Removing
the right panel requires you to take out two additional thumb
screws. The removable motherboard tray is held in place by four
more smaller versions of these thumb screws that do not hold the
right or left panel in place. The motherboard tray slides out
easily once released, notice the 2mm thickness on even the motherboard
tray... I set the tray aside to install the motherboard on once
ready.
The
Praetorian 730 has a PSU enclosure, not just a rail or two to
slide the PSU onto, an actual enclosure for it. Although in
my case this was not an issue, I can see in some busy solutions
the surrounding brackets getting in the way of cable flow. I
do like how sturdy the solution is, something you don't see
in a lot of cases these day's.
Installing
the Motherboard took little as is the case with most removable
motherboard trays. The tray is one again made of 2mm thick Aluminum,
giving you more then enough support for most anything you can
install on a motherboard, and then some.
The
tray slips back into the case nicely, even with a rather large
mounted HS/Fan combination. The front panel connectors were labeled
well and had plenty of slack to reach most any motherboards choice
of FP header position (I have seen some winners :P). I installed
the FireWire and USB connectors without issue.
Now
that everything is mounted, it is time to put it all back together,
connect all of the cables and see how everything fairs. As you
can see, the side panel blow hole is large enough to allow positioning
directly over top of most CPU fan positions, it fit nicely on
our ECS KN1-SLI Extreme motherboard. If I had to guess, I would
say it would just miss the DFI center CPU socket scenario. The
side panel air duct is more then sufficient to bring in a good
amount of fresh air from outside the case to cool the CPU adequately.
The
Praetorian 730 comes with one intake 120mm and two exhaust 80mm
blue LED fans. This design gives the ability to have more air
expelled then is brought in, however, take into account the
entire front panel is a mesh, and the side panel air-duct is
larger then most CPU fans will utilize, this should not be an
issue for airflow whatsoever. It would have been nice to place
an 80mm exhaust on the top of the case, where the heat builds
up, however, I can see where that might get in the way of the
overall design flow of the case.
Testing
Test
system will be: ECS KN1 SLI Extreme, AMD Athlon64 Opteron 148,
Western Digital 250GB, 7200RPM 8MB Cache SATA-II Hard Drive, HIS
X850xt IceQ Turbo-II
|
|
HTPC
Tech Station
|
Cooler
Master Praetorian 730
|
|
CPU
(100% load)
|
39C
|
41C
|
|
Motherboard
|
38C
|
38C
|
|
Hard
Drive
|
28C
|
28C
|
|
Video
Card
|
39C
|
39C
|
Some
may say that measuring a case against a wide open Tech Station
is unfair. Well, I feel it’s a good baseline of what an
air cooled system can achieve. The results show that the Praetorian
730 is no slouch at getting air through the system, allowing
the components to keep themselves cool. The one impressive stat
is that of the HD temperatures, but then both the Tech Station
and the Praetorian have a nice 120mm fan blowing directly across
the HD.
Final
Words
Cooler
Master, known for optimum cooling solutions, has delivered
just that. An optimum cooling case that performs almost as well
as open air case. It just so happens that Cooler Master has delivered
this solution in an enclosure that is built better then most along
with a design as elegant as any piece of audiophile equipment
you might have. Impressive, from my point of view, is that throughout
this review I was unable to find one, not one, true imperfection
on this case. This could be due to the simple design that Cooler
Master has set forth, nonetheless, impressive.
If
your PC enclosure says something about you, then with the Cooler
Master Praetorian 730 you are bursting with confidence, have class
while not overly flaunting it and you will not settle for anything
not made properly for its task. The design is crisp and entertaining,
but that doesn't stop at the surface, dig deeper and you find
a case that is not only built well, but exudes style and functionality
at every corner.
I
think it’s pretty obvious what I think of this case, and
while there are a few small downsides or missing features that
can be found on other cases, when you take into account the price
of the Cooler
Master Praetorian 730, you are undeniably getting a lot of
case for you money.
Pros:
Extremely aesthetic Design, Above par cooling with minimal noise
levels, Solid support with 2mm Aluminum throughout, Ample internal
space in a Mid-Tower design, High performance low noise (and Blue
LED) fans included
Cons:
HD Audio connectors only to lead to R-L audio out, Internal drive
mounts to riser - no brackets etc, PSU Bracket could pose a problem
to some
Bottom
Line: If your PC enclosure says something about you,
then with the Cooler Master Praetorian 730 you are bursting with
confidence, have class while not overly flaunting it and you will
not settle for anything not made properly for its task. The design
is crisp and entertaining, but that doesn't stop at the surface,
dig deeper and you find a case that is not only built well, but
exudes style and functionality at nearly every corner.
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