Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The MasterCase 5 and the model we’ve looked at today, the MasterCase Pro 5 don’t come particularly cheap, but are on par with other high-end chassis in this class. The MasterCase 5 Pro is £109.99 at launch and is significantly better value for money than the MasterCase 5, which is £89.99. Of course, that all depends on what you need from the chassis, as the Pro may be overkill for your build. The add-on kits are reasonably priced in their own right, but fully upgrading a 5 to a Pro 5 could be a costly endeavor. Of course, if you’re a keen modder or you want an extra hard drive bay for your MasterCase 5, this is a welcome way of expanding your system.

The parts aren’t all available right now, but will be available via pre-order on the Cooler Master website, we’ll update you as soon as retailers have prices and stock of their own.

Overview

The Master Case is unlike anything Cooler Master has done before in my opinion. Is it unlike anything else on the market? No, not really, it’s innovative in its own little way, but it’s not a huge revelation for the industry as a whole. However, it does still stand out to me as a truly impressive product and I’d certainly recommend one to people, while also considering the Master Case Pro 5 for the next system build I do for my own gaming PC.

The chassis is wonderfully modular, but not much more so than the products you’ll find from Corsair, NZXT and a few others. The hard drive bays are fully removable which is nice, but the big innovation here is that they’ve got so many options for their mounting height, as this makes it super easy to tailor the space for large graphics cards, without making much compromise on available storage bays. Removing or moving them also makes room for water cooling in the front panel, which is always a nice bonus. Plus, if you feel the need to completely remove the 3.5″ drive bays, you’ve still got a pair of 2.5″ mounts to fall back on, or you could keep the 5.25″ bays in place and use drive adaptors there.

Cooling is a strong point, not only because you get a trilogy of 140mm fans pre-installed, but there’s extra room in the top for a thick radiator or extra fans, as well as the option to remove the 5.25″ drive bay and install a third fan in the front. The chassis is a nice depth too, so oversized CPU air coolers won’t present you with any issues either. Furthermore, the PSU is separated from the main chassis interior by a false floor and has its own independent air intake with dust filter.

Cable management is great, helped in no small part by the PSU bay cover, the huge rubber grommets and the Velcro cable ties at the back. As you saw in our build, the cables were neat and tidy and that reaps huge visual rewards when you’re peaking through that massive side panel window.

The only thing I can see that needs improving is dust filters. The top and front have a built-in mesh filter that can be tricky to clean, but nothing you can manage with a soft brush and a hoover every couple of weeks. Slide out filters would be even better, but only in terms of how easy they are to maintain.

The modular upgrade system is great, even if it’s not something every user will need. The stock chassis, or in this case the Pro are fantastic in their own right. It’s just nice that soon you’ll be able to add extra bits as you need them. My honest recommendation though is to buy the Pro, its great value for money and comes with all the bits you could want for a high-end gaming system. If all you need is the base model and later on you decide you want a top mounted radiator, at least you don’t have to buy a whole new chassis to accommodate it.

Modular cases are nothing new, but the Master Case 5 certainly adds a new dynamic to the mix that makes it easy to work with and to tailor your build to your needs. While not the perfect case, if there is such a thing, this is a big step in the right direction and should be through of the very first step in Cooler Masters new direction. I eagerly await to see what future developments we’ll see from their Maker series.

Pros

• Excellent build quality
• Sleek exterior design
• Neat and tidy interior
• Dual chamber design
• Large high-quality rubber grommets
• Modular drive bays
• Water cooling support
• 3 x 140mm fans pre-installed
• Upgradable
• Huge side panel window
• Dedicated 2.5″ drive bays
• Lots of cable management space
• Long GPU support
• Carry handles

Cons

• Upgrading Master Case 5 to Master Case Pro 5 may be expensive
• Some accessories not currently available (coming soon and available on pre-order)

Neutral

• Slide out dust filters would have been even better
• Only one colour available at this time

“The Master Case Pro 5 is one of the best chassis I’ve ever worked with. The modular storage bays, the spacious cable routing and the impressive cooling support make it very easy to achive a great build and, of course, it’s already mod-friendly right out of the box.”

Thank you Cooler Master for providing us with this sample.