Review System

Assembly

Thanks to the accessible interior, especially due to the pre-routed power cables, installing the ITX motherboard is pretty straightforward, as the CPU power leads are right where you need them in the top-left corner. The board fits down to the millimeter as well, further adding to the benefit of having things partially pre-assembled.


Adding SSDs utilizes Cooler Master's unique pin screw setup. Once attached, simply push the drive into the rubber rings which are tight enough to hold them in place.


What's new, however, is the same system for 3.5" drives. These screws have a slightly enlarged tip for more tension with the rubber rings. Securing the drive to the HDD cage was no issue at all, and it actually holds in place well enough for stationary use. That said, shipping a system with a drive installed like this will be quite the risky business, which system integrators do need to take into account.


All the cable mess of the PSU and other excess leads can be bundled up nicely right underneath the SFX unit thanks to the two long Velcro straps.


Installing the AIO on the CPU is pretty straightforward using the provided backplate to which you have to attach four spacers. Once those are in place, you may screw down the pump with the correctly attached clips for your socket.


Preparing a GPU is incredibly easy as well, as the rear frame is partially removable. As you can see, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was installed in the two slots furthest from the motherboard to allow for both the 3.5" HDD on the PSU cage and GPU to co-exist within the chassis. The unique Cooler Master PCIe 4.0 riser cable is a bit bulkier and thus stiffer than what we have seen from other brands, but it sure looks cool!


As soon as the GPU was placed, it immediately became apparent that Cooler Master had simply never considered our planned use case. There is no structural reason why a 2 or 2.5-slot GPU could not easily fit alongside a 3.5" hard drive. However, the provided riser cable is simply too short to accommodate this setup. This is quite unfortunate, but you could easily solve this by buying an aftermarket cable of appropriate length. To finish the assembly of components, the 3.5" drive had to be removed from the cage. Also, due to the stiffness of the riser cable, the GPU doesn't sit quite straight, which in turn did not sit right with us, especially if you plan to use the glass side panel. This is a classic tale of trying to re-invent the wheel with design over function in regards to the PCIe riser cable, with a slew of functional aftermarket options Cooler Master could have gone for instead.


With everything installed, the interior is super clean due to the compact AIO pump on the CPU and pre-routed cables. Looking at the opposite side, nothing has really changed from our initial look out of the box besides us now having clear access to the mounting bracket of the CPU cooler. Fortunately, we were able to place the 3.5" drive on the floor of the case and pop that in place, so there is no need to sacrifice all spinning, high-capacity storage with long GPUs. Alternatively, you could place a fan there; however, again due to the bulky PCIe cable, if at all possible, placing a second cooling unit underneath the GPU would be a tight fit.

Finished Looks

Turning the Cooler Master MasterBox NR200P MAX on, everything is nice and silent—the only thing letting you know that your rig is powered on is the glow of the RGB components from within, and the white LED underneath the power button.


The glow of the GPU and memory is clearly visible through the metal mesh, which is a good sign for airflow. Naturally, replacing this panel with the clear glass variant, you can see and show off all your hardware nicely as well.


In the rear, everything is where you would expect it, with the power lead out of the way in the bottom-left corner.