Case Swapping from Cooler Master 830 Stacker to CM 690 II

[edifice]

Hello,

I am just in need of advice regarding swapping over my components from my Coolermaster CM 830 Stacker to that of a Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced. I have read lots of reviews regarding how cool this case keeps GPU's etc and it has excellent airflow.

I have a Sapphire 7970, with an overclocked i7 930 clocked at 4ghz, and a Noctua NHU12P-SE2 cooler.

Is this case as good as it's suggested? Does anyone have this case, and can give me first hand pro's and cons please?


And just how difficult can this be? As I have a friend who builds PC's for a living, and he does most of the "main" jobs on my behalf!! Would it be a case of just taking my time, and doing everything in reverse, or is it not as straight forward as that? And I don't want to potentially make my system, which is now rock solid, start becoming tempremental or BSoD'ing on me!!

It's time I learn't for myself, as I have been depending on him too much LOL!!

Many Thanks!!

 

[foscooter]

I once had the CM 690.

I liked al the fans it could have: top, bottom, front, side, back side, etc.

It got kinda expensive to buy all those fans, but if you want it cool, I'm sure this can do it.

One thing I didn't like about it (one reason I returned it) was the right side, front corner mounted power button. Not easy to access when my tower is on the floor. But I think with the II Advance, the buttons are on the top.

The other thing was the side mounted hard drives, gave little room for straight SATA plugs, so I'd had to buy right angle SATA cabes (which I eventually did anyway, for my Antec P280 case). With straight SATA cables, I couldn't get the side panel completely closed (sometimes).

Although the 7970 card works on your motherboard, isn't the card meant for PCI-e 3.0?

 

[edifice]

Hey foscooter,

Many thanks for the info on the case, I have read it can hold as many as 10 fans in total between 120mm and 140mm types. I currently have 2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 4250 RPM which I swapped out with 2 x Gentle Typhoon 1450's I had installed, as well as a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 5400 RPM. I realise that to most people this is complete overkill and I do see why, and it is quite noisy too!!

But the real reason I am wanting a new case is simply because the exhaust fan is "welded" to the rear of my case, I simply cannot remove the screws, no matter what length of screwdriver I try?!

Someone suggested levering it off with a long screwdriver, but I fear the back of the case, as it's only thin aluminium would buckle under the stress, that and my case is the nVidia edition, and as I no longer have an nVidia card, feel it's time for a change.

And the 7970 is "ready" for PCI-e 3.0, although it doesn't need one!! I have a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R and it works perfectly.

I will definitely be buying the CM 690 II, and did you have the Advanced version with USB 3.0? And whay did you change for what you have now?

 

[foscooter]

No, I didn't have the 690 II Advanced.

This was a couple of years ago, for a system switch to a different case. I won't go into detail, exept that it was a HUGE fail! Compatibilty issues with a Dell system in a different case. Not the cases fault.

Is your mobo USB 3.0 ready? Can you plug the front panel USB header into your mobo? Or get a USB3 to USB2 converter?

 

[edifice]

I don't think that it is USB 3.0 ready no. But the etailer I use here in the UK has plenty of them for just £69.99 GBP, which compared to some companies including Amazon etc who are asking for at least £80 plus shipping!!

I have read only good thing's about this case, and as it's smaller than my current one, I am very impressed with as you mentioned, all the fans that can be installed!!