Internals
The biggest deal about the Centurion 5, as far as Cooler Master are concerned anyway, is the tool-free nature of the chassis. The only time you'll need a screwdriver is to secure the motherboard, everything else, including getting into the case and installing hard disk drives and optical devices, requiring nothing more than deft fingers.
Grabbing NVIDIA's large reference nForce3 250Gb Pro motherboard allowed me to test Cooler Master's claims that the Centurion would accept a 9-hole ATX mount. Given its external size, that was possibly an easy given, but it was worth the test anyway.
The interior shot shows it's roomy, with the clever AGP/PCI card and drive retention mechanisms visible too. Time to test those tool-free claims.
The drive retention mechanism (100KB) operates using lockable plastic sliders. Open the lock and slide it towards the rear of the case, push your hard drive along the guide rails, slide the slider towards the front of the case, allowing it to gain purchase on the drive, lock it into place. Do that and et voila!
It's an identical method of operation with optical and floppy drives, no screws required. Excellent.
The configuration means that you can get four hard disks in there with no problem, five if you forego the dubious benefits of a floppy drive. A black card reader would go nicely in that position however, should four drive spaces be enough for you.
AGP and PCI Retention
The tool-free ethos runs to the AGP and PCI card mountings (73KB). A hinged black clip with a pop-out plastic piece is all that's needed to secure any card in your system, with the clips still offering a screw mount should you need one.
Pop the latch by pressing the plastic, slide it out, insert your card, push it back into place from the outside of the case. More et voila voyeurism to confirm its cool operation.
Open.
Closed!
Summary
Thoroughly impressive. Plenty of room for large motherboards and excellent drive and expansion card mounting. The fans are quiet and the front port cables are routed well. The ATX case headers are clearly labelled.My only complaint is getting the front bezel off requires Superman-like strength and a pair of pliers, the plastic grips holding it steadfast. It's a shame you need to remove the bezel to get access to the drive bay covers, since they can't be removed just by poking them from behind.
Good stuff.