Cooler Master Case Recommendation [SOLVED]

[Sam25]

I want to change my older computer case to a new Cooler Master chassis. Visited quite a few stores where I live today and looks like these are the models available presently:

CM Centurion 590
CM 690
CM Elite 330
CM HAF 922
CM Mystique 632S

I liked the CM Mystique 632S very much and was thinking of buying that. The CM HAF 932 is also nice but it's much more expensive compared to the others which are available.

What would be a good option, getting the Mystique or anything else from the above list?

TIA

 

[yh125d]

The mystique is ugly, gimmicky, has poor cooling, and the front doors look like they'd break in about a week

Get a Cent 590 or RC-690

 

[Tullphan]

Yeah...if it has to be one of those 5, get a 590 or 690 definitely.
I had a 690 & was pleased with the cooling & cable management. I wasn't pleased with the difficulty of removing the side panel. Whether or not it gets easier as one removes/installs it more, I don't know for I didn't have it that long.

 

[Sam25]

Thanks for the advice! Will definitely look into the CM690. As far as the doors on the Mystique are concerned, I don't find it gimmicky and actually happened to like it.

 

[faxon]

get the HAF 922. the 932 is worth every penny (i own one) and i wouldnt trade it for a 922 unless i absolutely HAD to have a smaller case. given the cable management, airflow, build quality, and all around appearance of the HAF cases, they are probably the 2 best cases in their price range as far as features and ease of use go. i should mention, i own a 690, and while im happy with it based on what i paid, i really wish the HAF 922 had been out at the time, as i would have gladly spent another $30 to get everything you get with the HAF in a mid tower for my secondary comp. the 690 just doesnt compare. it took me all in all, about an hour to put the parts into my 690 and get everything wired up and routed so it was clean, including adding and swapping around fans and what not. it only took me 30 minutes to do this with my HAF 932, and this is including meticulously routing, anchoring, or otherwise hiding every single cable coming out of the thing back behind the motherboard tray, to the extent that i only see about 10% of the actual cable mess. if you were to look at it right now you might wonder how everything is actually connected, where the fans get their power from. its just that good of a design. the 922 is missing some of the working room of the 932 (this is the first case that i havent cut myself on multiple times installing the CPU power connector), but its still not a bad option either.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: faxon
get the HAF 922. the 932 is worth every penny (i own one) and i wouldnt trade it for a 922 unless i absolutely HAD to have a smaller case. given the cable management, airflow, build quality, and all around appearance of the HAF cases, they are probably the 2 best cases in their price range as far as features and ease of use go. i should mention, i own a 690, and while im happy with it based on what i paid, i really wish the HAF 922 had been out at the time, as i would have gladly spent another $30 to get everything you get with the HAF in a mid tower for my secondary comp. the 690 just doesnt compare. it took me all in all, about an hour to put the parts into my 690 and get everything wired up and routed so it was clean, including adding and swapping around fans and what not. it only took me 30 minutes to do this with my HAF 932, and this is including meticulously routing, anchoring, or otherwise hiding every single cable coming out of the thing back behind the motherboard tray, to the extent that i only see about 10% of the actual cable mess. if you were to look at it right now you might wonder how everything is actually connected, where the fans get their power from. its just that good of a design. the 922 is missing some of the working room of the 932 (this is the first case that i havent cut myself on multiple times installing the CPU power connector), but its still not a bad option either.

Thanks for the advice mate, really appreciate it... but it looks like I'll have to skip the idea of buying the HAF932 because it's more than double the price of a CM Mystique/CM690 where I live. The Mystique/CM690 is priced around the $105 mark and the CM HAF 933 is around $230, which I can't afford right now. Also, this case is going to be for my older rig (a P4 system) and so I don't feel like spending $200 on it.

 

[Beanie46]

Well, first I'd honestly forget the Mystique. Having had both versions of that case, I actually preferred the original version, the Mystique 631. The clamshell door Mystique, while a nice case, was just too gimmicky with its door. And the case is shorter front-to-back than either of the other two I'd suggest, the 590 and the 690.

As far as the 590 and 690, you're looking at essentially the same case with a few minor differences. The motherboard tray is exactly the same as is almost the whole metal case and its construction on both.....almost.

The differences include:

First, the 690 has more plastic surrounding the actual case itself....apecifically the top cover. Now, the cover does give the case a smooth look, but it also does exact some penalty, albeit small to some people. You must remove the top cover to access the top fans and their mounting, something that you don't have to do with the 590....the fans are just "there".

Inside, the difference is in the hard drive mounting area. The 690 has a fixed sideways mounting system for 5 hard drives using a rack mount system. Pretty easy to use, but it's fixed where it is.

The 590's drive bay area more resembles the old CM Stacker....just a line of 5.25 drive bays top to bottom, and includes a 4-in-3 hard drive mounting module, with its included 120mm fan. Admittedly, the cable routing from this module can be a tad messier than with the 690's way of doing it, but given a little patience and time, both ways can be very cleanly done. Also, the 4-in-3 drive module can be moved around to any three free 5.25 drive slots, so not constrained to just using the bottom drive slots for it.

That's the major difference....the rest are cosmetic. Power and reset buttons are on front on the 590, as are the USB ports; the buttons are on the right side of the 690 and the USB ports are on the top.

The feet are fancier big rubber rectangular blocks on the 690 vs. the smaller black rubber round pucks on the 590.

But, that's why you are paying the extra $$ for the 690 vs. the 590......that plastic top costs a little more to make, as do the feet and the hd mounting system.

It's your choice. Both are good cases. Just one is essentially a fancier version of the other. I have a 590 and couldn't be more pleased, esp. given the price I paid for it. (I bought the 590 for $30 US, and the 690 would have cost >$80 US....and I just didn't see the 690 being $50 better than the 590. If the difference had been $20 US or less, I may have taken the 690, but it wasn't.)

Just IMHO.

🙂

 

[faxon]

Originally posted by: Sam25

Originally posted by: faxon
get the HAF 922. the 932 is worth every penny (i own one) and i wouldnt trade it for a 922 unless i absolutely HAD to have a smaller case. given the cable management, airflow, build quality, and all around appearance of the HAF cases, they are probably the 2 best cases in their price range as far as features and ease of use go. i should mention, i own a 690, and while im happy with it based on what i paid, i really wish the HAF 922 had been out at the time, as i would have gladly spent another $30 to get everything you get with the HAF in a mid tower for my secondary comp. the 690 just doesnt compare. it took me all in all, about an hour to put the parts into my 690 and get everything wired up and routed so it was clean, including adding and swapping around fans and what not. it only took me 30 minutes to do this with my HAF 932, and this is including meticulously routing, anchoring, or otherwise hiding every single cable coming out of the thing back behind the motherboard tray, to the extent that i only see about 10% of the actual cable mess. if you were to look at it right now you might wonder how everything is actually connected, where the fans get their power from. its just that good of a design. the 922 is missing some of the working room of the 932 (this is the first case that i havent cut myself on multiple times installing the CPU power connector), but its still not a bad option either.

Thanks for the advice mate, really appreciate it... but it looks like I'll have to skip the idea of buying the HAF932 because it's more than double the price of a CM Mystique/CM690 where I live. The Mystique/CM690 is priced around the $105 mark and the CM HAF 933 is around $230, which I can't afford right now. Also, this case is going to be for my older rig (a P4 system) and so I don't feel like spending $200 on it.

what the hell where do you live? that case can be had online or from frys for $160, and i think microcenter has it for less

ed: yea microcenter has it for $119

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: faxon

Originally posted by: Sam25

Originally posted by: faxon
get the HAF 922. the 932 is worth every penny (i own one) and i wouldnt trade it for a 922 unless i absolutely HAD to have a smaller case. given the cable management, airflow, build quality, and all around appearance of the HAF cases, they are probably the 2 best cases in their price range as far as features and ease of use go. i should mention, i own a 690, and while im happy with it based on what i paid, i really wish the HAF 922 had been out at the time, as i would have gladly spent another $30 to get everything you get with the HAF in a mid tower for my secondary comp. the 690 just doesnt compare. it took me all in all, about an hour to put the parts into my 690 and get everything wired up and routed so it was clean, including adding and swapping around fans and what not. it only took me 30 minutes to do this with my HAF 932, and this is including meticulously routing, anchoring, or otherwise hiding every single cable coming out of the thing back behind the motherboard tray, to the extent that i only see about 10% of the actual cable mess. if you were to look at it right now you might wonder how everything is actually connected, where the fans get their power from. its just that good of a design. the 922 is missing some of the working room of the 932 (this is the first case that i havent cut myself on multiple times installing the CPU power connector), but its still not a bad option either.

Thanks for the advice mate, really appreciate it... but it looks like I'll have to skip the idea of buying the HAF932 because it's more than double the price of a CM Mystique/CM690 where I live. The Mystique/CM690 is priced around the $105 mark and the CM HAF 933 is around $230, which I can't afford right now. Also, this case is going to be for my older rig (a P4 system) and so I don't feel like spending $200 on it.

what the hell where do you live? that case can be had online or from frys for $160, and i think microcenter has it for less

ed: yea microcenter has it for $119

He lives in India (Calcutta).

Have you tried: http://www.theitdepot.com/details-C5P4770.html
http://techshop.in/store/produ...o.php?products_id=2475

The latter one has it for Rs.9880 (inc. taxes) with a further Rs.285 reduction for cheque / bank transfer.

This works out at approx. $200 at an exchange rate of Rs.1 to $0.020806

This was after a 5 minute Google search. I'm sure you can get the HAF 932 cheaper if you look harder than I did.

 

[RavenGuard]

The HAF 922 feels much cheaper to me than the HAF 932. I use a 932 and it's a great case, and the 922 does carry with it all the great cable management and the cpu cut-out, and it does have some features the 932 has (such as it an on/off switch for the LEDs) but if you can, you should feel it and look at it before you go for it.

I agree with the CM690, it's a very nice case. You could also look into the newer scout series, they feel a decent bit more solid.

 

[Sam25]

Finally bought my brand new spanking case today, the CM 690. Fantastic! 🙂

I see many videos on Youtube for modding this case so maybe I'll add in an acrylic side panel and a few CM LED Fans to brighten up the case. Oh, just though I'd mention, the front cover was very hard to remove...took a real hard pull, almost thought I would end up breaking it, lol!

Thanks to everyone for their advices. Cheers! :beer:

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: yh125d
The mystique is ugly, gimmicky, has poor cooling, and the front doors look like they'd break in about a week

Get a Cent 590 or RC-690

I didn't agree with your comment at all in the beginning, specially the photos of the case on the web made the Mystique look pretty cool to me...the door part and all. But when I went to buy the case yesterday, it totally changed my views. The Mystique does look a tad gimmicky, the doors actually did not look cool upfront at all.