3-Way Budget Case Roundup - PAGE 3

Installing hardware into the Centurion 5 II is mostly done via tool-free brackets, but the motherboard and power supply will have to be secured to the case with screws. To make instillation easier, Cooler Master has included a variety of accessories. These include ten tool-free hard drive brackets, mounting screws, a 3.5-inch to 2.5-inch convertor, a fan filter and a drive bay bracket convertor for a 3.5" floppy disk drive. We really like that Cooler Master included a 5.25-inch to 3.5-inch converter, as this will allow the Centurion 5 II to support up to two SSDs.

The inside of the Centurion 5 II has a nice layout and includes many tool-free features, but its cable management was lacking given there is only a single oval shaped opening leading behind the motherboard tray. The Centurion 5 II includes a total of nine expansion bays at the front of the case, with the top four being external 5.25-inch ODD bays and the bottom five being 3.5-inch HDD bays.

The motherboard tray of the Centurion 5 II supports both ATX and M-ATX form factor motherboards, and has a large CPU back-plate access hole. The access hole makes it easier to swap out processor heatsinks, without forcing the user to remove the motherboard itself from the case. In addition, the back of the motherboard tray has multiple anchor points for zip-ties to secure power supply cables to the back of the tray.

The front panel of the Centurion 5 II easily comes off, giving direct access to the front drive bays and bottom 120mm fan. To install a drive into a bay, the front metal cover must be removed. The covers are physically attached to the case, so it can take a good amount of pressure from behind before they give way.

With the case down to its bare-bones, we can see that the front offers plenty ventilation, as there are access holes running up and down the front panel.

The hard drives are installed via tool-free drive rails. The rails have to be attached to both the left and right side of the hard drive first, and installation simply consists sliding the drive into one of the five available bays. Overall, the hard drive installation was a breeze, and with the 120mm fan positioned to direct air throughout the HDD cage, any drive installed in the Centurion 5 II should remain cool.

Installing our hardware into the Cooler Master Centurion 5 II proved easier than we initially thought, and cable management wasn't too bad either. The only real issue we had was that our HD 6970 was too large to fit into the case, so we were forced to use a much smaller graphics card. This was quite disappointing, as it means this case will have trouble supporting high-end graphics cards with similar form factors, like as the GTX 580, GTX 580 and HD 6950. However, since this is a budget case it is not a total surprise that it would be more accomodating (in every sense) for low to mid-range hardware. All of our other components fit nicely though, and we were even able to squeeze our large Corsair H80 cooler into the case.