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Kevin Wolf
Greater than one weekAll in all the case is pretty solid. Offers a nice amount of cable management space, the two big 200mm fans are quiet and move a lot of air (although Im replacing them with 3x120mm fans). A 360mm liquid cpu cooler radiator will fit in the front of the case; however, the tubes are supposed to be on the bottom when you front mount, and the HDD Bay blocks where the tubes should go, so you have to remove the HDD bay (indefinitely) to properly install a 360mm radiator. Even if you dont need the HDD Bay, ensure that the tubes on your cooler are at **LEAST** 16 inches. The 360mm cooler master radiator has ~12in tubes and it wouldnt reach the cpu when routed around the GPU and beneath the RAM. I returned my 360mm and opted for a 240mm, awaiting that item(Dec 20th) and will update the review if necessary. You could also squeeze a 360mm radiator at the top of the case, but half of the third fan will be blocked. This isnt advisable, and CM website states the top only supports up to 240/280mm, with predrilled holes for the screws to secure the radiator to the top of the case. If you do want to put a 360 at the top, youll want some thin black washers, since the predrilled holes are for 240/280, the holes wont line up for a 360mm. The vent holes at the top of the case are just a hair too big, and allow screws to freely move through them, slapping a small black washer between the top of the case and the screw will allow you to use any vent hole as a screw hole, and the magnetic dust cover will hide it all without a problem at all. The front mesh panel is a little bit thin, but thats not uncommon. Just be careful when moving the pc around, pulling it out of the box, etc, to not press too hard on the front mesh panel, as the mesh could bend and become unsightly. It is nice that they also include the clear front panel as well, although that would hugely reduce the airflow and I wouldnt reccomend it in a mid-high end gaming pc. The quality of material in the rest of the case is pretty superb. Thick metal, nice cable grommets, full array of mobo standoffs presinstalled. The PSU cover/shroud is a tiny bit flimsy, but thats no big deal since its held in by a screw and rarely ever gets touched after the first installation. The HDD bay is a neat design, with little doors that you open and can pull the HDD tray straight out, install the HDD on the tray, slide the tray back in and close the door. The whole case is modular, and you can remove any panel that you dont like inside the PC, including the HDD bays, the power cable cover, the psu shroud, etc.
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Brenton A.
> 3 dayOverall great case. The two front fans look great and work great. Cable management space is adequate but could be better and I do wish the 3.5 rack was further to the right to leave more space for cramming cables in to the psu bay. I do have one problem with the case and that is the RGB connector for the fans. It comes with a controller but for gigabyte Mbs like the one I had it said to use a different connector and plug it straight into the board via an RGB connector. The problem was that no connector on the board fit the connector so I ended up having to use the included controller which wasnt a problem but if you are someone who likes to frequently change colors of you pc and dont want to have to take the back panel off every time then I would recommend a different case.
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Eclectic Science Guy
> 3 dayI purchased this almost 2 years ago and would still give a 5* rating. Good - Assembly went well and was relatively easy. Cable management was also easy - Cooling is great through the mesh covers - Its relatively easy to clean the dust out of said mesh covers. Remember the one under the power supply too - No malfunctions in the fans, LED lights, or with the front USB panels. Neutral - I filled all the drive bays and wanted to add another 2.5 SSD. It was easy enough to use Velcro strips to securely hide it behind the bracket that runs down the case, next to the motherboard. Only do this for SSD drives, not standard spinning hard drives. Bad - One of the screws for the tempered glass side panel wont screw in all the way. Its been an while, so I forget if it was the screw or the threading on the hole for it, and it holds well enough, its just not pretty. - This one isnt CoolerMasters fault, but the RGB standard they use is different from the one my Asus motherboard uses. The included controller works fine - with some cable management work, I got mine to sit mostly hidden beside the motherboard, where I can slide the top magnetic filter mesh aside and poke the controllers button from above.
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James
Greater than one weekMost of this case is pretty well thought out. I love having space for four 200mm fans (good cooling without loud noise). The case is really solid construction internally, though some of the external parts (like the front cover) seem to come off pretty easily. It was nice that the case came with a bracket to support longer graphics cards. The screws on the side open/close inconsistently- it seems to take a bit of trial and error to get them aligned properly to take the glass side off. The backside isnt quite deep enough to do a great job of cable management (not deep enough for a glass side that shows it off). The RGB controller that comes with it seems like it was an afterthought- using the reset button to change programs (as the manual suggests) is esp. challenging- as the front case cable only barely reaches if you install the controller where it is supposed to go. A modular power supply is a good match for this one- there isnt a lot of room under the power supply cover if you also use the hard drive cage. Pretty good space for a 360 mm radiator on the front. I did a custom water loop install without space issues. If you need to move the case frequently, this isnt a great case for that- if you avoid lifting from the front (to avoid knocking off the front cover), your hand will naturally go to the rear back- where the slide out filter for the power supply air vent is located- which provides no stability in the case lifting process.
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jeremiah
> 3 dayThis case i used to build a workstation strictly for work. The primary thing the case needed to accommodate was radiators and you guessed it more radiators. This case delivered on that as well as a digital display smack dab in the front so your hardware monitoring can be done with ease. The biggest surprise of all had to be the master plus software that controls the lighting and iris display (which I personally use to monitor hardware temps). This is the only lighting software that Ive come across that doesnt tax your CPU. Hats off to cooler master for this. Honestly all the other companies should come to them in this arena because it is damn near perfect software as far as I am concerned. The build quality and materials used to manufacture this case you will find are very high quality and justify its top tier pricing. There is not one area I can pick out and call flimsy or cheap. Now for the one major con I found with this case. There are absolutely zero knockouts for fill ports or drain ports. I dont know anyone who spends this much money on a case and doesnt plan on a water-cooled build. And I found even after stuffing 3-360mm radiators and 1-280mm radiator in this beast there was plenty of room at both ends of the case to implement this feature. So unfortunately for that reason I cant say this case is perfect. But if you dont mind drilling into a 650-dollar case then more power to you. But all in all, for throwing some scrap pumps I had laying around as well as some scrap pipe I am very happy with its ability to keep everything frosty and for that this case got 5 stars. if I could though I would have given it 4.5 due to the lack of knockouts for draining and filling ports.
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Landon Porterfield
> 3 dayHad a cooler master case before but it was a mini case that looked more like a guitar amp than a tower. It had poor airflow so I upgraded to this and my average gaming temps (cpu) went from 85-87 degrees Celsius to 68-70 degrees. The two 200mm fans on the front are extremely quiet to be so large. I replaced the rear case fan with a Corsair, but the cooler master fans it comes with work great and are quiet as well. The case is pretty heavy but it’s also very sturdy and well put together. My favorite part by far is the trays that store the ssd’s/HDD’s. They just slide in and out and the wires go straight to the back side where they’re hidden. No complaints about this case at all.
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MJ
> 3 dayAll I can say is that this case is a beast! The oversized 120mm fans in the front (preinstalled) move so much air at low RPM! The top panel can also hold a 120mm fan. Awesome! I installed a water cooler at the top and it fits and works great. Be sure to pay attention to the measurements. It holds a 2 fan radiator, not a 3 fan. The design of the case allows it to run cool and super quiet. It looks more amazing when I added RGB components to the inside. Cooler Master has done it again with this one. You wont be disappointed.
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Paul
> 3 dayFirst thing I did was trash the trashy fans and replace them w/ nocuta everything. Not the easiest to atatch the front 200mm w/ the rubber mounts and was able to get it done with tweezers and floss. Besides that, case is super easy to build. The gpu mount has a flippable switch and you can remove the guards by lifting them up. Due to the mechanism bulk, it makes installing big gpu like 4090 strix a bit tricky since it borders obtructing installation due to the size of the gpu heatsink.
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Mike
> 3 dayThe Aorus master has a 3 pin and 4 pin d-led slots. The H500 has a pre-installed ARGB splitter- with 1 cable that reads ASUS-MSI, and another that reads GIGABYTE. But that gigabyte cable? Doesnt fit properly to the 3 pin slot. So what? do you use only 3 of the 4 pins on the 4 pin slot? Or do you use the ASUSMSI 3 pin cable (which will fit on the 3 pin d-led)? Yep.. Use the asus cable. Yes it works fine with gigabyte mobos- its just a cable after all. Someone at COOLERMASTER needs to get the memo about this apparently, cause frustratingly enough- they have a faq for the 3 pin fans to the 4 pin connectors, but NOT the ARGB situation. I havent seen it cleanly explained ANYWHERE, so there ya go. Even the manuals for gigabyte and the h500 were of little help on this confusion situation. I hope I just saved a lot of you 12+ hours of dizzying hair pulling stressful research. You are welcome internet. Soo how is the case? Well its the first pc Ive built since 2014, so maybe everything has gotten really good in that time but I dont know. I just know its incredible. The cable management. The space. The cooling. The housing for psu and ssdhdd. all of it is such a big win! Its soo quiet my jaw hit the floor first time I fired it up. Seriously HOW IS IT THIS QUIET!? I paired it up with a noctua d 15 which is also impossibly quiet. In low mode (which is when you are in windows not gaming) its but a tiny whisper. When gaming it gets louder but still a big improvement from my old coolermaster case from eons ago. LIGHT SHOW! The giant fans look downright industrial neon city. I am instantly addicted to 200mm fans and leds now. With how spacious this case is (this would have been called full tower at one time I bet lol) and how gorgeous the fans and lights are, with the glass side I am surprised how good it looks in person, and you better believe it looks great in a dark gamers room. STURDY! Wow is it heavy duty. The steel on this thing is thick. I dont think Ill have any issues with durability on this, at least not on the frame. Front Port panel- This is one the reasons I chose this over other 200mm case fan models (like the monotech). I love how the front panel is slanted, and works great for my needs. Having the case on the floor its perfect to see what i am plugging into. 4 usb ports is plenty for anything I want to do, and the microphone port is on the side I want and need (less cable stretching) BREATHE- Vents vents vents, everywhere cept the back side panel (which is normal among cases). This case is soo big it has no problem breathing and keeping your stuff cool. CONS- The only con I can find- is the 200mm fans are soo quiet, I can hear some tiny wobble in both of them. I dont think its a defect, more like normal operating noise you simply would not hear with normal noisy fans. CONCLUSION- I never imagined spending 100$ on a case before, now I cant imagine spending less. The h500 argb is incredible, and its fun to see how much case tech has advanced in the past 10 years. Even if you are like me (not an expert pc builder) its neat how easy its getting to make sweet looking towers that make all those console kids pretend they are not impressed). This is all just part of PC MASTER RACE PRIDE! And what a proud day it is to be a member of this fine race of superior gamers. Dont buy a cheapy 40$ case that cant breathe then stuff a 3080 in there! Esp if you dont have AC in the summer =D. Thank you coolermaster- but please update your instructions (esp on your web site), cause they utterly failed to mention the asus cable can and SHOULD be used for some gigabyte mobos.
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Connor McLeod
> 3 dayIn Summary, Good: - Looks great, better in person than in photos - Plenty of room for cable management & part clearance - Solid front IO selection with 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, headphone 3.5mm in, mic 3.5mm in, power & reset buttons - Fantastic design for airflow, Im air-cooling a 3950x in this case, albeit with an absolute monster of an air-cooler Bad: - Case itself is a bit wobbly due to (relatively) low weight, poor weight distribution, and narrow feet - Half length PSU shroud feels a bit outdated at this point, though that only really affects aesthetics. This is a very solid case with some really nice spots, but I wouldnt call it perfect. For the price (being ~$120 for the H500 ARGB), its on the lower end of where you start getting into serious cases, and I think it delivers a fantastic amount of value at that price. First, if youre interested in this case but worried about aesthetics, dont be. This case looks so, so, SO much better in person than it does in photos, and it already looks pretty nice in the photos. The RGB fans look a bit cheap in the photos, but they look great in person. I think they look best if you just pick a solid color and set both the fans up to it, but they do support a variety of non-static lighting effects if youre into that. Next, talkin bout the build experience. It was mostly great, its a wide open case, both side panels come off and you have plenty of room for cable management. It comes with a removable drive cage, I went all M.2s so I removed it for some more cable room and cleaner airflow to my PSU. Really the only negative I experienced while building was trying to get the CPU power pins on the top left, and thats on me for not doing that before installing the motherboard into the case and also using a massive heatsink on my CPU that blocked most of the access. (That heatsink is the Scythe Ninja 5, its massive and I bought this case just to have enough clearance to fit it. It does fit it.) Finally, the biggest thing I dont like about this case is the weight. Not that its too heavy, rather if anything it is too light. This isnt too much of a concern, and Im sure its nice on the package handlers (thank you package handlers), but it is compounded by the cases feet. Its nice to have some airflow under the case, certainly, and they do include a bottom facing dust filter for your PSU, so you can mount it drawing in fresh air from under the case, but ultimately just look at the size of the feet. Youre resting an entire large case on really quite a small surface area, and theyre angled in such a way that this thing looks like it was built to roll along the ground. Combined with how light the case is, and how the weight of your components is distributed throughout the case, it brings the center of gravity up quite high. I think it actually sits above the center of the case in my build. This makes the tower wobbly! That doesnt feel good! I can just tap the tower with my finger and I can see the entire thing shake a little bit, its concerning. My heart skips a beat if I ever swivel in my chair and accidentally bump it. All-in-all, if youre looking for a huge case at this price point, this is a very strong contender. It wasnt my first choice, I was looking at an ASUS TUF Gaming GT501, but of course my first choice was out of stock. Even so, I am not at all disappointed with this as my second option, its even got a better front IO selection.