Review System

Assembly

Before installing the motherboard within the Cooler Master, we installed the mounting plate and screws of the AIO. The board neatly fits into its appropriate position inside the NR200P while remaining accessible through the top and bottom of the chassis, making routing and connecting all the cables a breeze.


To place the power supply, detach the frame from the interior to fill it outside of the enclosure. The NR200P has two mounting positions on the side with the one for SFX units slightly lower without interfering with any long GPU and leaving room for the ceiling fans. If you opt for an SFX-L unit, there is the upper position as well. While this removes the ability to place one of the fans in the ceiling, it increases the odds of a longer GPU fitting.


As a compromise, you may also install the whole frame into the front of the chassis. This gives you full fan support and enough space for some mainstream GPUs in either a horizontal and vertical setup. That said, this will in turn keep you from using an AIO on the side.


Thanks to the unique pin screws Cooler Master provides, you do not need any tools to add SSDs. Simply squeeze rubber rings into the right mounting position, attach the pins, and push the drive in place, where it is held down securely by friction.


Installing a 3.5" drive is done in exactly the same way, and to showcase this method, we utilized the side of the PSU bracket. However, as this interferes with the vertical GPU mounting possibilities, we won't keep it around for the final build. You may also place it on the side frame or floor of the NR200P, but just as with the various PSU frame-mounting locations, you will always be compromising on some other element, be it fan or AIO support.


The whole concept of pins being held in place by rubber rings and friction also holds true for the fans, which is a refreshingly unique way to go about this. Thankfully, with the two fans coming pre-assembled, all you have to do is push them down in their appropriate slots.


On the floor of the case, on the other hand, all fans are installed using classic fan screws. We used the supplied MasterFan SF120M ARGB units here. Alternatively, you may go for an AIO instead, which we will explore a little later.


Even with fans on the floor, dual-slot GPUs will still fit just fine, which means you can supercharge their cooling potential by having the case fans push additional cold air up through the graphics card heatsink.


With a horizontally mounted GPU, the side of the Cooler Master NR200P may be used for an AIO. Such a unit may be prepped outside of the chassis. In the case of the ML240 Illusion, that meant installing the right mounting brackets on the pump and then screwing the radiator and fan combo onto the black frame first.


The pump is secured to the CPU with four smaller thumb screws which may be tightened with a screw driver to ensure proper contact. Once in place, the mounting plate and attached radiator may just be put into place and secured with two screws. This setup will cover any internal hardware you may have installed with the exception of the GPU, so using a window for a build like this is probably not the right choice, both visually and in terms of thermals. With everything assembled, there is only a minor cable mess, which we ran behind the motherboard tray, but everything is compact and tight, with no loose ends dangling about.

Assembly - Vertical GPU

Alternatively, for a vertical GPU setup, you may install your AIO to the floor of the case. This is done just as you would with classic fans, thus allowing you to prepare everything outside of the chassis to then re-attach the underside to the case frame.


Doing so gives you the ability to use the included PCIe 3.0 riser cable to secure your GPU vertically. As the riser cable is stiff, the card does get pushed around a little bit, so it's slightly crooked.


This configuration allows you to nicely show off what is most likely the most expensive component of your build when using the glass side panel.