Hello People,
I am back with yet another review on a cabinet, the Cooler Master Centurion 590. This cabinet belongs to the Centurion series. The cabinet resembles a close connection to the famous Cooler Master 690 cabinet.
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Let us see what this cabinet has to offer for us all.
[BREAK=Specification, Packaging & contents]
[B]Specification
[/B] **Unit dimensions: **
(W) 210 x (H) 440 x (D) 510 mm
[B]
Weight: [/B]
Net/ Gross Weight: 8.5 kg/9.3 Kg
Motherboard Compatibility: ATX, Micro-ATX
**9 Drive Bays:**
• Upto 9 5.25" Drives
• Upto 12 3.5" Drives using the 4-in-3 device module (1 Nos. included)
[B]
I/O ports[/B]
• USB 2.0 x2, • IEEE 1394 x1, • MIC x1, SPK x1
Cooling System:
• 120x120x25 mm front fan (blue LED), comes fitted with the 4-in-3 device module
• One 120x120x25 mm rear fan (exhaust),
•2 Side (optional) 120 x 25mm Fan •2 Top (Optional) 120 x 25mm fan
[B]Packaging and contents:
[/B] The Centurion 590 comes in a simple packing, the box contain some information on the cabinet. Cabinet is secured inside the box with the normal thermocol material and a polythene cover like any other cabinets in its range. The cabinet comes with a black and white manual, a set of screws and raisers and some cable ties.
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[BREAK=Closer Look @ the exterior]
Closer Look @ the exterior
The entire cabinet is made up of steel. The finish is good enough for its range, CM can do with a little better quality of steel. The overall look of the cabinet looks really neat. The front panel sports a brushed aluminium finish on both sides of the perforated bezel and also in the front IO & Power button panel. Just like its cousin the CM 690, it has the PSU in the bottom. There is a Centurion logo on one of the bezel which can be placed anywhere to your preference.
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The front IO panel sports 2 USB ports, an IEEE 1394 port and audio connectivity, no esata port though. Now comes the interesting part about this cabinet, either my eyes are playing tricks on me or Cooler Master for some odd reason decided to exclude the reset button. This is one of the major drawback of this cabinet, never had I seen a cabinet without a reset button.
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The perforated bezels are throughout the front panel for all the 9 drive bays and comes with the air filter on each of them. The front panel has to be removed on a whole to install any drives. Once its removed one can have a direct view of the interiors, comes in handy while installing the motherboard and other components. Upto three 4-in-3 device module can be installed providing an option to install Upto 12 Hard Drives. Each of these modules have fan attached to them and acts as a front intake in the cabinet. The fan is very silent @ 17~19 dBa and push 39.77cfm of air.
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Now the side panel and the top ports an option to install 2 Nos. of 120mm fan each. This is very much similar to that of CM 690, except that the top doesn’t have the perforated grills which is actually good as otherwise I find it very much useless and accumulates dust eventually. The right side panel has a air vent to cool the rear of the motherboard.
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The rear of the cabinet ports a 120mm silent fan, should push around the same amount of air as the intake fan. There is a provision of two water cooling tubes.
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[BREAK=Inside Look]
**Inside Look **
The side panels can be removed by unscrewing the two thumbscrews on both sides and sliding out the panel. There is a good amount of space inside the cabinet to fit in most of the components. There shouldn’t be a issue installing the higher end graphics cards even with the hard drives installed in all the slots.
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As said earlier there are 9 drive bays with plastic locking mechanism. The 4-in-3 HDD module and the optical drive can be installed in any of these 9 drive bays. The plastic mechanism seemingly fine for the holding the optical drive in place, its better that the Hard Drive cage is fastened with atleast 2 screws on each side to avoid any vibration. Though this design is very friendly for the hard drives in cooling part, becomes tiresome if you keep adding and removing the hard drives as the entire module has to be removed. Also, each time one has to remove the front panel and then remove the hard drive cage. There is also a additional 5.25†to 3.5†adapter which can be used to fit smaller drives /devices.
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The PCI brackets are secured by plastic holders but it fails to hold the larger expansion cards securely. Option of using screw in a conventional way is provided and it is recommended to secure the larger expansion cards properly. For smaller cards it should be fine. The PSU mount is in the bottom, there are 4 rubber mounts to dampen the vibration from the PSU. There is a air vent to allow a fresh air intake by the PSU.
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As for routing the cable, there is a small gap next to the PSU and there a huge gap between the motherboard tray and the drive bays. This allows a efficient way for routing the cable in rear side of the cabinet. The rear has enough space to hold the cables using the cables ties. Make sure the PSU has a long cables so that it can reach the EPS 12V connector preferably through the rear of the cabinet.
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[BREAK=Cable Management & Thermal Performance]
Cable Management Setup:
As far as the cable management is concerned, this cabinet has the same layout as the Cooler Master 690 which is one of the best cabinet when it comes to cable management. Only change is the hard drive cage will be facing the motherboard area unlike the side mounted cage in the CM 690. I couldn’t get time to do much of a cable management in this cabinet due to lack of time. But the following picture will give you an idea how cables can be routed (This setup is for illustration only).
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Additionally you can check these pictures what this cabinet is capable of. These pics are the interior of cooler master 690, should give you an idea of how well one can do a cable management in the Centurion 590 also.
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(this one belongs to me, a slightly modded CM 690) (Belongs to gunman)
Thermal Performance:
**Test Setup: **
Intel e7200
Asus P5N-MX (m-ATX)
2GB DDr2 Ram
Leadtek 7950GT
Western Digital 500GB and Seagate 320 GB 7200.11
Antec Neo HE 500w
Thermaltake Thunderblade 120mm fan- Side Intake
Antec TriLed 120mm – Top exhaust
Stock fans in the front and rear
The thermal performance in this cabinet is very good. I used one intake fan in the front and another one in the side panel. One fan in the rear and another in the top as the exhaust. My choices of fans were limited, but with proper balance of intake and exhaust one can achieve better temperature. Stock fans can’t give enough air flow inside the cabinet so it is better the user adds in more fan.
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[BREAK=Conclusion]
CONCLUSION
Finally the concluding part of this review.
Pricing :
The Cooler Master Centurion 590 is priced at Rs.4000 nett. I find it tough to understand why Cooler Master has priced it similarly to the Cooler Master 690. I hope the price settles down soon. It would be better priced Rs.500~600 less.
-Pros:
Good overall finish
Very good cooling system
Very good Cable management capabilities
Easy access to all part of the cabinet
Screw-less design in the Drive bays
9 Universal drive bays
Vibration dampening in the necessary place
Upto five fans and three additional fans using the 4-in-3 device module can be installed
Air Filters
-Cons
No reset button
No eSata port in the IO panel
PCI Bracket holder can’t hold the larger cards properly
Pricing
Warranty Information : A standard 1 Year warranty is provided for this cabinet.
Our thanks to Mr. Jacob Meshack of Cooler Master India for arranging us this cabinet through Top Notch Infotronix Pvt. Limited, Chennai.
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Reps 
