Another glorified advertisement from Darksaber. Highly recommended award he says!
He also says "No issues with installing long GPUs or 120mm Tower Coolers" - Interesting, since Gamer's nexus quotes: "Our usual Corsair RM650X was too tall to clear the end of our GPU, so we were forced to use [an SFX PSU] - It would also be too tall, but the length is short enough that the whole PSU can sit above the GPU. Beware: long GPU coolers directly affect the PSU clearance in this enclosure, and Cooler Master recommends 140mm PSUs to maximize compatibility. "
"Built-In desktop mode" says Darksaber, but "It’d be a bad idea to use it as a monitor stand like the Taku, though, as the reversion to acrylic paneling means easy scratches." say GN.
"That said, Cooler Master has done well with the Masterbox Q500L between function, unique takes and features, with a fun and surprisingly capable and compact chassis as a result." says Darksaber. "The stock torture test was the worst for CPU temperature, with an average of 74.4 degrees Celsius over ambient under a torture workload. Remember, that’s over ambient -- in reality, the CPU hit 100 degrees at times and was forced to downclock, which is something we rarely see. " says GN.
And finally: "On the other hand, all the fiddliness of SFF builds--lack of clearance, cramped space for building, limited space for radiators, poor airflow--is present in this case. Its flexibility is its saving grace, because there’s always a chance that there’s some configuration we didn’t consider that would magically fix performance: as Cooler Master says themselves, “thermal performance is dependent on the build itself.” The vast majority of the time, it would make more sense to buy a cheap ATX case for an ATX system, or to buy a case this size for a SFF system. The case this size for a SFF system is called the Q300L, and it’s at least $10 cheaper, although we can’t speak to its performance.
It’s likely that users building in this case will consider a small PSU, GPU, CPU cooler, or some other concession to the limited size of the case. At that point, there should be some serious consideration of just building an actual SFF system. Especially with a mini-ITX motherboard, there’s no point at all to buy this instead of the Q300L. "
