Outside
The exterior of the Centurion 5 II is black with a minimum use of plastic other than the front panel of the case. The front panel is covered in mesh including its four drive bays, for maximum air flow. Just above the drive bays you have the front I/O panel. The front I/O panel includes two USB 2.0 ports, your microphone and headphone jacks, and an eSATA port. There is a punch-out for a firewire port but it is unused. Down below the drive bays you have the power button along with the reset and a lighting control button. On the original Centurion 5 this is surrounded by a chrome piece, but this time around it is all blacked out, a nice touch.
Around to the left side you can catch a glimpse of the red and black interior through the side panel window. This window isn’t exclusive to this special edition, you can actually pick up a standard Centurion 5 II with a side panel window if you would like one, it just wouldn’t have as nice of a view as this one. The side panel is very basic in design and is held on with fairly large rivets all around its edge. The rivets aren’t really a problem, but on more expensive cases Cooler Master spends more time trying to hide them. The side panel itself has an acrylic fan mount attached to it for a 120mm fan, perfect to help cool off your hot video cards if needed.
Up top you have a vent for a 120mm fan with added mount holes for a 140mm fan. Both the top and right side of the case are very boring other than that one vent. Without a big extravagant plastic shell the top and side panels are both flat steel panels.
Around back there are a few things that are really noticeable. Obviously the bright red color around the I/O panel and PCI slots is the first thing you see. But the black finish for the rest of the back complements the red perfectly. Each of the PCI slot covers has a black finish giving the PCI slots an interesting look. For ventilation you have perforated holes above the PCI slots and a 120mm fan above the I/O panel. The fan area has an unintentional medallion styling because of the inclusion of mounting holes for 90 and 80mm fans, along with the perforated area also being embossed. Also a little odd for a budget case but more than welcomed is the inclusion of thumbscrews for both side panels, not just the more often used windowed side.