COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB Black /Blue Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

It's pretty, but...

Reviewed By: Retired_Engineer on 10/18/2006

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: The front cover looks great with the anodized blue aluminum trim and black aluminum bay grills. The front panel push buttons (large one for power and small one for reset) both look good and have a quality feel when pushed. The screwless drive bays work great.

Cons: 1) The plastic "tooless" card hold-downs don't work well on some cards. For example, the gameport/USB bracket that comes with the case simply can not be held in properly with the plastic hold-down clips (because there is no lip on the bracket for the clip to slip over). No problem, you say, just screw it in? Well, not quite. Yes, the screw holes are there but THEY AREN'T TAPPED! That's right, they are not tapped. Therefore, standard adaptor card hold-down screws just won't do ya. Best find some self-tapping sheet metal screws to hold down your cards in this case. Bad design.

2) The front panel has plastic stops to prevent the 5.25" drives from going in further than flush with the panel. This is unnecessary and means that you'll have to remove all 5.25 drives to pull the front panel. Bad design. Solution: Use a Dremel with a sanding drum to sand off those needless stops.

3) When will manufacturers lose their love affair with overly bright blue LEDs on home appliance

Other Thoughts: In S3 standby mode my mobo blinks the front panel "power on" led. Unfortunately, the blue LED is so bright that my darkened room resembles a South Beach disco when the 'puter is in S3 sleep mode. Coolermaster: We don't need to see the LEDs from a mile away. Tone down the LED brightness for goodness sakes! I'll be adding an additional series resistor to each of the two front panel LEDs.

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Reviewed By: necide on 9/20/2006

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Great airflow! Looks like a $100+ case. Pictures do no justice. 120mm rear, 80mm in front, that's mainly for the HDDs. The front bezel is made of a metal grille material lined with a thin layer of dust filter inside. Air comes into the case freely, everything stays cool, and still it's almost inaudible with an E6600, 7300GT (fanless) and OCZ 520W PSU installed. Did I mention it looks incredibly snazzy?

Cons: Others mentioned this, it picks up fingerprints like wilt chamberlain used to pick up barmaids. Nothing a clean moist rag can't fix. I'm not impressed with the drive locking mechanisms, they are solid but no real advantage over screws since you have to screw in half of the drive anyway, which the pictures do not show.

Other Thoughts: Due to the low price, I was concerned this might be flimsy, loud and noisy, cheap looking, plasticy, or have annoying proprietary innards - but it arrived safely and I was wrong about all of the above. This is definitely worth the price, rebate or not.

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Reviewed By: on 2/9/2010

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Affordable case, looks decent

Cons: Came with scratches on the sides of it, filter mounts for in front of the fan are made out of plastic and break the instant you try to remove the filter to clean it

Other Thoughts: It looks good but spend $20 more and get a case that won't break when you try to clean it.

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Reviewed By: warp17 on 2/8/2010

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Seems very durable and well built.
Everything fit and went together well.
Mostly good design with almost completely tool-less.
They actually attempted to include a manual and parts list.

Cons: Manual is severely lacking in directions as all case manuals seem to be.
Manual was poorly translated and seems to be written by a third grader.
No idea what some of the parts are they included, as they only listed the major parts in the manual.
Busted a plastic latch on the expansion cards due to no instructions on how to release it.
Front of case is not "tool-less" for cd/dvd drive installation. Requires removing screws from right side panel, and then the panel, pulling off the front panel and unscrewing the front grates. Then forcing the sharp around the edges grates out.

Other Thoughts: Only reason I refer to a manual is to see what the odd parts are im not familiar with and so I don't bust something I don't recognize!
UPS didnt smash this one....

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Documentation needs work

Reviewed By: Bumfuzzle on 1/26/2010

Tech Level: somewhat low - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Solid construction, plenty of room in which to work, drop-dead gorgeous in my eyes.

Cons: Documentation is abysmal. Poor translation made for some laughs but also questions. Some parts had no explanation. Spent a bit of time on the 'net to find answers to my questions. Cooler Master site suffers from similar problems.

Other Thoughts: My first solo build. I imagine those with more experience would not need the depth of documentation I expected. I would, however, buy this case again.

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