Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB Black /Blue Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

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

Overall Review: 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.

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.

Overall Review: 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.

Pros: This case is downright awesome. Plenty of room, drives don't need a single screw and they are held in place very tight, and the case is very sturdy yet light. A perfect case if you build dozens of custom computers for a company like I do.

Cons: There are only 3 downfalls to this case. 2 are more of an opinion and the other is a bit limiting. First is the drive bay cover plates. You have to pull of the front cover and unscrew the drive covers. Would of been much nicer if they were just pressed on and not put in by screws. Second is there are only 3 true secure mounts for the harddrives. There are 5 slots to put harddrives (1 being the floppy space)....so 4 slots to put harddrives yet there are only 3 metal brackets to secure drives via the toolless design. The case would be perfect for business/development computers if I had room to put 4 drives. And the third and last thing, would be to put a 120mm fan in the front instead of an 80mm.

Pros: The case looks very nice. I think it is a bargain for the price. The labels for what standoffs to install for the different types of motherboards were a nice touch. Someone mentioned that there is no PC speaker on this case. There actually is. It is just a newer small one and doesn't look like the older ones at all.

Cons: I had to thread the 9 screw holes for the ATX motherboard myself. This is the main reason for the 4 instead of 5 stars. The front 80mm fan made the case noticeably noisy and sucked in a lot of dust making the black front around the power and reset switch look very dusty. I had to wipe it off daily and my house isn’t all that bad with dust. The fix for this is to simply disable the front fan…You’ll kill the noise and the “dust look”.

Overall Review: If you don't replace parts very often, this is a great case. If you do, you may want to spend more on a more easily accessed case. Keep these tips in mind when building your system and you'll have less frustration than I did: 1. Put the CD/DVD & floppy drive in from the front AFTER re-attaching the Front Bezel. 2. Use a large twist tie to hold front panel wires out of the way while installing the motherboard. 3. If replacing the front 80mm fan, do it now...not later. 4. The two standoffs with "lips" on them should be placed closest to the drive bays to keep them from being in the way. 5. If you are wondering if a ZALMAN CNPS7000B heatsink/fan will fit in this case with an Asus A8N Premium SLI mainboard with 4 sticks of RAM. It does. There is 3mm between the heatsink and the memory. 6. The front Bezel actually pulls off even though it seems like it doesn't. Start @ the top and pull out some then pull out some of the other areas so you won't break it as it is removed

Pros: Impressive air pass though with the entire front being perforated grill. The supplied fans are quiet. Work space and component layout are A+. I can get to everything on my full-size ATX MB with all components installed with ease.

Cons: Front bezel base frame is actually plastic with overlay metal parts, and attaches to the case with those annoying plastic compression flair tongs. Getting the bezel off first time can be a chore and may result is scratching of inset trim pieces if you are not careful. Adding additional 5.25" devices to a finished system is a nightmare. The attractive black grill knock-outs can only be removed from the rear. Also removal of the bezel which cannot be done when 5.25" drives all already in place as the bezel will not slide over the drive's faceplate. To add a drive, you have to remove all existing 5.25" devices, remove bezel, remove knockout, the reassemble everything. Chinese puzzle box lovers will appreciate this :)

Overall Review: The in-use performance and low price more then offset the assembly issues. 5 stars awarded here.

Comments: A good deal for the price. Unbelievably horrible directions, the manual is a complete joke. You receive a mixed bag of fasteners and unidentified items with no direction at all what to use/how. You will waste alot of time figuring things out, unless you know what you are doing. Side panels are also hard to remove without placing the case on its side and using two hands. Besides the above, well built case with nice ventilation already setup, no sharp edges or chinsy parts. Toolless bays are a plus. Doesn't look or feel cheap at all.

Pros: Very attractive case with the blued aluminum edge finish.Just looks very handsome. Both blue lights are pretty bright but not overwhelming unless you have the other lights off. Case provides excellent cooling for parts because of the front filtered bezel, and hdd and DVD fit in snuggly without having to use any screws because of the designed locking mechanism that keeps all parts tight. Front USB and Audio connectors fit the Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 mb fine. Power Switch button is a little low, especially if the cse sits on the floor.

Cons: The one problem I had was fitting the front firewire cable from the case to the Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 mb. Pin configuration was somewhat different between the mb and the case able and I had to remove the Coolermaster pins from the connecting module provided and refit each of the 9 pins into single pin connectors that I placed onto the different pin lineup on the mb. Fortunately the single pin connectors were available from the Coolermaster audio connector that had three different connector abilities. That took about 45 minutes and my wife's support. Never hurts to have someone recheck the way one is looking at something. In the end it worked perfectly.

Overall Review: The other option that I had was to e-mail Coolermaster for a possible adapter they might supply to fit the mb. However, endwise it's easier to refit the pins one's self for speedsake.

Pros: This is a really nice, inexpensive case. This is the second one I have (both from Newegg). The open mesh front is really great for cooling. The syling is nice but subdued. The powewr and HD LEDs are a very bright blue - bright enough to be a night light! I like them bright since on my other D*** systems the power lights are so dim I can't tell if they are on or not, without getting real close.

Cons: The open mesh front means that you have to be selective as to what components you put in it to ensure that you can get a reasonably quiet system. I may replace the included case fans with some better ones to see if I can get it any quieter than I already have.

Overall Review: If you take off the left side cover on this case, you will find that there is enough space between the motherboard tray (not removable) and the case side to rout the power cables to the drive bays (assumes you have a high-quality power supply with long enough cables - try an Antec TPII 550). I also stuffed my unused cable back here. Makes for a very clean interior. A little split plastic tubing taped over the one rough edge i protecting my cables from being chaffed.