something" each time you open it up. With the RC-690, I'm not worried at all. The build quality rivals or perhaps even surpasses the nice Dell desktop cases.

The case does have an interesting internal layout, with the power supply being mounted at the bottom. This makes the cable management and installation simpler, especially if you later upgrade and would rather not remove the entire motherboard to swap PSUs. From a cooling standpoint, bottom mount may not be optimal. The case is quite large, having enough room to hold the longer GeForce 8800 and Radeon 3870 cards! No modification is necessary to run even two of these in SLI mode, a big plus. There's plenty of drive bays to accommodate RAID setups or even fan/audio controllers. The extra room helps with cooling too.

The RC-690 has plenty of cooling ability as well. The case comes with 3 fans pre-installed: one on the side panel, one at the rear, and one at the front. The grille/mesh design on the front makes air pass through very easily (though it gets dusty). There's a variety of mounting points for additional fans on the side, back, and front. No fabrication or goofy brackets are necessary to add more fans. There's an interesting fan mounting point for under the motherboard as well. Large CPU coolers fit just fine, another big plus for overclockers (or the paranoid).

My only complaint about the RC-690 would be the goofy power and reset buttons. They're awkwardly placed on the right-hand side and have a strange action to them. It's hard to tell if you're actually engaging the button or just wiggling it in place, but after a while you'll figure it out. I wish the buttons had been front or top-mounted for easier access. The top of the case also has some awkward auxiliary ports that I've never bothered hooking up. If your case sits on the floor and you hate reaching around back all the time, I suppose they'd be convenient. I think Cooler Master ruined the look of the case with the cheesy power buttons and top-mounted ports.