Introduction, Specifications and External Features
Cooler Master ATC-600 Desktop Case
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
The Cooler Master ATC-600 Desktop Aluminum Case is the second in our series of reviews showing you all some of the worlds most innovative and interesting computer enclosures.The desktop case was a mainstay in the earlier days of computing and gradually gave way to tower cases as our CPU’s became hotter and hotter and required more and more cooling. Oh, there were a few desktop cases on the market, but none like the ATC-600!!
Cooler Master a company accustomed to industry firsts recently released the first all aluminum desktop case built to meet the challenges of today’s computing environment. This sleek beauty, sports three 60 mm case fans (two intakes, one exhaust), two USB and one Firewire front mounted ports and a quick release acrylic front panel.
Before we continue on, let’s cover the ATC-600’s specifications; the three 60 mm case fans are YS Tech NFD1260153-1N units that each produce 16 CFM’s at a noise level of 24 dBA’s, so the combined noise level is a quiet 30 dBA’s.
The overall dimensions are 426 (W) x 476 (D) x 145 (H) mm or 16.5″ (W) x 18.75″ (D) x 5.75″ (H) and weights in at only 5 Kg or 11 lbs. 4 oz. without power supply.
The ATC-600 has been designed to house the Micro-ATX Motherboard that has four expansion slots as can be seen here.
Please note the CPU socket location, Cooler Master has allowed enough height in the ATC-600 so that even the largest of heatsinks with 80 mm fans mounted on them have plenty of clearance and can be used just fine.
I’d like to thank our own, “Motherboard Master” and the founder of AMDMB.com Ryan Shrout for getting the Asus Micro- ATX motherboard to me, in a timely fashion. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be to locate a Socket A motherboard of this type.
The ATC-600 has two external 5.25” drive bays and two internal 3.5” hard drive bays. To use a floppy drive you would have to use a 5.25” bay adapter, which would in turn limit you to one 5.25” drive bay.
The Cooler Master ATC-600 accepts a standard size ATX power supply, the only limitation I can see is using a dual fan unit as the power supply sits on a platform thus blocking any gain you might have otherwise achieved from a bottom fan.
The back of the case (photo below) offers no surprises; in that it contains everything you would expect to see, just maybe in a different location. The cover is held in place by four thumbscrews, as are the four expansion slot covers, a standard Cooler Master trademark.
The last item to show you on the exterior of the case is a side-view of one of two fan grills (one on each side of the case) that serve as the air intake outlets.
Please note that the fan is not directly attached to the cover of the case, much like the ATC-201’s top exhaust outlet, but rather attached to the inner frame of the case, otherwise it would be a real problem removing the case cover with a fan on each side protruding inward from the cover.
