Time to mount our test gear into the CM 690 II Advanced case. It comprises off the following parts :

Asus Crosshair IV motherboard

AMD 1090T CPU with Thermalright VenomousX cooler

4Gb Corsair Dominator PC12800C8 ram

Asus 5870 ATI videocard

Corsair Sandforce F60 SSD

NEC 16X Optical DVD drive

BeQuiet Systempower 600W PSU

Note : We specially chose this BeQuiet PSU , as it is non modular. So decent cable management is a requirement for a clean build.

Cable management is a breeze with such an abundance of pre cut holes and room. GPU's up to 300mm and CPU cooler up to 177mm are supported. If your CM 690 II looks messy on the inside, it's the assembler to blame...

The pre cut holes are cleverly positioned. Allowing routing of the 8 pin CPU cable. The big bottom cutout should be more than sufficient for most power supplies.

Our BeQuiet Power supply is pretty small for it's size. Thus barely resting on the last two rubber grommets. A nifty cutout, just above the PSU, for the audio cable is also foreseen.

The test results :

The optimal airflow generated due to the 3 present fans helps to grab the top spot amongst the cases I tested. The Bitfenix case lacked a front fan, while the Xigmatek Panthéon had two, but blowing sideways over the HDs. The Coolermaster leaves no option open for heat to be trapped inside your case.

Similar temperature behaviour for the motherboard chipset temperatures. The onboard sensors were readout via the AIDA64 software and logged. Especially the Southbridge chipset benefits nicely by the extra airflow provided by the front 140mm fan. We only installed one SSD and 3.5" HD. So more drives will reduce the airflow. The hot 890FX Northbridge chipset operates at lower temperatures too, increasing overal stability and lifespan. With the option to install 2 sidepanel fans more airflow can be generated directly onto the GPU's and motherboard.

No change in GPU temps, probably the fan is spinning at a lower rpm to keep the GPU at the readout temps.

 Since both previously tested cases were already dead silent. It was hard to improve the 35dBa sound readout of the Xigmatek. 35dBa is similar to the noise you hear in a quiet living room. In most situations the GPU/CPU fan, HD rattling will be responsible for the extra noise. The used fans are dead silent !