Cooler Master CM 690 III Review

Performance Analysis

The first thing to note about the CM 690 III is that both of its single speed fans are quiet – it was hard to hear them in our labs. That said, you will certainly hear the noise of your graphics card and CPU cooler almost in full, because of the large ventilation areas that adorn practically every panel.

The CPU delta T, 52°C, is distinctly average, though we didn't expect more than this given that it's a single, relatively slow-spinning 120mm fan that deals with the vast majority of heat here. This is proven by the fact that removing all of the front drive cages and opening up a clear path for airflow from the front fan didn't lower the delta T even by a single degree.


GPU cooling, on the other hand, is pretty good. The initial result of 49°C is the most common result in the charts, but most cases make more noise than the Cooler Master one to obtain it, an advantage given to the CM 690 III by its 200mm fan, which can shift more air at lower noise levels. In this case, removing the drive cages does have an impact, lowering the result by a modest 2°C – much less than we saw when doing the same thing with the Phanteks Enthoo Pro, but an improvement nonetheless, and one that brings it to 47°C, which far fewer cases can manage. Still, there's definitely room for improvement – some slightly faster fans with a fan controller to limit them would have given the CM 690 III a bigger range when balancing noise and performance.

Conclusion

As we said, it's getting harder and harder for cases to really stand out as something special in this part of the market. Over the past few years we've seen cases here from almost every major manufacturer gradually establish a baseline level of build quality, ease of use and features that is really quite good. To be clear, this is not a complaint, as it gives users a raft of quality chassis to choose from, meaning you can generally make a reliable selection based on the design that most takes your fancy and the exact feature set that meets your needs, without compromising on much else. However, it does make our job trickier and more nuanced when it comes to recommending what you should actually buy.


Anyway, with our philosophising about the case market out the way, the CM 690 III is another strong contender in the mid-range market, but not quite one that can claim to be the one case to rule them all. The tried and tested design holds up well to modern eyes (again, a windowed version is available too) and the build quality is a reminder of what gave Cooler Master a sterling reputation to begin with. It's well covered when it comes to features too, thanks to a heap of fan mounts and filters, good connectivity and a flexible interior with lots of storage options. Building your system inside is easy, as is tidying it.

Our main gripe is the out-of-box cooling; of course, you have ample room to improve upon this, but even so some faster fans with a simple fan controller solution, as with the Arc Midi R2, would have opened the chassis up to a wider range of users. We've also seen better water-cooling support in cases of this size. You might accuse us of nitpicking there, and you might well be right, but it's a necessity with so much choice available. Nevertheless, if the CM 690 III matches your aesthetic and feature criteria, there's little to be disappointed with, and we're happy to recommend the purchase.