Cougar MX500 ATX Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis Review

Peter Donnell / 11 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The MX500 is available in the US for around $75 from Newegg, so it easily falls into the low to mid budget end of the market. Given its wide range of features, component support and overall quality that we’ve seen here today, it is without a doubt a solid investment. I struggled to find any UK retailers with stock, but you can expect prices in the region of £45-55, which is again an absolute bargain.

Overview

The MX500 has exceeded my expectations in terms of quality and features. Given that there are already a lot of great options in this price bracket from the likes of Cooler Master, Corsair and many others it can be hard to choose the right chassis for your build and I know a lot people may not go towards Cougar as their first choice, but you would be foolish to not at least consider the MX500 as an option.

The case features lots of little treats that improve the overall value of your purchase, the biggest of which has to be air filters. With a washable air filter on the front panel that can be easily accessed via the front panel thumb screws, then another large washable magnetic dust filter on the bottom, another magnetic filter on the side panel fan mount and a clip-on debris filter on the top panel you can rest assured that Cougar have taken every step to keep your system clean and tidy on the interior, and your components dust free.

On top of a comprehensive set of filters you can also enjoy the front 140mm intake fan and the exhaust 120mm fan which have been pre-installed. Both are high quality, high performance fans and more than enough for any low to mid range system build. Those looking for a higher end system are more likely to invest in some after market fans to take full advantage of the multitude of fan mounting points that the MX500 has to offer.

Modular storage is always big win for a gaming chassis, being able to move the top bays over and convert them to native 2.5″ trays is nice and this also frees up extra room for long GPUs. If you really need to you can completely remove the upper hard drive bays for very long graphics cards or to help improve airflow from any front mounted fans.

Radiator mounting space is quite limited, but at this price range it’s perfectly acceptable and the collection of dust filters and pre-installed fans goes a long way to creating a robust air-cooled system.

Overall design isn’t too exciting, but it’s hardly dull either and provides clean looks, rock solid build quality and offers a pretty sensible set of style features that will appeal to a wide audience. Combine all this with the price and you’ve got a very good value for money product on your hands, which is why I’m happy to award it with our eTeknix Bang for Buck Award.

Pros

Modular storage bays
Comprehensive collection of washable dust filters
140mm and 120mm fan pre-installed
Lots of cable routing space behind motherboard
Huge CPU-cooler mounting cut out
Competitively priced

Cons

Lots of fan mounts on top panel, but not room for 240mm radiators.

“Cougar have shown us in the past that they can make a product worthy of the cash in our wallets and the MX500 continues that trend in style. It may not be the greatest chassis ever made, but in this price range it’s a very strong contender and certainly worth your consideration.”