Cooler Master Masterbox TD500 Mesh

Darksaber · Jun 29, 2020

The Cooler Master Masterbox TD500 Mesh checks off all the right boxes for an appealing mass-market choice. With its sub-$100 price tag, three fans, RGB, and clean looks, it goes down the path of "trusted and true", and it actually ends up being quite the confident stride for good reason.

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dirtyferret · Jun 29, 2020

Loud CM case fans, what a surprise...

Th3pwn3r · Jun 30, 2020

Ugly in my opinion. But if it performs decent...

iuliug · Jun 30, 2020

What is the P/N of the fans? Are they PWM?

cucker tarlson · Jun 30, 2020

ugly and loud
I'd take 500dx for sure

MAXLD · Jun 30, 2020

I would prefer the frontal fans to be mounted exclusively on the inside of the chassis and therefore not having such a bulky plastic frontal panel that basically screams "cheap". Which then would allow to ditch the plastic front panel altogether and have a much sleeker and robust looking steel meshed front. Just like the top side of the case. I really like that top side, plenty of mesh space for airflow and mounting options for fans.

Besides that, not providing full number of grommet+pins for all the bays the case has... that's silly (silly cheap decision that is). As for the fan noise, seems typical of these cases/fans... ditch the RGB bling-bling and fill it with proper Noctua fans and problem solved (will cost you, but you'll have a bunch of fans for life).

Chrispy_ · Jun 30, 2020

Hideous, but at least it's mesh and not tempered glass.

I don't know why Taiwanese case manufacturers insist on sticking a mismatched piece of questionable plastic 'art' on the front of every case. It just adds cost, takes up space, and hinders airflow.

The front of a case needs to do one thing, and one thing only - let in air. Hide the fans behind some painted mesh or vented flat fascia if you must but please don't create a completely pointless volume of cheap, low-grade brittle plastic that poorly mimicks a jet engine nozzle, or Optimus Prime's nutsack, or a Tron lightcycle.

That stupid garish plastic rubbish costs money and looks bad. Can we please get cheaper cases that don't look bad by simply not including that junk in the first place? Nobody is asking for it. Nobody appreciates the wasted space, larger shipping boxes, or low-grade plastic. Just stop already!

I'm aware that my opinion may not reflect everyone's opinion but outside of NZXT and a few tiny startups, almost every manufacturer is pursuing form over function and that disheartens me. I'm an engineer and I find beauty in good design, not fashion gimmicks that will look dated in 2 years.

wheresmycar · Jul 1, 2020

Come on it's not that bad in terms of aesthetics. Although I admit, having tasted NZXT's minimalist design aesthetics and now BeQuiets 500DX... the TD500 is more of a distant memory by todays standards (IMO). What I don't like is "the plastic feel".

Chrispy_ · Jul 1, 2020

wheresmycar said:
Come on it's not that bad in terms of aesthetics. Although I admit, having tasted NZXT's minimalist design aesthetics and now BeQuiets 500DX... the TD500 is more of a distant memory by todays standards (IMO). What I don't like is "the plastic feel".

There you go. The thing you don't like about this otherwise perfectly decent case is the ugly and cheap-feeling plastic crap they bolted to the front - and it looks dated already, that's what I assume you mean by "distant memory by todays standards"

I'm sure the rest of the case is fine. I'm just having a whine that so many Taiwanese OEMs ruin perfectly decent cases with dated/ugly bolt-on plastic of questionably quality and hinderance to function.

Borgysa · Jul 29, 2020

I just built a PC using this case, I have to say it was poorly designed with no forward thinking. RGB ram wouldnt fit with top mounted water cooling radiator and fans, the top hole for cpu power on motherboard was in a bad spot, only certain power supplys were suitable due to some having cables that were too short to reach top of motherboard, holes in case for large motherboard power cable was in wrong location, only 3 x 3.5 drives can be fitted AND it was ugly, the bevel lines in the glass panel made it look like part of a decanter kit. Sorry Cooler master has dropped the ball with this one.

Th3pwn3r · Jul 29, 2020

Borgysa said:
I just built a PC using this case, I have to say it was poorly designed with no forward thinking. RGB ram wouldnt fit with top mounted water cooling radiator and fans, the top hole for cpu power on motherboard was in a bad spot, only certain power supplys were suitable due to some having cables that were too short to reach top of motherboard, holes in case for large motherboard power cable was in wrong location, only 3 x 3.5 drives can be fitted AND it was ugly, the bevel lines in the glass panel made it look like part of a decanter kit. Sorry Cooler master has dropped the ball with this one.

All the issues sound like problems you made for yourself in all honesty. I built a PC in a Mastercase H500M and it was really nice other than the fan controller.

Borgysa · Jul 30, 2020

Th3pwn3r said:
All the issues sound like problems you made for yourself in all honesty. I built a PC in a Mastercase H500M and it was really nice other than the fan controller.

I like how you mention that I made all these problems myself and then explain how you built a computer in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT case and said it was really nice. Are you serious or was that a joke ?

Th3pwn3r · Jul 30, 2020

Again, all your problems stem from the configuration and combination of parts YOU chose to build the system with.

If you didn't know ram comes in different heights, power supplies come with different length cables, board come with different layouts.

Lastly, my mention of another case is because these cases from Coolermaster are very similar.

Edit: And you couldn't tell if it was ugly or not from pictures? Lol, c'mon dude.

System Name	Corsair 2000D Silent Gaming Rig
Processor	Intel Core i5-14600K
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix Z790-i Gaming Wifi
Cooling	Corsair iCUE H150i Black
Memory	Corsair 64 GB 6000 MHz DDR5
Video Card(s)	Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phoenix GS
Storage	TeamGroup 1TB NVMe SSD
Display(s)	Gigabyte 32" M32U
Case	Corsair 2000D
Power Supply	Corsair 850 W SFX
Mouse	Logitech MX
Keyboard	Sharkoon PureWriter TKL

Processor	faster at instructions than yours
Motherboard	more nurturing than yours
Cooling	frostier than yours
Memory	superior scheduling & haphazardly entry than yours
Video Card(s)	better rasterization than yours
Storage	more ample than yours
Display(s)	increased pixels than yours
Case	fancier than yours
Audio Device(s)	further audible than yours
Power Supply	additional amps x volts than yours
Mouse	without as much gnawing as yours
Keyboard	less clicky than yours
VR HMD	not as odd looking as yours
Software	extra mushier than yours
Benchmark Scores	up yours

System Name	My PC
Processor	AMD 2700 x @ 4.1Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming
Cooling	Zalman CNPS20X
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB DDR4
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 570 PULSE
Storage	Adata Ultimate SU800
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P500A
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G51
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus GX, 80+ Gold, 550W
Keyboard	Roccat Vulcan 121

System Name	Purple rain
Processor	10.5 thousand 4.2G 1.1v
Motherboard	Zee 490 Aorus Elite
Cooling	Noctua D15S
Memory	16GB 4133 CL16-16-16-31 Viper Steel
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super Gaming X Trio
Storage	SU900 128,8200Pro 1TB,850 Pro 512+256+256,860 Evo 500,XPG950 480, Skyhawk 2TB
Display(s)	Acer XB241YU+Dell S2716DG
Case	P600S Silent w. Alpenfohn wing boost 3 ARGBT+ fans
Audio Device(s)	K612 Pro w. FiiO E10k DAC,W830BT wireless
Power Supply	Superflower Leadex Gold 850W
Mouse	G903 lightspeed+powerplay,G403 wireless + Steelseries DeX + Roccat rest
Keyboard	HyperX Alloy SilverSpeed (w.HyperX wrist rest),Razer Deathstalker
Software	Windows 10
Benchmark Scores	A LOT

Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard	MSi MPG X570 Gaming Plus
Cooling	Noctua NH-D14
Memory	G.Skill DDR4-3600 Trident Z CL 16
Video Card(s)	MSi GTX 1080 Gaming X 8GB
Storage	Crucial P1 500GB M.2 NVMe
Display(s)	Acer Predator XB1 IPS 165Hz G-Sync
Case	Lian-Li PC-A10B
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus+ Gold 750W
Mouse	Zowie EC1-A
Keyboard	G.Skill KM780 MX (MX brown)

Cooler Master Masterbox TD500 Mesh

Darksaber

Senior Editor & Case Reviewer

dirtyferret

Th3pwn3r

iuliug

cucker tarlson

MAXLD

Chrispy_

wheresmycar

Chrispy_

Borgysa

New Member

Th3pwn3r

Borgysa

New Member

Th3pwn3r

System Name	Bragging Rights
Processor	Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz
Motherboard	It has no markings but it's green
Cooling	No, it's a 2.2W processor
Memory	2GB DDR3L-1333
Video Card(s)	Gen7 Intel HD (4EU @ 311MHz)
Storage	32GB eMMC and 128GB Sandisk Extreme U3
Display(s)	10" IPS 1280x800 60Hz
Case	Veddha T2
Audio Device(s)	Apparently, yes
Power Supply	Samsung 18W 5V fast-charger
Mouse	MX Anywhere 2
Keyboard	Logitech MX Keys (not Cherry MX at all)
VR HMD	Samsung Oddyssey, not that I'd plug it into this though....
Software	W10 21H1, barely
Benchmark Scores	I once clocked a Celeron-300A to 564MHz on an Abit BE6 and it scored over 9000.

System Name	❶ Oooh (2024) ❷ Aaaah (2021) ❸ Ahemm (2017)
Processor	❶ 5800X3D ❷ i7-9700K ❸ i7-7700K
Motherboard	❶ X570-F ❷ Z390-E ❸ Z270-E
Cooling	❶ ALFIII 360 ❷ X62 + X72 (GPU mod) ❸ X62
Memory	❶ 32-3600/16 ❷ 32-3200/16 ❸ 16-3200/16
Video Card(s)	❶ 3080 X Trio ❷ 2080TI (AIOmod) ❸ 1080TI
Storage	❶ NVME/SSD/HDD ❷ <SAME ❸ SSD/HDD
Display(s)	❶ 1440/165/IPS ❷ 1440/144/IPS ❸ 1080/144/IPS
Case	❶ BQ Silent 601 ❷ Cors 465X ❸ Frac Mesh C
Audio Device(s)	❶ HyperX C2 ❷ HyperX C2 ❸ Logi G432
Power Supply	❶ HX1200 Plat ❷ RM750X ❸ EVGA 650W G2
Mouse	❶ Logi G Pro ❷ Razer Bas V3 ❸ Logi G502
Keyboard	❶ Logi G915 TKL ❷ Anne P2 ❸ Logi G610
Software	❶ Win 11 ❷ 10 ❸ 10
Benchmark Scores	I have wrestled bandwidths, Tussled with voltages, Handcuffed Overclocks, Thrown Gigahertz in Jail