Installation

The mainboard connectors available in the RC-690 can be considered complete as well. All the front I/O cables are of high quality and the audio connector covers all possibilities - HD Audio, AC '97 and even single connectors for each cable. The power/reset and LED cables are a bit problematic. While you will have no problems connecting the reset, power and hard drive access LED, the one meant for the blue power LED does not feature a three pin connector, so you will be hard pressed to connect the cable on boards which space the two pins one apart.


Installing the hardware is quite straight forward. The two images above only differ in a single aspect. In one the mainboard, CPU and power has been installed and routed, while the second also has all drives installed. As you can see, there is very little difference. This means that you should be able to keep the insides of the case clean no matter how many drives you have installed. The graphic card holds surprisingly well. The clips utilize the case frame to hold the card in place. The entire graphic card did not even budge after the system was moved by car to a different location.


Installation of the hard drive is incredibly easy. The afore mentioned soft plastic tray gives you the possibility to install the drive without any screws or tools. Just spread the tray apart, place the hard drive into it and let it snap into place. The tray itself has rubber mountings for the drive, so any vibrations are stopped right at the source.


Inserting an optical drive is a bit more complicated. You have to remove the entire front to take out a drive cover. After you have done that, simply slide the drive into the case and secure it with the clip on one side. You will still need to screw it down on the other side, which does defeat the purpose of the clips.

Finished Looks

Once everything was finished, the side panels were placed back on the case and the entire PC was turned on. Even though there are three case fans, an OEM CPU cooler, 120 mm PSU fan and the graphic card one thing was missing - vibrations. The fans emit a clean "wooshing" sound if connected directly to the power supply, but are nearly silent when plugged in directly into the mainboard.