Cooler Master is known to produce a lot of products, coolers (as their name implies), power supplies as well as PC casing. They have made quite a few famous PC casings throughout the years, namely the HAF series. Their casings are also known to be well designed, robust and quite cheap to procure.
One problem with PC casing is that you usually are stuck with what you get, and you can’t change it much. While Cooler Master did change that a bit with the Stacker previously, they still wanted something that could fit what the user can customise. Hence they came out with the Cooler Master Mastercase 5, a totally modular PC casing. You heard that right folks. Cooler Master has just released a Lego like casing for the PC.
With a tagline of “Make it Yours” adorning the side, the Cooler Master Mastercase 5 comes in a large purplish black box, which kind of blends in with the image of the casing that’s inside. Inside the large foam protection, you will find the casing itself as well as a few mountings, screws and brackets. Thankfully, Cooler Master is kind enough to pack all of these extra bits in its own box, complete with its own compartment.
MINIMALIST DESIGN
The casing itself could be described as minimalistic. It has no exaggerated curves or lines, just a smooth, freeform shape that blends well into each other. Buttons that are flush with the surface and it has a matte finish. If people told me beforehand that someone could make a minimalist casing, I would have scoffed in their face, but Cooler Master has done it, and it’s bloody brilliant.
In term of size, the Cooler Master Mastercase 5 is suitable for ATX sized motherboards down to a mini-ITX. It’s quite high and hefty with a dimension of 235 x 512 x 548mm (W x H x D). We are surprised to see that there are only two USB 3.0 port on the front panel, as usually casing manufacturers would also include two USB 2.0 as well alongside. Two easy to grip handles are built in to the casing, making moving easy.
LOTS OF BAYS
Inside, you will be getting two 3.5-inch bays, four 2.5-inch bays and two 5.25-inch ones. All of these can be added or expanded with additional ones later. For easy cabling, there is a 0.75-inch gap behind the motherboard plate. Cooler Master has included two 140mm fans, one on the front and one on the rear, and you can install four more 120mm or 140mm fans.
The top is quite large enough to install a two long slot radiators. The casing accepts 300mm long GPUs by default, but if you have larger ones, you can take out the 3.5” bay and lengthen it to 412mm.
GOOD DESIGN
How is the casing in action? Well we love it. We can see why Cooler Master wants to make a modular casing as there is a lot of ways that you can store your hardware in this. We can put our HDD on the normal place, beside the motherboard or we could also place it below near the PSU.
Have a lot of SSDs? Add on more 2.5” bays. Want to put your water cooling radiator on the front of the casing instead of the top? Sure, take out the 3.5” bays. The combination is limitless and the end product is up to you. All of the routing holes have soft rubber lining them up, which means cables going through won’t be worn out by rubbing against the aluminium casing.
You will not always find a casing that can be changed and modified to your needs. Spacious, ergonomic and above all, modular, the Cooler Master Mastercase 5 might just be the ultimate PC casing.
Verdict: A PC case to rule them all
Value: 8/10
Features: 10/10
Performance: 9/10
Design: 10/10
Usability: 9/10
Total: 9.2
Written by Din
