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Installation

The 534 draws from the experience of its predecessors to make installation a snap. With all the experience Coolermaster has gained over the years, they've come up with a toolless design which works very fluidly.

Optical Drives

The 534 uses a system similar to the one in the Centurion 540m-ATX case. First you pull off the front panel by gripping the gap at the bottom of the case, then (with a lot of force) rip it outwards.

Once you've removed the front panel, this is when you will be able to remove the drive bay covers.

The drive covers are solid aluminium and are secured by a clip on one side. A simple push and it will fall out.

Next you slide in the drive into the case. The locking mechanism will not go all the way if the positioning is wrong, so just fiddle around with the positioning of the optical drive until the slider goes all the way to the right and you are able to push down on the lock, as shown in the photo below.

Hard Drives

Coolermaster uses a 90 degree rotated drive bay for the hard drives. This allows for easy access since the cables will be facing the user instead of facing the inside of the computer - a big plus. Due to its orientation, some straight SATA cables may prevent the side door from closing. For optimum installation, use the right-angled SATA cables that come with most motherboards these days. The orientation helps a lot with the install (and removal) of the drives.

PCI/AGP/PCIe cards

The expansion card clips are similar to the ones on the other Coolmaster cases, which is a clip that rotates outward to install, and rotates inwards to lock. Unlike the 530 that we reviewed last year, the clips on the 534 did not get stuck.

Front audio

The only unique audio features of the Centurion 534 are the built-in AC97 and Azalia pinouts for plugging directly onto your motherboard. This is Cooler Master's system to support high-definition audio, although the audio processing is actually done on the motherboard/dedicated sound card.

Side Panel

The side panel uses a wind tunnel, which can be extended and shortened according to the height of your heatsink. This is a nice touch for people who might otherwise have issues with installation. Although some people might scoff at wind tunnels as gimmicks, we've found in the past that they have a significant positive impact on cooling performance so this gets a thumbs up from us.