Up front
Cooler Master seems to have gone off aluminium of late. Maybe it's so expensive that profit margins suffer. But, with a mix of steel and plastic (and weighing in at 9.8kg), the 690 is certainly built to a budget and that's reflected in the price, though not necessarily its feature-set.
The 690 is pitched around £50, indicating that Cooler Master has turned its attention back to the lower end of the market. With dimensions of 213(w) x 482(h) x 524.5(d) mm, it's pretty much an average-sized chassis, too.
A largely all-black finish contrasts with two chrome-coloured strips that run up the front of the chassis and over the top, ending at the rear. Similarly, the mesh on the front sweeps up and over to the back.
The mesh is held to the main chassis by a plastic frame and is well matched to the colour of the steel panels. A Cooler Master badge sitting low down at the front looks a whole lot classier the more usual and standard-size stick-on label.
There are five externally-accessible 5.25in bays up front but none for 3.5in devices. Those require the use of a 5.25in>3.5in adapter plate and one of those comes in the accessories' box.
In the above shot of the lower part of the front and right-hand side, you can see that the mesh is angled inwards to allow air to be drawn in by the front-mounted 120mm fan - a unit that's fitted with blue LED illumination.
A large chrome-coloured power button and a matching - but smaller - reset button are located on the right side of the case near the front, rather than on the front itself.
In between the two buttons are the activity lights - the top for power and the bottom for hard-drive activity. They are visible if you're looking at the case straight on or even from slightly to the left.