Wednesday, May 1st 2013
Cooler Master Launches N300 and N500 ATX Mid-Tower Cases
Cooler Master, an industry leading PC component manufacturer today announces the N series, a brand new series of compact mainstream cases. The N series brings liquid cooling support up to 240mm radiators and improved air cooling performance wrapped in subtle and simplistic designs.
N series cases were designed with cooling performance in mind, especially liquid cooling. The full mesh front panels and a large amount of vents all over let air stream through the case with ease. The N300 supports up to 8 fans, including a 120mm vent on the all important side panel to keep high-end VGAs fed with fresh air, and support for two 120mm fans or one 240mm radiator on top of the case. The N500 supports up to 9 fans, adding a second 120mm slot to the side panel, and extends to top mounted vents to dual 140mm vents, including support for 240mm radiators.
Despite the compact designs, there's plenty of room to install extra long graphics cards, several ODDs, HDDs and SSDs, and still have space to route and hide cables. The N300 supports up to 320mm long VGAs and has a maximum capacity of 2 ODDs, 8 HDDs and an additional SSD slot. Thanks to its height the N500 supports 3 ODDs. It makes away with half the HDD slots to provide a direct stream of fresh air from the front panel to the VGAs. This also allows it supports over 400mm long VGAs and makes room for a dedicated tool-less SSD cage for 3 SSDs.
Both the N300 and N500 are available in 4 configurations - with or without a windowed side panel, and with two USB 3.0 ports (N2 edition) or with a single USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports (N1 edition). USB 3.0 Super Speed enables up to 10x faster file transfers and full speed charging of mobile phones (~1A).
N300/N500 will be available in EU in May . Price and availability may vary by region.
N series cases were designed with cooling performance in mind, especially liquid cooling. The full mesh front panels and a large amount of vents all over let air stream through the case with ease. The N300 supports up to 8 fans, including a 120mm vent on the all important side panel to keep high-end VGAs fed with fresh air, and support for two 120mm fans or one 240mm radiator on top of the case. The N500 supports up to 9 fans, adding a second 120mm slot to the side panel, and extends to top mounted vents to dual 140mm vents, including support for 240mm radiators.
Both the N300 and N500 are available in 4 configurations - with or without a windowed side panel, and with two USB 3.0 ports (N2 edition) or with a single USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports (N1 edition). USB 3.0 Super Speed enables up to 10x faster file transfers and full speed charging of mobile phones (~1A).
N300/N500 will be available in EU in May . Price and availability may vary by region.
17 Comments on Cooler Master Launches N300 and N500 ATX Mid-Tower Cases
The N300 just arrived in my country - Vietnam - with its price tag 5$ lower than Corsair 300R Windowed version. Not sure how will it survive here :laugh: The N200 also arrived with the same price tag as the N300, about 75$. Niche mini tower.
And the 3.5 bay is going to be useful for some memory card reader, and maybe more USB's on the front
Most desktop-class hard drives still use the 3.5" format, and cases like this are definitely not in the SSD-only price bracket (if there is such a thing).
I don't like the blank slots on the front panel I/O, they could add a couple of USB2.0 slots there. I actually like this one a lot, I was considering a 200R or 300R for my next case but this looks pretty good too.
I wouldn't recommend a low-end C'M' case to anyone, by the way. They're flimsy and poorly thought out.
The N300 seems to be the not so long ago released CM Force 500 with a different front panel (meh) and the N500's layout actually resembles the 200R/300R. :clap: What I don't get is the USB slot configurations, why not 2x2.0+2x3.0? :wtf: It's either 2x3.0 or 2x2.0+1x3.0. :shadedshu