Cooler Master MasterCase H500M ARGB Airflow ATX Mid-Tower with Quad Tempered Glass Panels, Dual 200mm Customizable ARGB Lighting Fans, Type-C I/O Panel, and Vertical GPU Slots (MCM-H500M-IHNN-S00)

So, a Noctua NH-D15 is a common air cooler for people with fast and power hungry CPUs and dont want to use water cooling for the many different reasons that a person could possibly have. For people wanting air cooling and want to get the beefier ones because you have a CPU that uses more power, 170mm clearance over the CPU for an air cooler is a pretty reasonable ask from a company, and with a case like this it SHOULD be able to deal with bigger air coolers, but no. I had to replace the front fan that came with the Noctua NH-D15 with a 120mm fan. Yes, some of this falls on the cooler design, but still, this is supposed to be a performance case for gaming. The next issue I have with the case are the ports. NONE of the ports worked for me except the USB 2 ports. I wish this was a rare problem but Ive seen it a few times with different case manufacturers where you get one case and the ports work and another one and something in the front doesnt work. I cant give 5 stars to a company if this VERY SIMPLE THING of making sure the ports work by either having a manufacturing process that ensures they will work or checking them. I cant even plug a headset into the front port and thats pathetic. This is the first time Ive had both USB 3 ports and a sound port be an issue. When testing the USB 3 ports it corrupted data coming off the disk and after unplugging from this system I had to reformat the drive because the partition got corrupted and locked up the next system I plugged it into. So as far as the front ports this case was a disaster, as far as the clearance over the CPU, its on the olden days side. Yes theres enough clearance for the old faithful Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, from more than a decade ago, but arent we past that now? I cant give more than 4 stars for a case thats supposed to be a high quality gaming case but cant accept more modern air coolers and the NH-D15 seems to be the one many people want to use for high end builds without using water, and I have to take off a star for each port that doesnt work. Two stars.

All 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.

I dont care for case. I have an old Antec which I am satisfied with. But this H500 is epic. Evolution happened for a very good reason for this case. I loved almost every aspect of this case. And I am completely satisfied. I was hoping to go with mini-ITX and make case disappear. But I am gladly I ended up with H500. 1. Light. It is a HUGE case but it is still light. That is important. 2. Handle works. Handle was of the key feature I was looking for. This has handle and not just for cosmetics, it actually is usable. And it does not stick out. 3. 200mm fan. It is wonderfully quiet and well integrated. Best fan I have ever come across. 200mm if you have to build such size is AWESOME. It is running around 400-500rpm. 4. Real glass side panel. I dont care for looks much. But this glass screams I am fancy. It is real heavy glass. It adds most to the case but whole case isnt heavy so the look and feel of real glass adds much more than its weight negatives. 5. Cable management. It can be improved but I had so much fun cabling this. It has plenty to tidy up your cabling. I wont be spending any money with ARBG and other fancy lighting but I enjoyed with what came with. 6. Power button and front USB. I had older case and the placement of power button and USB made this case so much more comfortable using it. H500 is in short supply. They want $150 for this $100 case and again market is correct. It is worth $150. But I wouldnt spend that. I bought used and it came with one faulty back 120mm fan. nothing $5 wouldnt fix. I wont blame Cooler Master for it. H500 is AWESOME CASE. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

First off, the case looks great. However, I am not a fan of the current trend of tempered glass computer cases. This one has four sides with glass on it (counting the optional front piece). And as the title says, the front piece arrived shattered in a thousand pieces because it is packaged on top of the case covered by a 1/4 piece of foam. Obviously something hit the top of the box during shipment which cause it to break, but still a disappointment none the less to pay over $200 for a case only to have it arrive with a broken piece. So I am just using it with the mesh front. As far as the performance, I thought this would provide great airflow to keep my AMD 3950X CPU cool. And it is good. According to Ryzen Master, the idle temperature is around 35 degrees Celsius, which is about 3 degrees higher than my previous case (AZZA XT1). The AZZA had two 140mm intake fans, one 120 mm and one 230mm exhaust fans. At idle, my computer was running around 31 degrees. Under load 50% load, it would hit about 63 degrees while rendering 4K video. When rendering a video in the H500M, the temperature fluctuated between 61 and 63 degrees, thus cooler or at the same temperature of the AZZA case. In my very unscientific test, idle temperatures are higher that I expected in the H500M, most likely due to the tempered glass sides. However, when the CPU is working, it is just as good or better than my previous case. I would recommend this case, but hopefully Cooler Master packages the extra glass piece better in the future.

I liked the cable management, had holes and tie down points in good places. The way to mount the SSD to the back of the Mobo tray is interesting, the bag of screws came with some adaptors that screw into the bottom of the SSD and then can just plop the drive into the chassis behind the Mobo. Wasnt too crazy about bright LED fans and you cant turn off with the included wire harness, but without the included harness can just plug in power and its all good. To do that I removed the little black button/box thing, thats the brains that control the LED parts, then I taped off the connections so they wouldnt short something out by accident. Then plugged the remaining wires into power from the mobo or a sata to fan adapter. The fans spin and were really quiet. I bought this case for the airflow, and it doesnt feel like it has a ton of flow but will do some testing with the side panels on and see if I am still having trouble with 3080 GPU temps. Might have to leave the glass side panel off to provide good airflow. One thing is that there is really not a lot of room on the backside for cables, had to put pressure on the side panel to get it back on the case. Also, not a ton of room down below for power supply cables, really had to bend them over at an angle to get them to exit the cable management holes. This might depend on your Mobo, but I am not using the PSU shroud as it is right up against my bottom GPU. If I had a different Mobo that might work better and I would be able to use it.

It is huge, I know you read the reviews and have measured the size, but it is massive! Easy to work on! however there is about 6 to 8 inches of spare space on the side of the motherboard that they could have removed. The depth is intimidating until you start putting radiators beside each other in the top, then you understand. MY EATX motherboard seems to be cowering in the corner. but this was one of the easiest builds I have ever done (Been building PCs since the late 80s & first time without any blood...

Very solid well built case. Has plenty of room for cable management and was relatively easy to build in although I would be mindful of ram clearance if you are going with a topmount rad depending on your mobo (I went with an msi x570 mpg edge gaming wifi and an msi 240mm aio and it was a little tight but fit). My only real complaint as of right now is the noise level, it isnt crazy loud but definitely noticeable compared to my last pc that was in a corsair carbide 100r. Im not really sure if this is necessarily the cases fault to be totally honest, I also think it may have to do with how I ended up wiring my fans with both of the front 200mm fans and the rear 120mm fan all coming from the same mobo header. Its not loud enough that you notice but with headphones on but if you have a quiet house you will notice it when you walk in the room. Overall I am a fan of the case, the airflow is killer and it looks good and that is more than enough to make up for it being slightly noiseier

There 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.

Let me start by saying that the normal price for this case is a hundred dollars. If significantly more is being asked for it, just be aware that you are paying more than MSRP. That said, this is an excellent case. It is better than the older Cooler Master case I was using before. The airflow is amazing, and the aesthetics are very much to my liking. The lighting isnt overdone or gaudy. The thick tempered glass side panel is really nice. The cable management is outstanding, with holes right where you want them, and covers to make everything look really clean. They give you a generous amount of space behind the back panel and spots for zip ties to keep all your cables where you want them. It has two trays that can take a HDD or an SSD, and two spots on the back to mount SSDs out of sight. The front fans look fantastic, and they move an insane amount of air while remaining super, super quiet. The included optional RGB switch works great if you dont have a motherboard that supports RGB control (I dont). Do be aware that the rear exhaust fan is not RGB. I had a fan from my old case that I used to replace it. I also added a 140mm fan from my old case to the top for extra exhaust, and that gave me almost perfect neutral pressure. Its just barely positive pressure now, which I consider to be ideal. I still have the mesh front panel on, and I think it looks great, but if maximum airflow isnt necessary for your build, the included acrylic front panel looks really nice as well. One of the main reasons I got this case is that is has a handle on top. I usually game in my living room, but I have a dedicated VR room as well, so I have to carry my tower across the house pretty often. The handle on this is great. They dont tell you this, but there is a second handle under the bottom front support, so you can carry it with both hands. Its heavy, but you can really get a secure hold on it. Its also very doable with just the top handle. I found this case to be a joy to build in. Every aspect of the build quality feels like a more expensive case. I honestly cant believe they are selling these for a bill. I would have felt I got my moneys worth even if I had paid half again as much. I would strongly recommend this case. I am super happy with it, and my PC buddies are jealous.

First, and most importantly, about two hours after getting and turning on the case and new computer, the back fan started getting... loud. It is now the loudest thing until I turn on a proper 3d game and my graphics card really has to crank up a bit. Something in the internals so I cant just fix it myself easily. Its been a few weeks but no responses from the customer support at all, I know they are busy, but having no reply to your ticket after over half a month is not good. Issues with the broken case fan aside, the two big front fans also dont have the requires screws/nuts to let you mount one of them in the top of the case sadly, as those use a different mounting method than the front. And all issues specific to my product aside, the case just creaks a lot from thermal expansion and contraction. You can easily hear it through headphones sitting next to it when it start, the glass, and the metal both seem to have this issue. At night when I go to bed and turn it off, I often get brought out of my sleep mode by sudden loud creaks from it as it cools. For the record, the setup only has one big graphics card, and Im not overclocking the CPU yet, so the CPU stays around 40C and the graphics card around 70C tops when playing final fantasy 15 on all top settings. So since it creaks just cooling down from normal browsing the internet with a browser temperatures, I think that should highlight that this thing creaks a lot, especially when cooling down from heavy game or going into it. On the upside, the case is pretty solid, it is pretty big so you can fit a lot in it, and its got plenty of vents for good thermals (important when you live in what is practically a desert). It is also worth saying the case should probably not be placed next to a monitor on a desk like mine, the monitor reflects in it and really shows up on the glass side. Its nice to see inside the computer case to spot for smoke or dust levels, but it is kind of distracting when working having a mirror reflection and all that. For instructions, its the standard approach of many cases and products these days of using pictures so they can avoid languages, so one manual fits all countries. But with the cables for the front and other parts, this is not the best. No link to go online for a nice video or multi language instructions either sadly. So for some this can be a bit of a pain depending on your cooling/lighting setup.