Cooler Master Q500L Case Review: We Tried to Make It Good
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- We tried hard to make Cooler Master's Q500L case perform well, but we just couldn't pull it off. The Q500L is one of the worst thermal performers we've ever tested.
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Article:
Find the Cooler Master Q500L on Amazon: geni.us/GWWqJ
Find the micro-ATX Cooler Master Q300L on Amazon: geni.us/KXNd
The Cooler Master Q500L is a mini-tower case that fits full ATX boards, for which Cooler Master gets full credit. The case is a modified version of the Q300L micro-ATX case, using much of the same tooling but with a relocated PSU. Cooling is a serious challenge in this case, so much so that even with 8-10 different fan, PSU, and orientation configurations, we still couldn't make the case any good for our system. Learn more in the video above!
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Host, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Testing, Editorial: Patrick Lathan
Video: Andrew Coleman, Josh Svoboda
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Case review article: www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3461-cooler-master-q500l-case-review-needs-work
Find our new CPU testing methodology and workstation benchmarks here: ua-cam.com/video/M2zuwfQ1wsU/v-deo.html
You guys should test what performance you get from building a computer in a cardboard box.
and people that want the extra PCI slots, may need more drive bays (for the RAID cards), lol.
Maybe as a Kitbash, with another case bolted onto that for the PSU, rad, and drives, it may work ... After cutting bigger hols in it for cabling and airflow.
Great vid Patrick, Steve, and Crew. B)
Good good, now try to cut out for the fan's so the airflow is less restricted
Great video as always
I'd love to see you guys utilize a fog visualizer for reviews like this to illustrate the airflow patterns across the different configurations you tested. Visuals are powerful, and showing people just how shitty the airflow is despite adding more fans would go a long way toward both making this more engaging, and showing case manufacturers that airflow matters.
Regardless, thank you for going the extra mile in this "case!"
You guys should also test the Q300l to see if there’s any difference compared to these cases. I’ve heard the cooling isnt also the best too on the Q300l but it would be interesting to see these results.
what if you included chocolate with each modmat sale? boom, profit.
It's already been melted once in shipping. What's another time?
@@GamersNexus To be fair we can always melt them and turn them into new Chocolate computer case.
I mean.... maybe that's the actual case CM want us to make? No?
@@GamersNexus Is the chocolate a better tim vs the stuff intel used in the 6700k-8700k era of cpus? #askGN lol
@@angieagnesson0451
Yes.
6700k wasnt as bad 7700k was
First let me say that it really speaks a lot to Steve and his team's character. This video truly shows how much he is invested into his methodology behind case testing and performance. I didn't purchase an H500P because of his original review in 2017. However, I did purchase an H500P with Mesh front cover because of his updated review. I'm sure Cooler Master was not happy with his initial video, however CM took lots of suggestions to heart and truly turned around the H500P Mesh. Steve has gone out of his way to make this case the best it could be. Sadly it didn't work well at all.
Maybe CM can take the feedback from this and other reviewers, modify the product, and produce yet another awesome case! Hat's off to Steve for his approach today on giving the product every chance to be a great performer. The product didn't hit the mark, however the creator and the team at GN produced a great piece of content that solidifies my reason for watching and supporting the channel! It is journalism like this that helps the customer win when they make purchases. I hope GN continues to grow and other manufacturers and suppliers see this as an honest outlet with positive criticism, all to benefit their end users: the customers. Way to go Steve and team!
I skipped H500P as well and purchased CM H500. Great case, Tech Jesus edition!
Yeah CM did improve the H500P, but they still havent learned two basic foundations of making cases with good thermals; pull air in, push air out. I had a Masterbox pro 5 RGB and it was a gorgeous case. However, the front panel had cuts too small to pull air in and only a single 120mm exhaust fan option. The best case for thermals was to remove front and side panels. Yes, Steve and his guys tried but it can only go so far when a company thinks putting "cool" in their name makes their stuff cool your pc without actually trying.
@@justinspinelli2653 agreed. It's not like it's their first year in business. Like Steve said in the video, they likely retooled manufacturing line at bare minimum costs (watch his other videos on making cases). That is a huge expense, only to learn whether a case will "sell" or not. It may seam easy, but I promise you it's not as easy as it looks. They totally could do better, that is for sure!
@@leechburglights CM converted an ITX case to ATX for a niche market with little overhead costs. I'm not sure why this makes them a bad company. Based on their more recent willingness to take critique seriously, I wouldn't be surprised to see them chuck some taller feet in the box right away.
This is clearly too scientifical... This case is 100% molded by aesthetics
And it looks good, like the mATX version. They look great.
Who cares about thermals?
Just use non-K and dont OC. Keep it quiet, discreet, dont dunk it in RGB... And it's awesome
Really wanted this to be good, since it's actually pretty unique and I really want a small ATX case. Damn
Check Cooler master NR400
@@timserious7678 NR400 is uATX, not ATX.
If you can spend a little extra, check out the Jonsbo U4. Awesome little case.
If not, maybe have a look at the Thermaltake Core G3 which is probably the slimmest ATX case.
Sliger Cerberus X
@@alphaLONE There's the NR600. Literally same thing, just in ATX size.
Maybe it was intended as an oven for melting chocolate candies?
Is that why they added the reese's?
@@ghos282 At first glance, I read "Easy Bukake". I think I have a problem :D
@@PainterVierax
I, too, have a problem. That problem being with it for false advertising! There was no bukkake involved. One star.
I mean i got this case and I idle at 29 C so i mean its called dont buy 2$ ebay fans :)
i bought it, thanks for the recommendation.
@@jacobler Except if you have lower power consumption hardware? I'm gonna put a GT1030 and a i5 4750s on a z87 mainboard I already have in it.
@@erikkarsies4851 LOL. I'm building a z87 asus with a i5 4670k atm. What are the odds.
I want to buy it for my intel build that is for work.
You can hear Steve disappointed about being unable to recommend this after the whole CM factory tour :/
Really though. It's clear they have a decent relationship with CM and I imagine he hates having to rip into them like this lmao
When your case is so bad that you try to bribe reviewers with chocolates
It worked, Steve polished this turd the best he could without outright lying, lmao.
Cooler Master should be more than happy with this video, considering it cost them almost nothing to R/D this product.
Thanks for all the cool footage from the trip to Shenzhen, CM.
LMAO
they should have gone with option B... bribe reviewers with hookers
Considering the price, it's not actually a bad case. It's very user friendly, and it looks nice. You just have to set it up properly with one or two additional fans in order to get it to work well enough with most systems. That being said, you can probably find something better for the same price and/or you should just bite the bullet and get something nice, like the Lian Li 011 Dynamic.
It's not actually a case it's a candy vending machine that looks like a case.
I still think this is a cool case for a low power ATX system. Like repurposing an older quad core ATX for HTPC without spending the HTPC premium for MB, cases, and PSU.
I'm still going to get this case especially for $30usd and for the price, a Dremel and hole saw will work wonders and I won't feel bad about cutting up a more expensive case.
Oh yea it's going to be a mid/high end PC Ryzen 7 2700/ Radeon RX5700, Gigabyte Aorus M mb, 32G ram...yada, yada ya
Pretty much exactly what brought _me_ to this case: compact enough to fit in a weird space, does not look like a "PC", and yet fits a whole bucket of old ATX hardware that could as well live a couple more years.
Can't wait for coolermaster to now ignore you for 6 months.
the saddest thing is they won't learn from this at all. Probably will blame it on just being too small and commit to never making another compact ATX, rather than realising they could probably have fixed a lot of it just by stepping up a few sizes on the drill bits everywhere.
@J Fz I hope so, really like compact ATX and mATX cases even if they can be a pain to work on. Still I have a feeling CM won't as they already lost face to GN over the H500.
CM H500P deja vu a little thermodynamics and fluid mechanics would help....or just test it before release?
Who cares??? Their cases are *complete shit* compared to anything InWin, Phanteks or NZXT has to offer... just ugly cheap plastic trashcans. (IMHO)
@J Fz at first i thought u ment nzxt's h500, which is the same i own, had to keep reading to learn of coolers master h500. but on the note of the nzxt h500, besides the very thin top wall for the case that fans make it audibly vibrate, even with rubbers instead of screws. its a ok case, got it sell
I nominate this case for the 2019 disappointment T-shirt
@J Fz but CM pictured the case with a 180W Threadripper, and 2 highend Gpu's. And a even bigger psu blocking more of the front ventilation holes. So CM didnt perform termal tests with this case
Lol read that in December :d
Half these problems can be solved for few bucks right?
1. hole saw
2. replace feet
I would of liked to see you do this.
Just bought it off amazon, exactly what I am planing to do. I also plan to run without the side panel, that poly panel looks too cheap.
Or add more fans
Add to the list, 3D printed ducting for top fans, so CPU tower coolers get more air. A DIY PSU shroud will also do this case some good.
Not to mention add more fans and use a Micro-ATX board so you can have the PSU where it best fits. They kept mentioning that they didn’t have enough room because they used a regular ATX board which seemed dumb to me.
@@lakotawilson5445 then I doubt the case is the problem
I wonder how you feel about the Q300L!
it may be a piece of garbage but its my piece of garbage and i love it
I am utterly in love with the idea of this case. It's cheap, compact, and ready to be customized however the user sees fit. In fact, without custom mods, the case suffers. It's like an old, re-purposed rally car. I can't wait to build in it!
I'm going to dremel out breathing room for fans, lay the case on its side, and split it into two separate thermal zones: One for the CPU and the other for the graphics card. There will be an intake and output 140mm fan for each of the zones, creating perfect air circulation. The PSU will be shifted downward on the front panel to allow clearance for a 280mm AIO CPU cooler (Which will have air intake with one fan and output with the other, like I said before). I've never seen anyone using fans in opposite directions on a single radiator before, but I'm excited to see what happens. Oh, yeah, and a "short boi" RTX 2060 XC will be used to make space for the downshifted PSU. Dis gon' be gud.
so, did you do all that?
@@3rutu5 Wayellll, I did half of it. I snipped away the suffocating metal, and I had 4x Cooler Master ML140s and 2x ML120s. But I liked the looks of the Wraith Prism so much that I stuck with it. My 2700X maxed out at 65 degrees anyway, so why go any further.
Well, then I switched to an NR200P case, and I got a Corsair H115i Elite just for the heck of it. Now my 2700X maxes out at 44 degrees... Lol. I might upgrade to a Ryzen 5000 series CPU once I upgrade to an RTX 4000 series GPU. But then my VRMs might cry for mercy.
@@CaveyMoth I was more curious as i splashed out yesterday without looking at reviews as i saw, decent sized case, full of holes, surely airflow isnt an issue :) I have 6 Artic P12 fans, 2 are going to be mounted on a Kraken X53 and hope that my old I5 6500 and Sabertooth z170 MB will be able to run ok. Looking this morning if i mount the fans on the bottom towards the side, that air will hit the GPU, but also pass right by the gap between the acrylic side and the unit itself, which i hope is enough. The build that replaced this old rig is a 5800x in a NR200 case, which i love, but due to the CPU runs hot, hits 79 in games and under synth loads. Funny enough i have 6 fans in that rig as well and it is pretty quiet.
@@3rutu5 Jeez, I'm surprised that your CPU is getting so hot with the X53. You have the AIO taking in cold air from the side of the case, right? It should be running nice And cool thanks to the fresh air coming in, and then exhausting from the top fans.
The Q500L is bigger, so that means more area for air to flow around components. But I feel like it's a good and bad thing, because the airflow is less direct. In the NR200, the air barely has anywhere to go, so it comes and leaves quickly, being replaced by fresh air.
@@CaveyMoth haven't run the 15 yet, but when you upgrade I'd look at the heat difference from the 5600, 5800 and 5900's as the 5800x just runs hot. I had to ditch the x53 on the smaller case and replace with a 280mm artic liquid freezer 2 which was fun fitting into a NR200 lol
TL:DR
I had a really good experience with this case. It's a cheap case if you're looking for compact build that may take some planning to have good results. If the cooling is well thought-out you'll probably be good.
My dudes, I actually had a good experience with this case. A lot of the parts are cheap and I actually ended taking off the bottom filter because it kept falling off when I moved the case.
I moved my full ATX build into this case because I was tired of it taking up so much room.
I have a 3570k clocked to 4.3 Ghz and an RX 480 in it. I mostly use it for gaming and it was one of my favorite computers to build. It's decently quiet with the stock fan and some Arctic fans. One in fan in the front, an out fan on the back and I had a 120mm water cooler so I could pull air in from the top to cool the CPU. My CPU doesn't break 50C on prolonged full load and my GPU usually stays under 70C but can get noisy. I have it set up horizontally and recently put in be quiet fans to try to get it silent, but the case's design makes this difficult because of all the holes that makes it so configurable. The filters are incredibly easy to clean, though after about 6 months of use there is noticeable dust inside the case near the fans.
This is one of my favorite channels. I just wanted to provide the results of a use case.
This case looks absolutely amazing. Its size is comparable to the air 240 yet it still fits an atx motherboard and a full length GPU. And all temperatures are well within reason
Ya, I have no idea why these UA-camrs all went on the bad wagon on calling this an oven. My temps are great using this case. Just need 4 case fans total.. which is something they should have done especially when they are testing a small gaming case
@@itsGuy many UA-camrs testing this and the Q300L saying it’s an oven and not adding any fans to it, when the default these days is 3+ fans and many add radiators/AIO cooling anyway
@@alvareo92almost like they are testing what you get when you buy it🤔
Are y'all dense? They tested it with up to 4 fans. So you didn't watch the video? I know I'm years late but you're still just as wrong.
This seems like an amazing case to modify.
Same here, I'd turn it upside down, put bigger feet under it, cut holes for 2x120mm in the bottom and 1x140mm (or bigger) in the front, blowing toward the gpu.
I bought one, and I plan to cut away the mesh in front of the fans so that only the dust filters are obstructing airflow. I'm hoping that will resolve most of the issues with the case.
I am thinking the same right now. I'll do it.
@@westernregionisbest exactly...I think most give this case bad reviews but it has so much potential for a matx case
@@westernregionisbest was thinking the same thing.. have you done it? how is it?
I'm using q300l and highly interested in this case for future compatibility.....
Now I'm gonna keep using my q300l.
Thx Steve
I love the Q300L; Used it in an AMD 2200G build with the RGB Air Flow fans. With such low power parts and an open intake, I have no thermal issues. It's unfortunate to see this version's issues.
I do love the idea of custom mesh filters, though. At least, please give use more pre-made designs. I'm thinking something like how the original Xbox 360 had replaceable front panels.
I also use a Q300L with a 1080ti/8700k@5GHz. While thermals aren't amazing, they aren't terrible for me either. The case does what I needed it to; it's lightweight, cheap, and portable.
Just built my friends PC in the 300l and didn’t get to test a lot but it was hitting 87-88 after about a minute of stress testing. It was idling in the 40-60 range though. I’d like to put an affordable aio in it to help that.
DAMEWORTH woah those are way more that what I get, might be because of specs (2600x and 1650 super) max gpu temps I’ve ever gotten is about 84c and for 2600x around 75c. (Using stock cooler)
I managed to keep my CPU (9600K @ 5.0 GHz) at around 68 degrees under heavy load with the case on its side.
I used 3 ML120s ("bottom" intake and rear exhaust)
H100i Exhaust on "top"
PSU mounted "front" top, exhausting adjacent to rad and intake inside the case
The GPU (EVGA 2080 Ti Black Edition) fits nicely between the case wall and the PSU with no clearance issues.
A few things:
First, thank you so much for your genuine review, as always.
Second, I really hope that instead of you loosing money, they will thank you for doing their job for them and remake the case with some changes that will improve airflow to the existing chassis.
Third, I understand that you choose to put the same hardware in the setup for consistency in your testing, and I know that they showed a crazy Threadripper setup in it. However, being a budget case with an MSRP of about $60, I feel like for most people, me being among them, will be interested to see how the temperatures are in a budget build with a Ryzen 2600X and a GTX 1660 (a mid-range build worthy of a $60 case imho)
He's going to lose money because they spent so long testing that the amount of employee time tied up in this review is larger than what they will likely make on the video. Losing money has nothing to do with cooler master.
I'm happy with the Q300L I'm using as my LANbox of old parts, which feature a Lenovo IH61 motherboard, an i7-2600K, 16GB RAM, GTX 680, 240GB SSD, 640GB of spinning rust, a 9-year old Enermax Liberty Eco 400W PSU, and a whole bunch of RGB fans in a positive pressure configuration (2 top, 2 front intake, 1 exhaust). The filters can get in the way when transporting the case, but otherwise I like it.
Hope that psu lasts longer.
Good work! The length you went to for accurate results shows your character and integrity.
I would probably cut holes in the steel mesh and fit it with higher feet. I do like the idea of a small case that can fit full size hardware and wish this would be done more regularly. I also wish there was a more premium option for this layout with tempered glass and anodized aluminium trim instead of a plastic window and plastic trim.
I'd love to see you review the Cerberus (matx) or Cerberus X (ATX and EATX). They're the smallest matx and atx/eatx case on the market. They're not cheap, but like most sff cases; the niche market will pay what it must.
If they gave you Lindt Swiss chocolate would they get a better review...lol
Still cheap, terrible chocolate...
thats the best chocolate ever, ferrero rocher second.
@@sasproductions701 Pls no
@@bnctaj whats ur favourite chocolate then?
@@sasproductions701 One of my clients orders this handmade chocolate from Belgium once a month for their employees, pretty much everything is bad when you've had something that's actually good. Lindt is very low quality in reality, it just seems like its high quality when you're used to Hershey's
I kinda like the form factor small-ish case with full ATX MB. I'm the kind of guy that will buy this at our inexpensive price point and mod it to see what I can do. I'm also not adverse to buying fans for my cases.
I think it's got potential of you'll willing to tinker.
I got q300l with eATX, its manageable. But i dont have psu inside.
My very first build after 2 years of watching videos such as this and much research was a Cooler Master case. The CM Storm Enforcer with 200mm front intake 120mm rear exhaust.
2011 case and still very good for current builds. We need a case like this now!
Actually we already got one. CM H500(Without any letters) BTW I owned HAF912(Storm Enforcer clone) , it was a gorgeous case .
You just saved me from buying this case! I had it on my shopping cart before I saw this review!!
Thanks for this detailed review. I think I will still buy this case because it fits my current requirements quite well. I am looking for the smallest atx case possible to switch my old gaming rig from a massive Define R2 big tower that occupies half of my office space to something that I could put on my desk. The system is still good enough for office and 1080p gaming and I won't have to upgrade everything but the hard drives to a ssd. My current gaming system is an sff build in a Cougar QBX mini-itx case which has similar thermal issues, but I got it under control with some modding (ghetto-mod rtx 2080 with noctuas, a lot of fans and higher bottom clearance), so i am not too worried. The system will run at idle for most of the time anyway.
That sucks. I have Q300L and it’s pretty solid.
Me too. I like this case alot, cpu and gpu temp re actualy great (r5 2600 stock cooler) and never went above 60 degress, not even at rendering. And it has some nice features. But i would buy it again anytime, because for price (around 40€) it is quite solid case.
This is exactly the kind of form factor I've been looking for. How can they be so close yet so far. All they needed to do was increase the size of the holes and raise the feet higher.
I'm just trying to get a Cerberus-like case without spending $200+.
The problem with spending more for a better case is that this is a very unique case.
Being able to build a smaller PC (itx) and still use a atx power supply is very nice, because you can get more watts for more bucks i.e. atx PSUs are just generally cheaper
this seems like the perfect case to revive my old x58 xeon rig as a proxmox box or freenas server, and I can finally get rid of that god aweful HAF 932 that occupies half of MY HOUSE
I had that case 🥺
I've hated this chassis ever since I've first seen the Q300L. I facepalmed so hard when I saw those panels, quietly hidden behind filters. I was hoping someone would comment on it. Thank you.
"Too much steel and too little hole." I honestly love this. Best way of putting in IMO.
Lets be honest... who is going to buy a high end cpu and dual massive gpus in a $60 case?? NO ONE. I run this same case with a single RX580, a Ryzen 1600, a shroud for the power supply do dump hot air outside of the case. YOU GUYS DIDNT, which means it was dumping hot air inside the case. I added a 140mm front fan and a 120mm top fan. At ANY level of cpu/gpu torture, the temp never gets above 48C inside the case... only about 27C over ambient. So for the guy who is going to spend $60 on a case for an average system (my passmark score puts me at 90% of all computers reporting on that test), this is a great computer case. IT DOES NOT THROTTLE! It takes an ATX board and a full sized PSU.
I will admit that the stock configuration with those filters on , I high rise cpu cooler and two full length gpus and the PSU dumping hot air into a case, this is horrible.
This. I bought this case for my prebuilt that had a shit case, the prebuilt case didn’t have any case fans or really much ventilation so this will do, if you’re putting high end shit into a computer then you should be able to dish out extra cash for the case, I honestly think that this case is decent for budget build.
I am that idiot lmao. I like the look of the case. Temps are fine, I have 2 intake and 2 exhaust fans.
I loved my micro atx version. The q300l? I gave it to a friend.
Q300L is way better than this one!
I bought one for my son, but haven’t finished building it out yet. I really don’t have many complaints given the not-terribly-extreme components I’m putting inside it.
@@prpunk787 The Q300L is identical for the most part, I'd expect cooling performance to be just as bad.
@@Flapdr01 Absolutlet not, you cannot fit 2 fans in the front of this one because of the psu mounted on the front, so q500l can acomodate one less fan, but the difference is that they tried to cram a full ATX system in this, the q300l is designed fot mATX hence lesss cramedge and more space for airflow.
@@prpunk787 Q300L still runs hot in every review I've seen.
👍🏻 Anyway, but this review broke my heart. I had such high hopes for this case being a usable step up from my Cerberus X for my SSI-EEB dual socket board that proved to be about 4mm too wide.
Guess I'm stuck with the NZXT H500 it's currently in. Huge by comparison to my 19.5L Cerberus X.
I bought this case for my first build ever ( I'm 59) without seeing this review. Two years after a stroke, I challenge myself. I did it. I have a 500W psu, six fans with a Radeon RX580 graphics card and a i5 cpu w/16GB Corsair ram,1 ssd 500GB on the ASUS Prime B365 M-A mb, 1ssd 1TB and one HDD 600 GB (backup) installed on the backside. I'm not a gamer, I just wanted to build a pc better than I could buy with all the crap loaded in it. So, after a clean install of Windows and transferring the apps I wanted, this thing boots up in seconds and hasn't gotten close to warm. the hottest the graphics card has gotten is 50c; hell, most of the time its fans don't even need to run. Had to test to make sure they work; they do. And I love it! 2 fans on top blowing up and out w/psu mounted up top in front; 1 fan below psu blowing in; case fan pulsl air from cpu and graphics card; 2 on bottom, 1 out to pull air from the graphic card etc.(pci plugins) and 1 blowing in below the front intake, doubling the cool air coming in the front bottom of the case. I've ordered a flat frame with wheels to place it on to elevate it and increase the bottom air flow both in and out. So I'd like to apply for a job. The guy who cost you all that time and money can go now.
Over one year later and I strill kinda like this case.
The looks, the form, the size, the price.
And Im going to buy it now for one of my smaller PCs in the basement that dont need good thermals.
Any chance for an nr600 review? Seems a little more promising than this.
I have a Q300L. I have decent temps with: 2x 140mm front intake fans, 2x 120 mm top exhaust and 1x 120mm rear exhaust. If you want good temps just adds fans instead of flipping it on every side maybe? Note, I used to have even better temps with one top fans set to intake and one to exhaust but changed that to 2 exhaust because rgb for a small increase on cpu max temp.
We did both added fans and re-orienting it. You can't compare thermals to ours because (1) you test with different software, almost assuredly, and (2) you have different components.
Whats killing thermal is probably having the psu blocking the front intake and its ugly anyway. Fiting a full atx board in a matx case is a bad idea. What the hell coolermaster?
1 fan at the back shooting air out, 2 at the top shooting air out, 1 fan at front sucking air in. This is all that is needed.
I know it wasnt a popular case, but check out the baronkase by deepcool. It comes with rgb lighting, tempered glass, and a 120mm liquid cooling loop. It's about the same dimensions. Build quality is phenomenal with thick stainless steel. It supports mATX with the power supply at the bottom and full atx with the power supply at the top like the q500l. And the best part is it's only 100$. Which is not a low end price by any means but it includes a decent liquid cooler and lighting, which if you subtract like 50$ for those makes it better in every way at around the same cost.
I was going to use this case for a low budget rig, AMD APU build. Seems like it likely would still work.
I'm sure you could, but you'd probably be better off with a different case around the same size since the CPU/APU cooling is cut off due to the PSU.
@@bluesync1Probably so, the Fractal Design Focus G is likely a better buy at the price since they might still want a CD/DVD (old people!)
But ya, there are other options since this case seems to be going for 60 atm anyway, not worth compared to other offerings. At 50 it looks a bit better, at 60, def not.
I really hope cooler master makes the changes you recommend! its unlike other cases due to its size & ability to fit atx motherboards makes it a good product but small improvements could make it a great case. main issue is just keeping your components cool in such a confined space. I thought about getting it with intentions to mod it. but that just seems like to much work. coolermaster needs to put these things on the conveyor belts and make all the holes bigger for better air flow & give it taller feat. test it! & once that's done get some better thermals & youtube reviews. if they did that i bet the case would be alot more populer & sell more.
I was considering this case, thanks to all of your hard work I will be looking elsewhere. Thank you for the work guys!
I want to be nice to this case because more manufacturers should be making empty boxes that can fit atx boards without psu shrouds or front panels obstructing airflow. A little more perforation and some feet would have made this a real gem. Since the tooling is reused, I can understand these limitations, but a little more room for rad support would be great.
I’m really disappointed, I really liked the look of the case, was waiting on the review to see if it was worth it... thanks for the review guys!!!
Man I'm still looking for good cheap small atx cases
Check cm nr400
I have last year's version, it's way better. Supports 240mm raid in front of the case. They messed up a great case.
@@luiszepeda815 it's literally same both cases suck at thermals as holes are not enough and not big enough
@@timserious7678 well my ryzen 2600 doesn't get past 85°c in Aida 64 stress testat 4 GHz 1.35 volts and my 1070ti is a reference card so i can't really overclock so it stays cool to.
raikoh05 Either the Thermaltake Core G3 Slim or Fractal Design Meshify C are the best cases I can suggest.
I have this case. In it I have a Ryzen 3800, x570 Taichi and a reference 5700XT. I took care to keep it off the floor, added another fan and its perfectly fine. Looks great too. The blower fan on the 5700 also helps venting hot air
I brought and modified this case then a mate showed me this video. What I found was heat would build up massively at the top of the case where my double fan AIO cooler was. I ended up cutting the case to bits with a grinder. I had 4 120mm fans. 2 on the front as intake, 2 on the top as exhaust with the cooler. . Now cpu temps hit 71c under load while the fans are hardly spinning. I turned the PSU around to act as an exhaust fan too. No more sounding like a jet engine!
Could you test cases with a similar approach to small form factor ATX, like the Raijintek Thetis, to have a reference for better purchase options ?
I have the thetis case with a 1700x and aorus 1080ti. It is definitely a hot box but can be brut forced to cool with high speed high performance fans. I love the idea and design just the air-cooling performance is lacking at gaming workloads. But with a custom loop this case perform a whole lot better.
I just recently bought this case for a build and my thermals are great not to mention cable management was good. So it baffles me a bit to see a nice budget case get bashed on. I have a RTX 2060 OC and and a ryzen 5 2600x and have not seen a single blip of thermal throttling
A few questions.
Did you use the stock AMD cooler
Did you add extra fans?
@@im_aleey Yes at that time the stock cooler was used and I had 3 fans in the system total. Since then however I've changed to a R7 3700x using the stockcooler and got an SFX psu. With the small psu form factor I was able to move the mounting bracket to a slightly different orientation so I was able to squeeze more fan space. My pc now idles at 32°c and hardly ever breaks 75°c underload.
@@im_aleeyNot to mention that's with the additional heat that can come off of my RX 5700 XT
Came back to look at this after seeing the case on sale on Amazon for $45 today - Glad I did! Thank you.
Yo gamers nexus. I have a suggestion for you. Make a graph with delta temperature on the y achsis and noise level on the x achsis with a few pwm settings for the case fans when testing thermals. Like 25, 50, 75, 100% pwm. Because it would summarize all the informaion in one chart and makes comparison easy. The lower the graph of a case is the better it performs for the same noise. And where the graph begins and ends tells you how capable it is in the extremes. For example: when it begins further left you can have a very silent case. When it ends far right you can get the fans very loud with maybe benefits for the cooling (you would see it in the graph). Also the different pwm settings would show that some fans are optimized for slow rotation and some for fast. Thumbs up if you agree so gn can see it! Love your reviews
I have this case. {correction, i have the q300L} I have two front intake fans. a bottom intake. a rear exhaust. and a 240mm rad mounted on top with two exhaust fans mounted on top of the case to pull through. I also removed all the dust screens (I don't mind dusting my pc, in 1991 we didn't have those)
works fine for me with my oc ryzen 2700 and radeon vii.
now I'm about to watch this video. lol
p c yea i have the q300l similar conf as you with a 308mm gpu, i have no clearance issues and aiflow is way better than the q500l since the front is not blocked by the psu
why not try dual bottom intake and top exhaust. After a whole week you didn't try that?
So I built in this case and all my thermal test are great. I moved the power supply to the bottom. Theres is 120mm intake fan at the front above the power supply.. 2 exhaust on the top
1 exhaust back. 1 fans intake on the bottom. I'm using a Atx b450 ryzen 5 2600 and a gtx 1070. Cool as a cucumber.
There's almost no clearance between the bottom panel and surface the case is on, so bottom intake is going to perform badly. Plus, the bottom has the exact same issue with poor vent holes as the front. They didn't try it because it's pointless.
This is the case I had considered for my friend's new build. Thanks to the in-depth review, we will look to a different case. Great work by GN team.
If you're going to use a Full ATX MB, get a "real" ATX case... if you want a Micro ATX build with a MATX MB, I'd look at some of the Fractal Design cases like the Meshify or Focus G Mini.
love GN on this case review ~ very constructive overall - I hope CM found this very useful to improve upon
I happen to have the matx version of this one... Pretty good cooling my 8700k and gtx1080
The q300l? I have one too but still having mixed feelings. I'm happy with the temps but am always thinking "could they be better?"
@@astrocslopes863 it could be better, like including a glass window, better joints between plastics and a proper mesh and height for the psu. But what i really like about this case is the options you have in this form factor and how sleek it turns out to be when you finish routing cables and HDD's
@@sego. I will probably end up swapping for a Meshify
This is the kind of case you get as a project case and cut out the metal in the fan slots. You could probably get that TR and dual gpu system working decently if you cut out all that unnecessary metal out of the front and rear panels.
It can be made very competent if you are willing to break out the Dremel. I bought one with the intention of modifying it.
I cut out figure-8 shape holes in the top and bottom so that the airflow is unimpeded, and I also cut a place in the front for another 120mm fan.
I now have really very respectable cooling performance with two intake fans in the bottom, one intake fan in the front, and two exhaust fans pushing through a 240mm radiator in the top, in a tiny tiny case.
Basically if you are willing to modify it a little, I recommend it. If not, then heed the advice in the video.
I crammed a full ATX board, 240mm AIO watercooler, a regular size PSU, a 6700XT, sound card, two 3.5" drives and a 2.5" SSD into mine, and managed to make it look tidy too. I even used braided cable extensions.
It is TIGHT in there now, definitely a challenging build, and I couldn't fit a rear exhaust fan. But very impressive that you can fit all that into a case with stature more typical of an ITX system.
How they chose to perforate the ventilated panels is really what's killing this one. Like you said, there's more metal than empty space, which is kind of insane. I like the idea of having the power supply in a strange location to get a full ATX board in a very small case, but if anyone really wants this case I'd recommend also buying a dremel or an angle grinder to fix the airflow situation.
Worst thermal performance ever tested? That’s a bold statement. Still probably an option for budget/small ATX build
It's same a q300L not enough holes and big holes for air to come
It's an accurate statement. In some of our tests, it was the worst of anything we've tested.
but why not go with a micro-ATX board then? who needs a full ATX board, but doesn't have the 10cm extra height for a normal ATX case?!
Gamers Nexus No doubt it’s accurate. You always are. I’m just thinking Cooler Master did a really fricken bad job to earn that title
@@GamersNexus You have not got even close to scraping the bottom of the barrel. Look at the shit cases OEM use!
Extremely small full-ATX PC cases are a niche product and they are difficult to design in a way that will be functional with a high-performance system build. Cooler Master has taken a design optimized for a much smaller, lower-heat-output system build and repainted it as an ATX PC case, without taking considerations for the nature of components to be used inside. This case is an engineering failure and I think CM is out of their depth taking on a super compact ATX case without making significant modifications to their micro-ATX design.
I really wanted to like this case. I considered the Q300L for a build for my brother but ended up going atx. When I found out about the Q500L I contemplated swapping it in to replace the second hand case I ended up using but was waiting for reviews. It is the best looking case on this price category (my opinion) and coolermaster logo and general aesthetic are among the least offensive among the popular case/accessory manufacturers
Could you try to so a best case scenario build for this case? 280 CLC in the top, exhaust fan in the back, full size GPU and exhaust fan in the bottom frontpanel slot. It would be really interesting to see how much you can improve the temps, by using an affordable optimized cooling setup.
Or, just buy a better case at the same price rather than trying to save this dud.
Q300L is great at $40.
Weekly Webs yeah i think it should be alright with 2x 140mm fans front and 1x stock 120mm cooler
i think the biggest mistake was thinking to use this for high end hardware
He has a standard setup that he uses in every atx case. this case is just terrible. He mentions using it for lower end hardware
@@thomasmurphy8331 Exactly, without the standard setup there is no comparison possible. I think a 2200g or 2400g system in this case would be ok. Maybe a small 1050ti as an upgrade later but not much else or the heat would overwhelm it quickly. It would be an ok box for browsing and light gaming but not much else.
>sends you over the world to check out cool factories
>sends you 30 litres of chocolate
>sends you a free case for review
>still gets bashed
Enjoying the integrity, keep at it.
The best case reviews available right here! I never miss your case reviews. Thanks for the great work guys!
Do a honeycomb cutout panel in the front for better airflow
psu is still gonna be there u donut man fucking jesus talk about next level R
*YESS I WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS CASE!* :D
Edit: oh wait I thought this had a TG Side Panel because that was the only downside of the Q300L for me.. Pretty disappointing.. Also the dust filters looked better on the Q300L..
I turned the PSU upside down and fed the cables up the top and round the back. This enabled me to stick a 140mm fan underneath it to blow on to the GPU. Works well and the temps are good and it also looks pretty good in my opinion. I might stick an NZXT AIO there as the tubes are longer and will reach and also add cooling to the gpu and allow me to stick a pair of 140's on the other side to vent.
Man I wanted this case to be good so badly. I've been waiting for a good, small ATX case for a while
same here, need to rebuild a bulking machine and make it portable... not with this case.
@@leechburglights I was looking to downsize from an Arc Midi
the really ruined what made the q300l so good like the great airflow and cable management.
What's the difference in terms of airflow between this and the Q300l
@@dragoorba343 since the power supply wasnt in the way case fans on the front could actually supply air to the cpu cooler to cool the cpu. If i'm wrong correct me though.
I would have eaten the Reese's Cups for free. Just saying. 🤤
I bought this and spent 15$ on a piece of mesh and a strip of magent tape and replaced the plastic pannel with a mesh pannel to support my 6800xt and my 5800x. I needed this size to fit my custom desk setup for my extra tiny office space. i spent 69.32 with tax on this reusing a couple fans from my existing case made this a thermal God and its so form factor and light weight it's just perfect.
I bought the Q300L and went mATX. Used the stock case fan as a bottom intake, added 2(140mm) front intakes, and a 240 AIO mounted in the top in exhaust config. Running an AMD RYZEN 5 7600x , Radeon RX 7800 XT, 32GB RAM, 4T M.2 drive, MSI PRO B650M-A WiFi ProSeries Motherboard,MSI MPG A850G PCIE 5 & ATX 3.0 Gaming Power Supply - Full Modular and it's working pretty well and it's pretty quiet even when playing WOT on it's high settings.
That is a lot of Reece’s.
This case can hold up to 8 fans and you honestly used up to 2 fans only ? REALLY ?
HOW ABOUT YOU MAKE IT A WIND TUNNEL ? INSTALL MORE FANS AND TRY TESTING AGAIN
That ruins the comparison though
@@or2kr small case needs more fans which is why they put so many fan mounts in it
@@snipernote that doesn't make sense. This case just has too much resistance for the fans, doubling the amount of fans won't just magically drop the temps in hslf
@@or2kr maybe steve should try it and report back ?
@@or2kr what do you know about small cases anyway ? This case has the best vent points so far ... If he did not try all the possible combinations to cool it then how do you think it will perform ? Do you think that doing only 7 ways of fan posisions will give you a good idea on how it perform ? How about i tell you that this case can work better with reversve flow instead ? Its all about the reviewers experience but what if they care for bigger cases only?
Great review as always! Last year I built a Ryzen 2600 based machine for a client that valued aesthetics over performance inside the little brother case, the Q300L. I also noticed with the MATX version that temps even at idle were quite high. 38-42c idle paired with a 120mm Cooler Master AIO. With all the holes in it you would of thought that cooling would be decent. Not really. I saw exactly what you stated. The holes are like the worst size as they really do impede airflow in this thing. Lucky for me she wanted the power when she needs. Occasionally doing photo / video editing for her church but 90% normal every day tasks which is fine. And at 39 bucks its a decent offering for a budget build. But I'd never build anything as remotely as powerful as the 2600 in this case again.
Anyway, thank you for an amazing review as always sir.
I like your candor!
You recieved a free case full of candy, yet you remain honest no matter what.
Attention, this case is only suitable for people who are not too lazy to think.
Attention, this case is only suitable for people who are not too lazy to think.
Attention, this case is only suitable for people who are not too lazy to think.
i use the q300l and i cant imagine fitting a full atx into that box. wild.
I got q300l with eATX on it and flex power supply. And im kinda fine with thermals. 3x140mm 1x120mm, 2tower coolers for cpu, 1x vega64 4x nvme2pcie. I got 77c max at stress, same as in server rack.
I wonder how well it would do if you marked which holes are utilized for setups in the front and top and used a dremel to remove the excess metal
Well I bought the Q500L last October and I put 2 14cm & 3 12cm fans from DF running with 2 controllers, 1 fan for exhaust and 4 for intake. It's silent actually since too many intake I keep it at 1k rpm. CPU at 40-42C, 50+ while gaming and video encoding. GPU at 60+. I'll say this, this is a great case period. You just have to make it work! And that is the fun part!
damn, really wanted to buy this case for a secondary entry level desktop. guess i'll stick with a normal midi tower. always great to see GN doing vids
The size and internal layout remind me of the Raijintek Thetis, in which I built a system a little over 1 year ago. The case uses an inverted layout and comes only with one fan, but setting that fan as an input from the back side and adding two top fans as exhaust yielded very good thermal results on an overclocked Ryzen 1600 with a 120mm tower cooler, while being very, very quiet.
I love the way it looks with the filters on.
Spot on review I ended up placing all 3 fans in exhaust with a 240 aio on an 8700 w an rtx 2060 fe bottom fans in exhaust vented the gpu heat out and air was intake from the front
Would be really interesting to see what the performance would be like if you just cut out the steel grid where the fans need to pull in air. Think it'd be better?
It would be a lot better, the main issue here is that A there are large obstructions to airflow, and B the internal airflow 'pathing' is rather poor, this could be compensated for with faster rpm or higher static pressure fans though at that point youre easily into the 80$ case territory where there are much, much better options.
Hysteria think an angle grinder or a hole saw is a good fix?😂
As some other people mentioned, the mATX little brother of this case is actually not bad. For being $28 when I got it it did a great job, esp with the PSU below the motherboard in the standard layout. The temps were within a few degrees of what I had been getting in my S340 Elite... if you keep the front mesh off. Once you add that back on the Q300L the airflow is really restricted and 2 front high pressure fans would probably be needed. Fantastic review of the Q500L, answered many of the questions I wondered about this QX00L design of CM.
that
threadripper build from the cooler master was quite intimidating.
Great review Steve and crew!
I think you could have made this case work. Low RPM fans in the bottom-right and lower front panel as intakes. Do a high rpm fan as exhaust and also a low RPM exhaust fan on the top-left. 4 fans total, but think you would have gotten better results.
Skyler Wallace the problem is that they don't need that configuration to make any competently designed case function. they always do a dual intake/single exhaust config to standardize their results. a special case using 4 fans would only be favoritism for a sub-par case.
Yes you probably can, but it just isn't worth it. 4x 10=40, 60 for the case and you might as well buy a better case instead. Unless you absolutely need this one ofc. At that point just dremel out some of the steel and use decent fans, but then again, using noctuas it's probably going to be another 25 dollars per fan, which makes for a 160 dollar case/fan combo.
More like if they'd drilled every hole in the case out wider. Should only need about 3mm between holes to keep decent rigidity but this has closer to a full 1cm by the looks of it.
@@KingHalbatorix By that logic, all the additional testing they did for the case was favoritism.
A copy of your BOOK would be an awesome gift :)
the most underated case of all time in youtube. there is no such case that can fit a full ATX motherboard in a mini itx case. i even fit a 280mm radiator and 2pcs 14cm fan at the top (depend on the motherboard alluminum heatsink can hinder the radiator, if ever just remove the heatsink). this can even fit a 14cm fan in any position except at the exhaust. the downside is just the acrylic panel. no more no less. YOU DID NOT EVEN INSTALLED 1 fan bellow the PSU and 2 FAN at the BOTTOM. complete the fan slot before you dictate and put a 14cm.
I wish other tech UA-camrs did such good Case reviews as you and probably Hardware Canucks