Aerocool Aero-500 Windowed Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction

Aerocool is back on eTeknix once again and today, we’ll be taking a look at their budget friendly mid-tower, the Aerocool Aero-500. There’s a big market for affordable cases with great amounts of component compatibility and the Aero-500 certainly ticks a lot of the right boxes. You’ll find it capable of housing a high-end gaming system, some water cooling, long graphics cards, and much more and that’s sure to make it appeal to a wide range of system builders, especially given its affordable price.

With a long history of creating some fantastic chassis, Aerocool are always a welcome site here at eTeknix. Sure, we love our flagship models with crazy spec and price tags, but every now and then, a down to Earth and affordable product is just as good, especially given that these are the products people are more likely to actually invest in for their own system.

Features

• Superb gaming case aimed for great airflow performance.
• Specially designed top metal cover with extended depth to easily install 240mm water cooling system.
• Bay covers are designed with a simple flip mechanism for easy removal of bay cover without removing the front panel.
• Support hi-end graphic cards up to 374mm.
• Supports max. CPU cooler height of 155mm.
• Supports max. PSU length of 180mm.
• Magnetic metal mesh sheet on top panel is easy to remove for cleaning and adds style to the chassis.
• Removable PSU dust filter for easy cleaning.
• Supports up to 4×3.5” HDD and 2×2.5” HDD/SSD.
• 1 x USB3.0 + 2 x USB2.0 / HD Audio + Mic.

With support for an (up to) ATX motherboard, a pair of 5.25″ drives, a good amount of 3.5″ and 2.5″ hard drives, seven expansion slots, an ATX PSU, a good size air cooling tower and even a little room for a slim 240mm water cooling radiator; pretty much everything you could hope for from a decent gaming PC build.

First impressions of the Aero-500 are certainly positive, with a huge side panel window giving us a great look at the interior and a pair of easily accessible thumb screws at the back to open it up.

The right side panel has a large recess, which should give us a little extra room for cable routing/management behind the motherboard.

The front panel is certainly my favorite aspect so far, with a huge ventilated section that will provide plenty of cool air to your system, and those stylish 5.25″ drive bay covers with quick release paddles.

The silver parts are only plastic, but they do look like metal tabs; such as the ones found on more expensive Aerocool chassis products. It’s worth pointing out that this i on the import model, as the UK version features black clips.

Around the back, you’ll find a 120mm fan exhaust with a 120mm Aerocool fan pre-installed. Below that, you’ve got a screw guard to the right of the seven expansion slots, and finally a PSU mounting area at the bottom.

The top panel has a large ventilated section with dust filter as well as the main I/O panel.

The dust filter is magnetic too, so you can easily pull it off, give it a clean and quickly get it re-installed.

Towards the front you’ll find two built-in fan controllers, with the options for high, low and off, giving you great control over acoustics and cooling. Aside from that, the usual HD audio jacks, 2 x USB 2.0 and a single USB 3.0 ports.

The base has some large feet, which gives it great stability and some firm rubber grips that will help prevent it sliding around your floor, but also eat up a few (if any) vibrations from your system. There’s a small clip-on dust filter for the PSU; it’s nothing fancy, but it’ll get the job done.