COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Extremely tool-less design that some people may enjoy. Aluminum is sturdy and case has good heft. Good construction at a very reasonable price. Side panel comes off easily and is replaced onto the case just as easily. Overall, good external construction.

Cons: Tool-less design inside does not afford good stability. Add-in cards can wobble and become loose. 5.25'' drives fit well but 3.5'' drives do not. Cages are too close to ATX form-factor motherboards when installed. Very little room for aftermarket heatsink and fans. Only two fans installed and no obvious mount point for additional 120mm fans. One fan died after just 1.5+ yrs use - unacceptable. With only one fan operational the cooling went from adequate to unacceptable. Add-in cards are cooled OK as well as CPU but wow, memory temp was near egg-frying temperatures. Not a good case for air-cooling.

Other Thoughts: Overall, just not worth the lack of reliability and redundancy. I regret getting this case and am glad that for other builds I went with more expensive cases that had more options.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi aqua,

We are sorry to hear that you are having trouble with our case. What kind of specs are you installing to create such high temperature. The case is a mid-tower size case and may not fit all your specification. We do recommend the Haf X rated best air flow and full size tower. As for your broken fan, under warranty we can get it replaced by filling out the parts request. If you have further questions, please contact us on live chat. All links are attached below.

Respectfully,
CMUSA Customer Support

External Link(s):

Request Part|

Live Chat|

Pros: Sturdy, high quality materials throughout. Truly tool-less design, makes a new build or upgrades a snap.

Plenty of cooling, fans are very quiet, have not had any issues with them in over a year of constant use.

Cons: None, see other comments.

Other Thoughts: Would definitely put some anti-vibe tape on the sides of your hard drives before installation, the tool-less hdd keepers let the drives vibrate a little more than they would bolted down.

Pros: Case has a great brushed look to it and for the most part was pretty solid. The blue LED lights are fun, it would cool if there was some way to make them dynamic or something.

Cons: There is not really much in the way of cable management but without a window that is not an important point.

Other Thoughts: Had plenty of extras which made things easier.

Pros: Great case. Solidly built; sturdy and no sharp edges anywhere. Toolless installation good for the most part. Looks great, the front LEDs can be unplugged. It's got enough space, it fits my gigantic HD6950 (not a whole lot of margin though). I don't have a problem with space for cables, as I only have one 5in slot used and I just tucked all my unused PSU cables in the bay. The included 120mm fans are almost completely silent. They don't move a whole lot of air, but it's adequate. I replaced the rear fan with a scythe s-flex "silent" fan that was WAY louder, but also moved about 2-3 times the amount of air.

Cons: It's probably a good idea to go ahead and screw in your video card, the expansion slot clips don't hold very strongly. They were fine for my sound card though. I wanted to put my hard drive in the forward-facing 3.5 in mount for cabling reasons. It eventually got in there, but the toolless slides were REALLY tight and had to be forced. The side-mounted bays with the rail system work fantastically though. I just didn't have a right angle sata connector that you'd need to avoid kinking one to fit. There is a front fan port, but you physically can't get a 120mm fan in there to screw it in. Proably could by cutting out some of the interfering structure, but in my mind, that's not acceptable. The CPU air duct doesn't line up right with my cpu. I've heard this is an AMD issue. The front panel requires a LOT of force to get off, I always feel like I'm going to break it.

Other Thoughts: I just use the stock AMD heatsink, so I don't know if there's enough room to mount one of those aftermarket monster coolers. You'd definitely have to remove the duct.

Pros: Nice and simple case. Looks great. Buttons feel good. Easy to assemble. Plenty of room for components.

Cons: Tool-less on the slots are garbage. The locks did not hold my GPU securely. Some of them broke off.

It got a little tight when I added more hard drive. A little more room in the case woulda made things easier.

Other Thoughts: Air-flow is alright. Not great. Not bad.

Overall very happy with the purchase

Pros: Big to fit everything, keeps all my insides cool.

Cons: None.

Pros: Excellent construction, especially for the price. No sharp edges, great options for cooling, tool-free systems work great. Quality exceeds cases I've previously purchased for over $100.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: I don't know why anyone would complain about the tool-free racks, I'm currently using them in my system for a DVD drive and HDD and they hold both components very firmly, on top of making installation very fast and easy. If you really don't like the idea, you aren't forced to use them anyways, the tool-free brackets are easily removable.

Pros: -Sleek design
-Easy installation (manuals sure do help)
-LEDs look nice and bright
-Provides plenty room for standard build ATX.

Used this in my 1st build, worked great.

Cons: -None, no problems with it thus far.
-It doesn't clean itself every couple weeks.

Pros: No sharp edges. Tool-less mounting for cards and drives works well. Convenient layout to mount drives. I have used this in 2 builds, and have not been disappointed.

Cons: Only has mounting for 2 120mm fans, this is not enough for high performance systems. Has a 3.5 inch external drive slot, instead of 2 more internal slots. Not a luxury case!

Other Thoughts: A great case for a mid performance build, with good looks and easy system assembly.

Pros: - Looks classy
- Mostly rounded edges
- Plenty of room for components
- Grippy rubber feet
- Case has a solid feel
- Both side panels are removable (it's not obvious in the pictures)

Cons: - Those tool-less things are junk (just break them out)
- Motherboard tray is Non-removable
- Side fan was inconveniently located
- Power supply is top-mounted
- I/O shield didn't fit just right (there's a slight gap)

Other Thoughts: I would have preferred an original CM-690 for this build, but due to width restrictions had to use the 534+. Good case with only minor gripes.

A Xigmatek 92mm cooler would've been better, but I went with a Gaia (120mm) which just barely clears the side panel. The side case fan DOES NOT FIT w/ the 120mm Xig. Ended up taking a hacksaw and cutting 3/4" off of the top (3) blades to let the side fan clear the cooler. Success, but barely.
Caution: Sharp Edges.

Corsair TX750 was a poor choice for this case because even though it's amazing, it has way too many cables. In this case, it's best to go modular or use a smaller PS (yes, I know--good pun).

5 sec cold boot Win7 Ult-64...

Intel Core i7 2600K
ASRock P67 Extreme6 motherboard <--amazing
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600Mhz
eVGA GTX 550 Ti FPB
Intel 510 SSD 120GB <--booya!
Western Digital 640GB SATA-6, 64MB cache hdd <--epic fail, DOA
Xigmatek Gaia (HDT-SD1283 w/ A/S-5)
2 Lite-On Blu-ray & DVD burners
Cooler Master 5