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Cooler Master MasterBox 500

Darksaber

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The Cooler Master MasterBox 500 has all the fixings of a mainstream chassis, but also offers a removable top cover for easier assembly and built-in ARGB controller and fan hub. While it is squarely built on trusted and true engineering practices, the MasterBox 500 also offers a few visual highlights, like the embedded ARGB in the front cover.

Show full review
 
Chrispy_

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I think the chassis, layout, and cooling looks fine but I couldn't bring myself to spend >$100 on a case with a solid chunk of cheap plastic front and center. The sub $100 market has the plastic+mesh thing completely covered with some excellent options at $80 or less so there's absolutely no need for it at twice the price.

a) People spending that much want steel, glass, or aluminium.
b) People don't want their front fans blocked off like that.

I'm also not a fan of the tilted forward aesthetic CM has been using for several years, but I can't criticise them for that as it's a matter of personal taste thing and I'm sure loads of people like it.
 
InVasMani

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It's amazing just how much room is in modern PC cases w/o the mechanical drives really cluttering everything up. They occupied so much more space comparatively on top of being pretty hot and hindering airflow and a wiring mess.
 
wheresmycar

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Chrispy_ said:
I'm also not a fan of the tilted forward aesthetic CM has been using for several years, but I can't criticise them for that as it's a matter of personal taste thing and I'm sure loads of people like it.
Click to expand...

Me too!!

From the side view it looks like a wonky manufacturing mishap, more of a distraction for me. Maybe im just boring, i'm more of a MasterBox MB400L, although it would be nice to a see a variant with front mesh too.
 
80-watt Hamster

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Kudos to CM for proper expansion slot configuration and covers, and for the HDD LED. It doesn't quite hit my personal 200mm width target, but basically nothing does these days, so it's hard to hold that against it. Shame about the price, though. I def had an, "It's how much?" moment on reaching the conclusion.
 
M

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wheresmycar said:
Me too!!

From the side view it looks like a wonky manufacturing mishap, more of a distraction for me. Maybe im just boring, i'm more of a MasterBox MB400L, although it would be nice to a see a variant with front mesh too.
Click to expand...
If you mean a front mesh version of the MB400L, CM has got you covered:
www.coolermaster.com

Cooler Master MasterBox NR400 without ODD Mini Tower PC Case

The MasterBox NR400 applies optimal cooling and expandability to a minimalistic, subtle design. With thermal capability at the forefront of features, the front panel and top panel are designed to signify airflow performance in its purest form.
www.coolermaster.com www.coolermaster.com

As for this one: Yeah, not worth the price. Then again, nothing with a mostly-solid front panel is.
 
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InVasMani said:
It's amazing just how much room is in modern PC cases w/o the mechanical drives really cluttering everything up. They occupied so much more space comparatively on top of being pretty hot and hindering airflow and a wiring mess.
Click to expand...
Some of us need those drives in our systems and x2 3.5" drive bays is pathetic. Modern hard drives also aren't "pretty hot". So much so that they can safely be shoved in plastic enclosures without any kind of active cooling and be fine.
 
wheresmycar

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Meta said:
If you mean a front mesh version of the MB400L, CM has got you covered:
www.coolermaster.com

Cooler Master MasterBox NR400 without ODD Mini Tower PC Case

The MasterBox NR400 applies optimal cooling and expandability to a minimalistic, subtle design. With thermal capability at the forefront of features, the front panel and top panel are designed to signify airflow performance in its purest form.
www.coolermaster.com www.coolermaster.com

As for this one: Yeah, not worth the price. Then again, nothing with a mostly-solid front panel is.
Click to expand...

Excellent... forgot this one. I've been too busy lately eyeing up a mini-ITX transformation... i'm still cycling between a CM NR200P or a not-so "Nano" torrent. Have to admit, i'm not usually excited about CM cases but the NR200P is just pure magic....excels in every conceivable way (for me its always either intake from the front mesh or in the NR200P's bottom-up)
 
Chrispy_

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wheresmycar said:
Me too!!

From the side view it looks like a wonky manufacturing mishap, more of a distraction for me. Maybe im just boring, i'm more of a MasterBox MB400L, although it would be nice to a see a variant with front mesh too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't fault CM for offering different styles for different tastes though - they do have things covering the whole spectrum of understated simplicity to in-your-face styling.

The NR200 range and the entire Silencio S400/S600 range all suit my tastes just fine, as well as some of the V2 masterbox stuff. Hopefully the tilted forward thing is old tooling and they're phasing it out because it just looks dated to me. The MB600LV2 looks much more modern to me:
 

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Tsukiyomi91

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not the best looking, not the worst performing. Price could be on the affordable side but eh.
 
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good numbers, but i like my bluray driver internally.
 
Assimilator

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$160 and no USB-C? WTF is CM smoking?
 
bonehead123

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Assimilator said:
$160 and no USB-C? WTF is CM smoking?
Click to expand...
^^THIS^^

probably some high-grade dogfood, either Alpo or Cycle 4 mastablend...
can I getz me sumodat ? :roll:
 
720p low

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This will probably come across as simply mean-spirited but I must ask, does anybody on planet Earth know how to properly photograph a black PC case? (Hint: not against a white background, for openers...)

Buy this photographer some floods and scoops, for heavens sake. This is the same death-by-contrast mess you see most everywhere else. Like trying to peer into the depths of the Marianas Trench with a AAA-cell Maglite. If these are CM-supplied photos, light 'em up over their poor quality. I mean, in that first photo on Page 4, a facehugger could be lurking in that dark corner and you wouldn't know it.

As to the case, I might consider it at about $80 USD, for use with power-efficient components.
 
80-watt Hamster

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720p low said:
This will probably come across as simply mean-spirited but I must ask, does anybody on planet Earth know how to properly photograph a black PC case?
Click to expand...

Short answer: No.
 
Chrispy_

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I bought a pixel phone so that I don't have to be a good photographer to take half-decent photos. I doubt even with a day's training on a DSLR that I'd be able to match the quality of photos that my Pixel takes on full-auto.

If the algorithm that handles white balance from the #1 phone camera on the market can't get it right, I think it's reasonably to expect humans to screw it up too.
 
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