Reviews
Cooler Master CAC-T05 Centurion 5
A few blemishes mar an otherwise attractive case
O
n the surface, the Centurion 5 appears to be a good-looking, well-
equipped mid-tower enclosure. Unfortunately, after living with the
case a few weeks, our initial enthusiasm has been tempered.
The case has the broad features and expandability we’ve come to
expect from Cooler Master, in a quality steel shell that includes five
5.25-inch bays as well as five 3.5-inch bays, two of which fit a floppy and
three for hard drives. Drives are secured in their bays with a novel slid-
ing lock system that is surprisingly sturdy; screw holes are nonetheless
available for old-fashioned builders. An 80mm intake fan up front and
120mm exhaust fan in the rear take care of cooling.
Although the Centurion 5 is constructed of steel, it remains relatively
lightweight. It also has the beauty of more expensive cases, if not the
robust construction. The attractive black and chrome front bezel, remi-
niscent of Cooler Master’s fantastic CM Stacker case, is crafted from a
metal mesh material backed by a soft foam filter for maximum airflow.
The Centurian 5 has I/O ports for two USB 2.0 devices, a FireWire device,
speakers, and a microphone jack. The included 350W power supply should
provide sufficient power for all but the hungriest system configurations.
Overall, the Centurion 5 has everything we look for in an ATX mid-
tower enclosure. Unfortunately, it also has some quirks we could do
without. A big problem is that the front bezel is difficult to pry off, even
after we discovered and removed the well-hidden screws that keep it
on. Next we set about removing the metal shields that block the expan-
sion bays—a process we found both difficult and dangerous. One staffer
even shed blood after a feisty metal tab nicked his thumb! We also feel
that the tool-less tabs used to lock-down add-in cards are a bit tooflimsy. Thankfully, the card slots have screw holes as well, making the
flimsy clips an optional pain rather than a mandatory one.
In the end, this is a bet-
ter-than-average case that
offers many features for the
money. We were a bit put
off by the front bezel, but
only because we have high
expectations of any Cooler
Master product.
—E. WILL GREENWALDGood features, sturdy construction, and classy
exterior.MAXIMUSMINIMUS
Awkward front bezel, front panels, card clips.
$95 (street), http://www.coolermaster.comMA XIMUMPC VERDICT 7
92 MA XIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2004
Silverstone SST-TJ06
BTX cooling benefits—in an ATX case!
W
ith BTX cases looming large on the horizon,
Silverstone has come up with a novel way to
inject new life into the aging ATX formfactor—by
flipping the traditional case enclosure upside down and
making it BTX-like, for lack of a better description. Like
a BTX enclosure, the TJ06 opens on the right side, the
motherboard is installed upside down, the CPU and memory
reside at the bottom of the case, the AGP and PCI cards are
installed face-up, and the drives live in the upper recesses.
It’s, like, a real mind-blower, man!
The coolest thing about this case, though, is an enor-
mous plastic shroud that covers the entire lower portion
of the interior. 120mm fans spin at both ends, with the front
fan sucking air in and the rear fan exhausting it, creating
an effective wind tunnel over the CPU area. We used a
heatsink/fan for our Pentium 4 test motherboard/CPU and
the shroud provided ample space for it. Though the shroud
works fine, we were dismayed to find that three of the four
plastic tabs used to hold it in place broke off during testing.
Above the motherboard are separate cages for up to six
hard drives, two floppies, and five optical drives, all of which
use included drive rails. The drive rails are tool-less, which
means they simply snap onto the drives. Unfortunately, we
found the rails to be flimsy, and we had to hammer our floppy
drive’s rails into the holes in order to make them fit. There are
also no hard drive cooling options, which is weak.The motherboard tray is not remov-
able, but it has a big hole in it through
which you can feed the power supply
leads for a tidier interior. There’s also a
well-stocked side I/O shield with four USB
ports, FireWire, and audio jacks. And the
front bezel locks.
All in all, the design of this case is
quite clever and succeeds in bringing
BTX benefits to ATX users. But it doesn’t
quite match the level of quality we’ve
come to expect from Silverstone.
—JOSH NOREMRoomy, great CPU cooling, plenty of drive bays.CASESBRACES
Shroud clips broke, drive rails are cheap, all-steel
chassis.
$140, http://www.silverstonetek.comMA XIMUMPC VERDICT 8
The Centurion
5 cuts a few
corners—and
fingers—but at
least it looks
great doing it.If you’ve ever rolled your car, you’ll
understand how the motherboard probably
feels being upside down in this Silverstone
case. The SST-TJO6 even opens on the right
side, which is just like... whoa.