Verdict: Holy front fascia, Batman, the Centurion's a great case!

One Centurion clearly isn't enough to defend Cooler Master's honour, as the company has seen the need to develop two additional members of the Centurion family - the 530 and 531.

The 530 looks fairly similar to the Centurion 5, thanks to its meshed front panel. This means it not only looks great, but it also has excellent cooling. Passive cooling won't be good enough for a high-end PC, though, so the 530 also has two 120mm fan mounts - one intake at the front and an exhaust at the rear.

The front fan is illuminated by several blue LEDs, which shine out from behind the aluminium front panel. Unfortunately, the rear fan isn't provided, so you'll have to buy your own. There are also air vents on the left side panel above the CPU and graphics card. The main body of the case is made from sheet steel, with nicely rounded corners, so you won't cut your fingers when installing components.

The interiors of the 530 and 531 are identical; both cases have five 5.25in, one external 3.5in and four internal 3.5in drive bays. All the 5.25in drive bays are mounted with meshed, spring-loaded stealth covers. Three of the four internal 3.5in bays are positioned at 90-degree angles to the front panel, so drives can be easily installed, without having to remove the motherboard. Despite the excellent airflow, a dual-processor system, unless it's on an ATX motherboard such as the Asus PC-DL, won't fit, as the 530 isn't large enough to house an E-ATX motherboard. A pair of USB 2 ports, a single FireWire port, and headphone and microphone jacks are integrated into the top of the front panel at a slight angle so they are slightly easier to reach.

While the Centurion 530 is a bit more expensive than the Jeantech Phong, it has better cooling potential, thanks to the fully ventilated front panel and additional side panel air intakes. If £50 is your limit then the Centurion 530 is the case to buy.

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