Cooler Master MasterCase H500M review

Posted on: 05/29/2018 02:12 PM

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Nice review Hilbert. I liked that you did some (subjective) sound testing too

Not my type of case design wise, and the choice to include a button for RGB galore and no reset button... is a little weird to me.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 02:27 PM

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Thanks for this fantastic review!

I was looking for a case with a dual 200 mm front and top fan option to replace my aging HAF-XM.

Probably the search has ended.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 02:52 PM

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+1 Digging it! Can we haz it in a white version too?

Posted on: 05/29/2018 04:58 PM

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I love the 200mm fans. My TT Urban T81 has that setup and it's silent when you run them low and barely audible when you blast air through the case.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 07:48 PM

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Yeah, like the airflow orientated nature of this case & looks pretty good too! But man, case air flow is a complicated beast when you delve into it, and it depends on the type & size of your video card as well as your CPU cooler size & style. From my own testing lots of positive effects can be had with fashioning internal baffles to direct airflow from intake fans to the components that you want to cool the most, as well as having effective exhaust in key areas. Case airflow is a complicated beast & depends so heavily on the components you have fitted as to what the best layout is - that's if you want to get into the nitty gritty of testing controlled GPU/CPU loads with different case fan configurations for instance, to get the best thermal results it's not really a set it & forget mentality, but I guess if you want to just set it & forget it then this high air flow case is not a bad choice for sure, (and you'd get even better results by fine tuning the config I imagine)!

Posted on: 05/29/2018 09:58 PM

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http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?ct=articles&action=file&id=41162
Quite dark, so hard to understand whatever 3.5'' box is coolable. Will air go through the side of the box?

Would be really very good if reviews will have clickable original size photos to see details.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 10:12 PM

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Dam this is sexy i'm probably going to be in the market for a case upgrade soon as my old Phantom is 6 years old and all my RGB kinda goes to waste.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 10:32 PM

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Excellent. Case design done right. HDDs on bottom allowing direct flow from front fans to vital parts. It was just infuriating to see so many case designs over last few decades with front mounted HDD cages blocking the fans.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 10:44 PM

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For some strange reason... I like it !
Too bad I already bought a Define R6, otherwise it could have been in the list of options for a next case !

@alanm
When you have a lot of HDD's they can put up quite a good amount of heat ! For example 6 HDD's in RAID all working at once can easily go up to 50W consumption during write operations, and all of that is heat. You need to get that heat away from them quickly, otherwise the drives get pretty hot !
And a too hot drive.. won't last long.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 11:31 PM

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@alanm
When you have a lot of HDD's they can put up quite a good amount of heat ! For example 6 HDD's in RAID all working at once can easily go up to 50W consumption during write operations, and all of that is heat. You need to get that heat away from them quickly, otherwise the drives get pretty hot !
And a too hot drive.. won't last long.
I would say most people dont have 6 HDDs in RAID. Normal usage perfectly fine with lower mounted drive cages. Would rather air flow directed to more vital parts.

Posted on: 05/29/2018 11:52 PM

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Pfftt, hard drives/shmhard drives! Stick a couple of SSD's behind the motherboard! :-D

Posted on: 05/30/2018 12:36 PM

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Thanks for this fantastic review!

I was looking for a case with a dual 200 mm front and top fan option to replace my aging HAF-XM.

Probably the search has ended.

Only 200mm fan that is worth buying is the Noctua NF-A20
That fan doesn't fit in the H500P/M as the mounting holes don't align up so I ended up "modding" the Noctua fans.

That is the whole problem with 200mm fans imho, there's no standard mounting for those fans unlike the 80/90/120/140 which you know will just fit in any case. About every vendor has his own take on how 200mm fans should be mounted.

Posted on: 05/30/2018 07:35 PM

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That may be true, but there are still some people who do need lots of drives, for many reasons. Ask any video editor how much 1 hour of their 200-400mbps 4K video from the professional camera occupies...

Luckily, for those people there are still cases like the Define R6 which come natively with 6 movable drive bays.

But of course, this particular CoolerMaster case if for the "gamer" crowd so... eh.

Posted on: 06/09/2018 10:13 AM

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Nice review. I am still rocking a 690 Advanced II usb 3 version. I don't see myself caring to change much, but I do like a lot of these newer cases. I just replaced the power supply. The 690 II is a classic everyman build IMO, and coolermaster has some great cases.

To be honest it's just too much damn work to change it all right now, and the 690 is entirely not offensive. It still looks good to me.

Posted on: 12/28/2018 05:44 PM

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I see a quick reference in this review about filtration throughout the case, are we talking dust filters as I've searched through various sites about this case and I'm getting conflicting info as some say the front mesh has a dust filter and others say it doesn't.

This case looks an ideal replacement for the Haf 932 advanced that I'm still using but as I like rgb lighting and having received a soundblaster ae-5 pure sound card with 4 rgb strips for Christmas, one strip I have installed in the haf 932 as the side panel has a small ish window lol.

I purchased the demciflex dust filler kit when I brought the haf 932 and I literally only open it up to clean twice a year, every 6 months and even then there's hardly any dust buildup up anywhere apart from at the bottom of the case so if this H500M has a filleted front mesh then I'll certainly get one, I know the psu has a filter you just pull out to clean just need confirmation that the front mesh is filleted as well.