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KevinM
> 3 dayI am extremely happy with this case. There is a video around somewhere on YouTube where they did review on cooling with this and like 20 other cases. Not only did it come out near the top but it was also one of the cheaper ones. It definatley lives up to that. The cooling is great. I only added one extra 140mm fan at the top vent and set it as an extra exhaust fan. I have a 2080 nvidia and an i7-9700k processor with a cpu cooler that is probably not good enough for that CPU. I run a temperature tracking program and my cpu and gpu dont get hotter then about 62c during heavy gaming at max settings. Its all very quiet too. My old gaming laptop seems like a loud boiling jet engine now. For my first pc build i found the directions were easy to understand. The important screw holes and cords in the case are also labeled so its easier to know what to do when putting it together. The carrying handle feels sturdy so far, i transport the desktop around to friends houses to play vr games. Overall highly satisfied.
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Qahar Raheel
> 3 dayThis is a really great case and love that it came with two dedicated hdd slots for my 3.5 drives. Its easy to assemble and disassemble. The filters have easy access as well. Really wish the side glass didnt require a quarter or a flathead to remove everytime. Although, I just hand tighten it so its not so bad. Thermals are good and everything is stable. Im of my biggest issue is with the LED lights in the front. There is no software to adjust it. I dont want to open the back panel everytime I want a different color. I dont know what the developers of this were thinking but it would have been a whole lot easier if they had a dedicated button in the front panel of the case. I went from a HAF X to this so its a world of difference. Would I recommend this case? Depends on your project but this should be sufficient for most cases.
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Jesse
> 3 dayThere was a lot of thought put into the versatility of this case. You can swap a mesh front panel with a tempered glass panel. You can remove a cutout to expose your power supply. You can remove another cover to allow you to front mount a 360mm radiator if you choose. One of my criteria was that I needed at least 380mm of radiator bracket space on top to mount my Alphacool Eisbaer 360mm AIO. The end tanks on this rad are larger than most, necessitating approximately 380mm of lengthwise mounting space. Most cases that advertise the ability to top mount a 360mm rad are very difficult to actually get it to fit while having the clearance for your RAM and the rear I/O shroud on the motherboard. The H500M, with its removable radiator bracket and spacious domed top panel makes mounting even the largest and thickest of 360mm radiators a breeze. You could even do a push/pull config if your fans arent too thick. The included 200mm intake fans, while being only 3 pin fans and operating at a single speed, are virtually silent while also giving you aRGB functionality. The included adjustable GPU bracket is a nice option too as well as the water pump mount. On the back side of the motherboard tray, there are three removable wire covers that help clean up unsightly cables. These trays could be a little deeper to give you some additional clearance, but I got them to fit back on nonetheless. I would give overall wire management a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. It would be nice to have some cable port grommets like most Fractal and Phanteks cases do. And it would be nice to have some port holes in the top of the PSU shroud so you could route your 8 pin GPU cables from directly below. Overall this is a terrific case, and the overall quality is better than average. Any price below 200 dollars is a good deal IMO. This case does what good cases do, it gives you the option to be as creative as you want to be with your build.
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Eric Neiman
> 3 dayI figured the larger the fan the more air it would pull in right? Well, it appears that the plate opening that the 200mm fans are screwed to allow only about half the fan to be exposed so the intake is seriously hindered. I would think swapping them out for triple 120s would be far more efficient (I did not try this). Even with that, using a liquid cooler I placed the radiator on the top as the airflow was better and even though the radiator was getting hot air pushed through it the CPU temp never rose over 70C. Im not sure what they mean by warmth, but the CPU never rose above 70C as said and the GPU never hit 80C, which would be... not optimal. And the rear fan is really small (seems so) to efficiently expel the hot air so the majority of your exhaust is going to be top. You may want to think about a 360 setup. Im only using the 240 the AIO came with, but the top could fit a 3rd 120. It is roomy, but with the radiators and fans stacked on the top they just nudge the memory cards.
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go0den0w
> 3 dayWhen I purchased this case, I had never built a PC before. Id also recently ended my 5-year career as an electrician to go to law school. I needed a hobby & a way to satisfy my need to build stuff. Well, I have gone to town on this case and loved it. Most of the black screws it came with are half silver from me taking it apart so many times. The case is big enough to be a sort of blank canvas for just about any configuration you can imagine, albeit with some limitations: I think its a bit small for a 16mm OD PETG custom loop; I wish it had been designed to support bottom intake fans; and the top clearance for a 360mm AIO/radiator is too small for a push/pull configuration. Keep in mind if you continue to read, I am running an overclocked i9-10900K & need as much cooling capability as possible (with all case parts still properly attached, of course) The stock 200mm fans look good and move a decent amount of air, but I replaced them with higher CFM (& IMO better-looking) Thermaltake Riing Trio 20s. Be mindful: the screw hole configuration for front 200mm fans is different from that for the TT 20s I put in. The stock CM 200s support two different screw layouts. Limited by the layout, I mounted the TT 20s diagonally with two screws & used double-sided adhesive foam to dampen any noise vibration might cause from the 2/4 screw mount. I havent heard noise once. There is no bottom fan support, but I was able to push some air up to the top AIO by cutting in a 2 hole on the front HDD shroud & mounting a 120mm fan over the hole. I wish I didnt get an HDD since the rack is easily removable (& moveable btw), leaving ample space for more modification--might make some bottom fan support in the future, who knows? Similarly, the case does not support mounting a radiator/AIO to the right of the motherboard, but the metal cover there is great for cable management and is also a good place to mount RGB/fan controllers &/or USB hubs out of sight. Further, a little drilling, a few washers, nuts, & 6-32s later, the metal cover is great for holding up my little Pikachu acrylic. The vertical GPU mount is great, but know that--in my case, at least--the card will end up close to the glass, which may restrict air flow to the GPU fans. I have yet to have any issues with thermals, but I am also running a 3060 there, which is limited much more by its hardware than thermals. I also added a GPU support because the GPU sagged a bit and was slightly crooked when only connected to the vertical mount. When using a top-mounted 360mm AIO/radiator equipped with standard 120x120x25mm fans, the fit is tight. The back fan pushes harder against the 4+4 CPU power connections on my Aorus Z590 Ultra motherboard than I would prefer, but I have yet to experience any problems. If pushing against the cables worries you, be sure to check the dimensions on your AIO before purchasing or opt for a smaller AIO/radiator. I had this issue with both the CM ML360 & Arctic Liquid Freezer II. Furthermore, if you plan to top-mount an AIO/radiator, you cannot fit a push/pull configuration because of clearance issues with the CPU 4+4 connections. I tried mounting pull fans on top of the bracket to remedy this but even using 120x120x15mm slim fans, I could not close the top cover. Obviously, the front is mesh, but the top is acrylic with no mesh option available. Skeptical, I removed the top cover and averaged 5.5 degrees lower in stress tests. I assume this is because my AIO was able to expel exhaust heat much better. I dont recommend you do this, but I ended up taking a Sawzall to the top & removing most of the acrylic so I could fit some aRGB pull fans on top of the AIO. 120x120x15mm fans fit nearly flush with the top cover once the acrylic is out of the way. It snaps out if you do not want to cut it, but that leaves large holes where dust, etc. can get in & takes away from the look. If you go this route (for real, dont do it), you may want to buy grille guards since the fans will be much more exposed. You can front mount an AIO/radiator. I tried it. The hoses probably will not be long enough to reach the CPU if you mount it connections down, and the HDD shroud will further complicate this. Hoses up will reach, but then youre left with the decision of whether to pick from either of two undesirable options. You can (a) flip your 200mms over to the ugly side & use the 200s as pull fans for exhaust and whatever fans the AIO/rad comes with as push fans. In this case, youll be pulling hot air from inside the case to cool the liquid in the rad/AIO and taking away from the good looks of the case. Alternatively, you can (b) not flip the 200s & use them as push fans and use the AIO fans as pull fans. This blows hot exhaust air into the case. With no bottom fans, youre left with trying to use the top (restricted by acrylic plus hot air rises) or back (supports 1 140mm fan) as intake. I tried (b). I even mounted a 92mm fan on the PCI expansion area to try to push more air into the case. Thermals were bad. Mount your AIO/rad on top & save yourself the hassle. Regarding aRGB, the case comes with this little joke of a controller you can install to convert the computer reset switch to RGB control. I never even took it out of the plastic. Buy an aRGB controller unless you plan to connect the included 200mm fans directly to the aRGB header(s) on the motherboard. Some general advice (since no one asked): try to find a brand you like for aRGB & stick to it. At one point I had four different RGB apps and its annoying.
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Emmanuel
> 3 dayThe Case is actually really nice. I was skeptical as i worry when i buy things. The material is a good portion plastic but it is sturdy plastic and dosnt bend. The glass panel is nice and easy to remove to do some work inside and the rear has good space for cable management or if your like we, just zip tie the cables. The front Fans are amazing and are good, careful with the led cables for them as i fried one of mine. The noise is my only issue, it can be annoying at times HOWEVER it isnt anything bad when you game or watch youtube. Honestly amazing buy and i do recommend
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Brock Langworth
> 3 dayThis case is quite a rabbit hole to be sure, Ill begin with the awful QC for the case RGB. A great deal of time, and in my case, a front fan will have broken RGB which diminishes the perceived value of the case massively (As otherwise it is a very outdated design using tooling from 5+ years ago.) The included case RGB controller was a nice perk and was a major selling point for me as the motherboard I was putting in this did not have a DRGB header but I still wanted to utilize the addressability of an m.2 cooler and the front fans (fan since one is broken.) The case was severely damaged in shipping due to a defect at the factory (Further making me believe this case has no QC checks) as the front panel tabs were outside and not in the slides that hold the front panel on, resulting in one tab being snapped clean off and another being severely warped causing the entire front panel to be warped in transit and snapping one of the tabs that hold the filters in, out, resulting in warping of the filter toward the bottom where the front panel retaining tab was bust off. The front panel easily falls off due to this damage with very little pressure being exerted on it, which isnt acceptable for my client. The case back panel leaves almost no room for cables at all compared to other cases I have worked with in the past 5 years (The Enthoo Pro from 2015 had more space! it was, and still is, cheaper!) and no cable hiders to hold the cables down so they wont be damaged by the incredibly limited clearance. The power supply used in this build has braided cables which massively exacerbated this problem, and the two HDD bays are far too close to the rear panel resulting in smashed seta power and data cables. The carriers themselves you have to warp to the point of breaking them to use the tool-less installation which begs the question : Why would you make a carrier whose intended retaining method requires you to nearly break it just to put in a new HDD? Surely this couldve been done better. The retaining method for SSDs is one of the worst I have ever seen and seems to only have been done as an afterthought and to minimize the resulting cost of re-tooling at the factory level as there are no sleds but instead the SSDs are only held in with rubber and a very minor amount of pressure which I find very easy to wiggle out. This would be a bigger problem if the side panel wasnt smashing all its cables against the motherboard backplate. The cable cutouts for cable management in this case is barely big enough to stick my index finger into, this makes running cables nearly impossible as I have to thread a needle every time I want to add a fan etc, etc. I will be returning this case as I paid $120 which is far and above what I shouldve paid but I was led to believe this case had more modern case features, which it did not, aside airflow which is done by a solid plastic front panel with a double-filtered mesh (SHAME.) This includes a plexiglass front panel which I think is a waste of money on the consumers end as anyone who wants such a thing wouldnt be buying a high air flow case such as this, if you could remove this to take $5 off the cost of this case I would prefer that. In conclusion : The case aside from the front panel being high air flow and the tempered glass side panel continues to feel like a case purchased prior to the year 2015, the clearance at the top between the mobo and the fan mounting position leaves NO ROOM for a fan toward the back as it collides with the CPU EPS conduit, I dont even understand why they have 140mm mounting holes toward the rear exhaust position except if you happen to own expensive slimline case fans. Really this case would be competitive under a $90 price point but as it stands there are far better cases on the market for LESS money, and that is absolutely reprehensible. If you are building in this case yourself I highly advise you to look elsewhere (such as the Lancool II ARGB, or the Lancool 215 if you like the 200MM fans) as building in this case was a NIGHTMARE and resulted in many successive teardowns to get every little thing to work. The included PSU basement is a joke as the hole you route cables through isnt flush against the case and instead is in the middle which begs the question : what is the point of it? if the cables are still showing this totally defeats the purpose of a PSU basement. It is also made of plastic which my $100 enthoo pro from 2015 was steel and had rubber gromets to help hide cables that have to go up and out of it or out the side, (The sides that are needlessly blocked by the HDD bays) can we seriously not afford rubber for the routing hole? This is THE WORST PSU basement I have EVER seen. Cooler Master... you have permanently lost my business due to your awful QC with this product, I have been purchasing your products since I was a tike and I am now 26 years old, and I have seen your company become complacent and refuse to change in any meaningful way except to follow trends and stagnate to the point of lacking all innovation, shame on you.
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Th3PwnyExpress
Greater than one weekGot this for my son for his first gaming pc build. Compared to the build on my pc in a corsair x570 the cooler master H500 was quite a bit easier to build in. The PSU shroud is removable and reinstallable after its all wired and that helped make the PSU installation and wiring a little easier. There are also a couple of small openings underneath the motherboard (using an ATX mobo) that made running all the bottom row front panel and usb connections easy to install and easy to cable manage. The dual 200mm RGB front fans look awesome ! ! ! and quieter than i thought they would be. 4 usb inputs on the front panel (usb2.0x2 and usb3.1x2) is the kind of overkill i like. Definitely worth spending the extra bucks over going with a bargain bin $30-50 case unless you are really pinching pennies on your build. Looks way nicer than its price would suggest. The instructions that came with the case for wiring were pretty much non existent but if you cant tell the difference between a fan connector, rgb connector, or usb connector you just need your mobo manual, a little common sense, and maybe a google search or two. Overall Im very happy with this case.
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Miss Shania Vandervort V
> 3 dayBuilt like a tank, spacious, premium. However, there are small things that add up to a disappointing experience. Normally, I wouldnt be so picky about such minor things. But I also dont normally spend $650 on a case. The fit for the seem on the glass panel near the top where the two metal plates meet at the front of the case form an S bend and dont join neatly together, causing them to overlap. This has an effect of making it look cheap and poorly manufactured. The grommets inside the case have a tendency to bunch up toward the center of the opening. Instead of them being firmly against the opening, they slide off. Everything in this case is tool-less. Except the main retention screw that you need to remove in order to take off the top panel. The top panel is the lynch pin, permitting access to the the rest of the case by allowing you to remove the side panels. Youd think it would be a retention screw on something this expensive. Not so. Hopefully you dont lose this one important screw thats effectively holding together your entire case. The glass inserts on the front panel of the case are exceptionally dirty, requiring me to use some window cleaner and microfiber cloth to get them to a satisfactory appearance. This is despite the many plastic peel films on each side of the glass inserts. In fact, it made the effect stand out more. Dirty and clean glass clashed, making the foggy glass apparent even from 5ft away, especially when lit. Even though this case is large enough to house an enitre smaller computer within its cavernous interior, it lacked enough width to let me use my noctua NH-D15 with both fans (one raised up due to ram) on the cpu cooler. I was honestly shocked since this case is all about airflow. How could you not let the premier air cooler fit in what is intended to be THE airflow case? All in all, Im satisfied with my purchase. Sadly, Cooler Master decided to forgo the final 10% of effort required to polish this case to a masterful product and at this price point, it hurts a lot more. Ive seen more attention to detail in cases 1/3rd the price. If it werent the fact I had already purchased the case now armed with this knowledge, I would have likely gone with the lian li o11 dynamic and saved myself $400.
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Lee Haddix
> 3 dayIve happily used Cooler Master cases since the HAF, but was disappointed with the H500s airflow when I switched to it in 2017. However Im glad to say Cooler Master regained their footing with the H500M. It keeps my favorite things about the H500 design, and greatly improves several shortcomings I had to deal with. The top panel no longer sits loosely on the case so if I needed to carry the case out, I can do so without having to take it apart or worrying about dropping it. The top radiator/fan mount is now 360mm instead of 240mm max so I was able to mount a larger radiator for cooling. It has a USB C port on the front, FINALLY. Theres even a discreet built in GPU mount for the saggiest of video cards. But most importantly of all, this thing is an AIRFLOW BEAST. 10900k at 5.2 sits around 50c on full load, 3080 doesnt go past 65c on full load. With the newest GPUs pulling so much power its more important now than ever to get a good airflow case. If you liked the style of the H500 but were turned away by lack of airflow, the H500M is the case for you. My one con, if I had to say something, would be that although it supports EATX just fine, the cable shroud you would usually tuck your 24 pin behind sits flush with the side of the 24 pin terminal on my motherboard, at least. I was able to route my 24 pin extension around to the other side of the shroud in an aesthetically pleasing way so no real issues. Just keep that in mind. Other things about this case worth mentioning: The dual tempered glass side panels make this case heavier than normal but it gives it a nice symmetrical look and sheen. You wont have to worry about errant cords being visible through the glass because with the entire H500 line there are several wire panels that hide your mess, keeping that nice clean look no matter how much your cable management sucks. The top panel is still not meshed except for side vents but there is noticeably more headroom between the case frame and top of the panel allowing for excellent exhaust flow. The two front 200mm fans are markedly improved from their H500 versions, with more LEDs and quieter bearings. The PSU and HDD shroud below can be configured in many ways, but if you have a 360 radiator for the front intake and want to keep the shroud, there is fortunately a slot that pulls out from the front enabling that particular configuration. Its listed as a mid sized tower and it is, but the H500M is large for its class. Roughly 22 inches tall, 21 inches deep. Its main feature is excellent airflow, but the H500M should be noted as being a very modular case, and can accommodate many kinds of builds. I was almost tempted to go custom loop because of the built in pump bracket and space for two 360 rads.