Cougar MX500 ATX Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis Review

Introduction

It has been over nine months since we last saw a Cougar chassis in the eTeknix office, the last one we took a look at was the very unique Cougar Spike Mini. Nine months is too long, so we’ve got our hands on something new from Cougar, the gaming focused mid-tower in the form of the new MX-500 which is packed full of features that make it a great choice for those looking for a mid-budget chassis, we can’t wait to pick it apart and see what it has to offer.

Cougar has a solid reputation when it comes to affordable, feature packed products and while they may not be the first name that springs to mind when building a system (at least not here in the UK), they’ve proven before that they have a lot to offer with their chassis products and power supplies. The PC component market is far from short of great chassis in this price range, but as a consumer it certainly doesn’t hurt to have plenty of choice. Often manufacturers try to implement something unique, be that a feature or a certain design that makes it stand out from the crowd, I’m hoping Cougar have done something similar with the MX500.

As you can see from the specifications below the case will hold micro-ATX and ATX motherboards, which obviously allows room for up to 7 expansion slots. There is room for plenty of storage thanks to 7 x 3.5″ drive bays, and there are two pre-installed 120mm fans that add further value for money from the $75 / £50 retail price.

The packaging is pretty straight forward, with a black and white photo of the chassis on the front and the full specifications (see above).

Around the back we have a detailed list of each of the major components, as well as a break down of GPU size compatibility.

Included in the box is a simple installation guide, screws, rubber grommets for the rear cable routing holes, a magnetic side panel dust filter and three 2.5″ drive trays.