CoolerMaster CM 690 III Review

 

Cooling Options

The roof of the case offers 65mm of space which if you’re using 25mm thick fans means you’ll be able to get any rad no greater than 40mm thick up here.  This means along with custom rads such as the Hardware labs Black Ice GT Stealth series you’ll also be able to fit the thicker XSPC RS240.  Any of the current crop of 240mm AIOs, including CoolerMasters own Eisberg and Seidon 240 series will also fit just fine, along with others such as Corsairs H100i.  However, as NZXTs Kraken X60 is a 280mm unit it just isn’t going to fit up here. 

     

 

There is hover a slight limiting factor in placing rads in the roof, and that is that as the rebate into the roof is 29mm deep by 285mm long, whichever rad you opt for must fit into this rebate.  This means that no rad greater than 285mm is going to fit up here (assuming side ports on the end tank).  As a result the XSPC EX cross flow at 290mm long will be too big as well as AX series at just 1mm over the 285mm of space available.  Now you might be thinking that it’d be easy sorted by just sticking the fans in first and slinging the rad underneath, allowing it to protrude proud of the rebate.  However, as the rebate is 29mm deep, and a case fan is only 25mm thick this won’t work.  In the image below left you can see we’ve placed an XSPC RS 240 in the hole, which at 277mm long is still a snug fit.

    

 

 

If you are after placing a thicker rad then the front of the case is the pace to be.  With all the drive cages removed the world is pretty much you oyster, however, with the gap between the floor of the 5.25″ bays and the floor of the case being just 290mm you’re still going to have to be mindful of the length of the rad.  It’s also worth bearing in mind that you’re going to have to steer it past the various lugs and tabs that stick out so if you’re planning a build using a thick rad it might be worth putting it in first before anything else.

    

 

Fortunately if you need to retain some storage and still fancy a thicker rad or perhaps a push pull set up then all is not lost as the lower drive cage can actually be relocated further inboard opening up a gap of some 60mm in which to play.  In the example below we’ve again used the 35mm think RS240 both with and without an extra set of fans.  It fit’s but only just.  It is though a cert that any of the AIOs which are way under 35mm thick will go in here as a push pull set up just fine.

      

       

 

If you’re still using air then the 690 III is also a good proposition, able as it is to take coolers up to 171mm in height.  The Havik 120 that we use for comparison purposes fits in here a treat, looking well proportioned to the rest of the case.