Cooler Master CM 690 III Case Review

The Disk Drive Bays

The CM 690 III has three 5.25” external bays, where the devices are held using a lever system with no screws.
Under this bays, there are two cages. The bottom one has three drawers for 3.5” hard disk drives.
The middle cage has four drawers for 2.5” devices, but you can change it into a cage for four 3.5” drives, repositioning its side panel. It is also possible to install a 120 mm in this cage, which helps to cool the video cards.

Figure 16: disk drive bays

Figure 17 unveils the 5.25” bays.

Figure 17: 5.25” bays

Figure 18 shows the drawers for drives. Actually, they are both the same model of drawer, which can be open or closed depending on the width of the cage. While the install of the 3.5” units is screwless, 2.5” drives must be installed using screws.

Figure 18: drawers

The CM 690 III offers more three additional locations for 2.5” drives. To install a drive in one of those “bays”, you need to attach four rubber holders under the drive, and then slide it in place. You can install one 2.5” drive behind the motherboard tray, one on the bottom of the 5.25” bays, and one in the bottom of the case.

Figure 19: 2.5” bay behind the motherboard tray

Figure 20: 2.5” bay on the top cage

Figure 21: bottom 2.5” bay