Cooler Master MasterBox K500 PC Case Review
Peter Donnell / 6 years ago
Exterior
The K500 follows the current market favourite trend and features a massive slab of tempered glass down the left side. It sits in a recess at the bottom, with two thumbscrews holding it in place at the top.
Moving up to the top, a large magnetic dust filter provides huge amounts of heat dissipation. However, you could easily put some fans or a slim radiator up here for added cooling performance.
High Airflow
A lot of chassis these days have a fairly restrictive front panel design. The K500 favours a high-airflow design though. There’s a massive air intake with mesh filter in the lower section.
However, there are large air intake grooves at the top and bottom of that crazy angular design too. There’s not just airflow here though, as you’ll find the I/O panel which features that custom power button design, and some blacked out USB 3.0 ports.
Hiding behind the mesh, a pair of addressable RGB fans. Of course, we’ll see those in action in a moment!
Durable
The right side panel is just a flat black panel. Although, it does sit very flush with the chassis and looks very neat and tidy. It’s a thicker panel that most cases in this class too, which is always a good sign.
There is more good news around the back too. There’s a 120mm fan mount at the top, but it uses a height adjustable design; this is great for improving radiator compatibility. There are seven expansion slots, as you would expect from an ATX design. Of course, even better, they’re all reusable slot covers, ventilated and metal; None of those nasty snap-off ones here!
Finally, we find a simple clip-in mesh dust filter on the bottom of the chassis for the PSU. It’s a cheap solution, but it does the job just fine. Plus, there’s good ground clearance from those four large feet, giving it plenty of airflow here.