Share this
Mister Wong
Linkarena
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Jumptags
Upchuckr
Simpy
StumbleUpon
Slashdot
Netscape
Furl
Yahoo
Blogmarks
Diigo
Technorati
Newsvine
Blinkbits
Ma.Gnolia
Smarking
Netvouz
Folkd
Spurl
Googlize this
Blinklist
Wikio
E-mail
Tags
 |
WOW! The cool stuff from Cooler Master just keeps coming! Here is a great mid-priced, high-quality mid-tower case from Cooler Master. This is the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis! We've all heard about how you need to make a good first impression. This case does that. Smooth lines and a cool look. And hidden inside we find plenty to be happy about. Today we’re going to spec this one out and see how it builds. Lets get started!
Provided by: Cooler Master
Price: 69.99 Newegg
Closer Look:
Lets get right into checking out some pictures of the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis.
The Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis comes well packaged in a simple looking box. A decent picture of the case is here and not much else. Keeping it simple seems to be the name of this game.
The back of the box is a whole different story. Here we have some great pictures of the many features of the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis. Including a great graphic of the airflow paths. A must for anyone building a modern computer.
Here on one side, we have the very necessary specifications. Clean, simple and to the point.
Lets move on to the case itself.
Interior:
Here is a nice front/side view of the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis. You can get a good idea of the dimension of this case here. More on the front and side below.
On the front you can see the 5 5.25 bays and the I/O panel. The I/O panel has everything you might need. There is a USB port, MIC and Headphone jacks, a second USB port, and the all important eSATA port. There also are the obligatory power and reset switches and LEDs.
A side view shows us the solid side cover with mountings for two 120mm or 140mm fans. An optional clear panel is also available.
Here is where the magic happens. Inside the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis we have 5 3.5” bays (there is an included adapter to turn one of the front facing 5.25” bays into a 3.5”). In front of those 5 3.5” bays is the included 120mm blue LED fan. You can also see the tool-less mounts for the 5.25” bays. On the motherboard tray you can see the cutout for mounting a CPU cooler without having to remove the motherboard. There are also tie points to secure wiring. Also there are a couple of punched holes so you can route some of the thinner wires behind the motherboard tray. The power supply can be mounted with the fan facing down and a filter is included for this purpose. Just above the power supply are the 7 expansion slots. On this case part of the tool-less release clip is broken off, but it doesn’t seem to affect the way they work. Just think, no more screws to strip in those tiny holes! Above the slots is another 120mm fan mounting. So for those keeping count, that’s 4 fans so far that can be mounted in this case.
Here is a look at the back of this case. You can easily see out the afore mentioned power supply mount, 7 expansion slots, and the upper 120mm fan mount. There is also another cooling grill for increased airflow.
And here is the 5th fan! A monster 140mm top fan! If you mount all the available fans into this case, you will create a virtual tornado of cooling.
Not to be left out, here are the included accessories. You have all the tool-less mounts for the 3.5” bays, a case speaker, the 5.25” to 3.5” converter and all the necessary screws to build this system.
Lets check out the specs, features and build.
Features:
- Ventilation on top and side for improved airflow throughout the case
- Top mount 140 fan for better airflow
- Supports up to five 120 mm fans
- Front I/O panel for easy access
- Retaining hole for easy CPU cooler installation
- Cable management for quick cable routing and neatness
- Front fan Blue LED switch
- PSU bottom fan can be set up facing up/down (filter included)
Specifications:
- Available Color: Black
- Material: SECC (case body) ; Mesh (front bazel) ; Electroplate (I/O Panel)
- Dimension: (W / H / D) (W) 202 x (H) 440 x (D) 485 mm (W) 8 x (H) 17.3 x (D) 19.1 inch
- Weight Net Weight: 7 kg / 15.4 lb Gross Weight: 8.5 kg / 18.7 lb
- Motherboards: ATX / Micro-ATX
- 5.25" Drive Bay: 5 Exposed
- 3.5" Drive Bay: 5 Hidden 1 Exposed
- Cooling System Top: 140 x 25 mm fan x 1 / 1200 RPM / 17 dBA (support 120 mm fan) Front: 120 x 25 mm Blue LED on / off fan x 1 / 1200 RPM / 19 dBA (support 140 mm fan) Side: 120 / 140 mm fan x 2 (optional) Rear: 120 mm fan x 1 (optional)
- Expansion Slots 7 Power Supply PS2 / Support high wattage PSU (maximum 190 mm fan)
- Optional Component Transparent Acrylic Side Panel
Build:
Building this unit was relatively simple. I chose to mount the power supply face down, as I did not add any additional fans to the case. The Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis comes with a 140mm on top and a 120mm in front. Not sure how much I like the filter being between the power supply and the case though. If you want to clean it, you have to remove the power supply. The tool-less mounting made assembly a breeze. The wire ties made keeping all the cables neat and tidy. There is room behind the motherboard panel to run cables. My power cable top fan and DVD burner fit there nicely. Mount the hard drive up one slot and you can create a nice cubbyhole to store any unused power cables. There is also the cut-out in the motherboard panel to ease the installation of larger CPU coolers. Be careful of the size though. My CPU cooler barely cleared the top fan with about 1mm to spare. A bit to close for my comfort. Only two items concerned me. The tab on one of the tool-less clips for the PCI slots was broken (didn't seem to affect the use of it though), and I had to put a screw in to hold my slot mounted USB hub. It kept pushing past the clip when I shoved a USB cable in.
Lets move on to testing.
Testing:
I will be testing the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis against my Antec Nine Hundred case. I will be using Everest Ultimate Edition to record CPU, Motherboard, Video card and HDD temps over a 30-minute test period. Results: Testing Rig: Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4Ghz LGA 65W Dual Core CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper N620 Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Memory: 2–OCZ Gold GX XTC (2x512MB) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400 2-Corsair XMS2 CM2X1024-6400C4 1GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM Video Cards: Sapphire HD 2600 XT x2 in Crossfire configuration Power Supply: Thermaltake Purepower 600W Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS Optical Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc 2MB Cache E-IDE / ATAPI OS: Windows XP Home SP3
Results:
IDLE | The Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis | Antec Nine Hundred |
CPU | 39*c | 31*c |
GPU | 51*c | 49*c |
Motherboard | 45*c | 31*c |
HDD | 35*c | 2 |
<!--[endif]-->
LOAD | The Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis | Antec Nine Hundred |
CPU | 56*c | 47*c |
GPU | 55*c | 49*c |
Motherboard | 48*c | 31*c |
HDD | 37*c | 27*c |
With only two fans to cool my system with all its heat generating components, I say it did ok. Temps were a bit high and in the case of the CPU were close to my acceptable limits. Add the additional fans into this case and you shouldn’t have any trouble keeping temperatures in line.
Conclusion.
Conclusion:
What we have here is an inexpensive case with potential. Good for a very basic build, but with the addition of a couple more fans can be something to be proud of. Only having the two fans really affected my temps. Building this case out was relatively painless. I would recommend that you stay away from large CPU coolers. My Cooler Master Hyper N620 just barely cleared the top fan. Also included are two shouldered motherboard standoffs to properly line up the motherboard. Make sure to put these in a position where you can easily pull the motherboard loose if you need to. I didn't and nearly didn't get the motherboard back out.
Pros:
- Easy to build
- Can turn off the blue LED on the front fan
- Tool-less mountings
- HDD Mounts from the side which is nice
Cons:
- Cooling fans are cheap. Would like to have seen a full set in this box
- Tool-less clips on PCI slots appear fragile and provide minimal hold for slot-mounted items that are not plugged into the motherboard
- A little more head room for larger CPU coolers
