Cooler Master MasterBox 520 Mesh Case Review
Complete System
The MB520 is a wonderful case to work with, as there is ample room on all sides of your hardware, allowing for easy installation and cable routing. Having the lift-off top panel is a huge benefit too, I can really get my arms in there to hook up fan headers, adjust the CPU cooler, change the RAM, etc.
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The inclusion of cable grommets is very welcome too, I always liked them, but as I said before, most brands have simply stopped using them. It’s not a big deal I know, but they do smarten things up just a little more.
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There’s room in the front for some pretty serious hardware. Sure, the stock fans are already throwing a lot of airflow into the case, but the large cutaways allow for 140mm fans, or a thick radiator configuration if you so desire.
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There’s plenty of room for a larger CPU air cooler, even the bigger Noctua NH-D15 would fit, but for me, the U12 is plenty! There’s also good clearance above the motherboard, so fans and even a slim radiator will fit with ease.
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The case holds an ATX motherboard just fine. An E-ATX board would likely fit too, but you would cover up the cable routing holes.
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One thing I would like to see is a vertical pass-through on the PSU shroud, honestly, I’m baffled when all brands aren’t adding on already as it makes routing the GPU cables much easier.
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The fans in the front look great, sitting just behind the mesh you get a nice bit of light diffusion that gives the whole panel a nice glow.
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While there’s a header to hook up the ARGB control to your motherboard or other compatible hardware, it’s not required. The reset button on the front I/O is wired to the ARGB hub, so tap that and you can cycle through various colours and effects easily enough.
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The colours are gorgeous though, with plenty of rich colours and good brightness, and all the usual effects like strobing, fades, transitions, spirals, and plenty more.
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They’re all addressable though, so while the built-in PCB can throw on some nice effects, you could customise them all more extensively with compatible software.
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