The Cooler Master MasterBox 600 has one very clear objective. To offer the potential buyer as much functionality at that magical $100 price point. There has been a ton of pressure from a lot of different brands pushing the amount of value you can get for a so-called Benjamin (a $100 bill). Overall, the MasterBox 600 manages to deliver on that price and performance promise, making it a case that you should consider for the provided budget.

Let's start with the positives: the MasterBox 600 looks great. That is not for its unique design, but simply because Cooler Master managed a clean and functional front panel that also feels sturdy. The two-tone fine metal mesh is a perfect way to show off one of the major functional USPs of the case beautifully while also acting as a dust filter at the same time. This pairs really well with the three 140 mm retail-grade SickleFlow fans. The MasterBox 600 feels of high quality overall and the fact that it can handle BTF on top of classic boards means it is future-proof as well. Besides that, you get all the general fixings you would expect from a chassis of this segment, which includes 360 mm radiator support in the ceiling, all the space you need for big GPUs, a built-in controller tied to an external button and useful cable management features.

On the other end of the spectrum, it feels like Cooler Master has pushed the budget envelope too much in some aspects of the case - all of which seem like that you may end up seeing the bare tooling of this case show up in a cheaper model too. From the basic underside dust filter, the odd silver thumb screws, to the break-out covers for the expansion slots and the lack of a few extra grommets or the nickle & diming in regard to the mounting hardware for 2.5" drives. Those are simply not things we would expect to find in a $100 chassis these days. That is topped off by the odd rear fan, which isn't PWM but is still connected to the controller out of the box.

None of those shortcomings are dealbreakers. For example, just two 2.5", using classic screws or plugging in that RPM fan into a header of its own on the motherboard for proper control - that's all fine. It just feels like Cooler Master meant to get a leg up on this price/performance segment and then stopped short of the finish line. Rarely has the difference between a Recommendation and an Editor's Choice been this clear.