Lian-Li PC-K7B or CM690 II, maybe other $100 Mid-Tower?

[ponchato]

Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B versus the CM690 II Advanced.

Same price, same shipping. It's just down to features. For the foreseeable future the computer will have an i5-750, 5770, one DVD, and one HDD.

Lian has much less obstructive HDD cages.
Lian has positive air pressure.
Lian has rubber HDD mounts.
Lian has a less ostentatious exterior (the LED on the CM690 II can be turned off, it's still pretty ricey though).
CM690 II has a bottom mounted PSU which pulls air from underneath.
CM690 II has two 140mm fans compared to only 120mm in the Lian.
CM690 II inside is painted black.
CM690 II has room for a LOT more fans.

I'm leaning towards the CM 690 II, but I'd like to see what owners of either case (or both) have to say before I get one.

 

[Slayer32163]

I do not own a cm690 but i do own a haf 932 and i am proud to say i love it.

Pros to the cm690- 1. Enough space for radiators if you want watercooling in the future.
2. A bottom mounted psu which helps keep hot air from entering the cpu cooler
3. Black interior inside which makes a cool look
4. My freind has the non-advance version and he put the sound dampening material and he said it couldnt have been easier


cons
1. Some people get tired of black interior fairly quick, like me,
other than that i have nothing, your best choice is the cm690

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Since you mentioned Lancool, have you looked at their Dragon Lord series? They come in a variety of configurations and prices under $100.00:

http://www.lancoolpc.com/en/product/product04.php?cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62

The lowest prices in the USA are still at mwave.com:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/deepsearch_v3.asp?scriteria=Lancool&ALL=y&TP=

I have the K-60 for my personal pc. I'm quite pleased with it. Ventilation, airflow, and cooling are excellent. Cable managent is very good. All of the Dragon Lord cases have 290mm (11.4 inches) of space for video cards. It can accomodate all of the ATI Radeon 5000 series cards except the very high end 5970.

 

[bezbol]

For Lian-Li to cut the cost to under 99, it must sacrifice a lot of features due to the more expensive aluminum cases.
The one you are choosing does not come with Lian Li 's latest tool-less design as we see in the Lancool Dragon Lord series...no black interior and less cooling features.
It does has the benefit of its higher end aluminum cases - light weight and strong, quality Lian-Li production.

The one you should really compared 690II to is Lancool K62.
Both cases are feature packed budget cases...both come in trendy black interior...both have excellent cooling.

K62 has better tool less design, better intake filter
690II comes with more freedom on fan placement...with area for watercooling radiator, to me it has better look.

So I went with 690II.

 

[ponchato]

Best answer selected by ponchato.