I had some old parts laying around and my son wanted a gaming computer. So, I went around looking for a case to stuff all this stuff into that was nice looking and quality. He was given the following:
Intel G4600
Asus B250M-K
8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2133
XFX RX560 4GB
We were just using parts that were laying around and acquired from friends, so we don't have anything fancy here or any crazy RGB lighting or color schemes. Just a budget-minded micro-atx build for a budget case.
The design on the dust filters is pretty nice, it's not fooling anyone and you can tell it's just a design on a filter, but it does a good job of looking the part and appearing more exquisite than it is. The dust filters cover the top, front, and the bottom of the case and are simply attached by magnets. It's so easy to pop them off and clean them, literally in seconds. It's a very refreshing change to most cases with poorly designed and hard to access dust filters.
Airflow is amazing. The entire case is open on the exterior and the only thing covering the holes is the dust filters. A front mounted radiator would work great for water-cooling. You could also mount smaller radiators on the bottom or rear. In my particular case, I do not think I could get a 240 radiator to span the top without interfering with the CPU cooler, but a 120 would fit fine if positioned at the front.
The USB ports on the side are a nice touch and can be positioned on any of the 4 sides of the case. The only hiccup with doing that is the wiring must follow the ports wherever they go. So, you have to plan ahead so the wiring doesn't get in your way, for instance the wiring may block the mounting of a large radiator if positioned in the front.
Wiring is easy and there is plenty of room to cram your cables out of view. I'm using a non-modular PSU and I was able to hide all the unused wires just fine. There are also nice spots to mount your drives on the backside of the case.
The window is tinted and a little dark. I do not have any lighting in the case yet, but it's difficult to see inside when there is not good lighting the room. I'll definitely be adding a small light bar to bring it to life. If you have RGB fans and components though you should be fine. The window is not glass and thus it scratches easily. The tinted nature makes it hard to see the scratches at viewing distance though, but that's just the nature of these windows. Unless you're gonna drop money on a glass case it's just something you have to live with.
Another small little touch is you can stand the case up like you normally would, but they also included rubber feet on the back-side of the case. So, you can actually lay the case down flat if you wish and have the window facing up for everyone to view inside the case as they walk by.
Honestly, I'm just really impressed for $40. It's not made of gold or anything, but it's just well designed and good quality for this price range. It's also a nice looking case that would look nice anywhere in the house, even the girlfriend or wife won't get mad if this is in the living room. I definitely plan on using it the next time I build a PC for a customer.
Absolutely love how this case and build came together. Plenty of room for a simple build, and I love the option of moving the power/usb's around rather than them always having to stay in the same place. SSD installs are clean, love that the case doesn't have a big stack of metal in the front for HDD, but keeps the HDD hidden behind the back panel which still leaves plenty of room for extra cord. The power supply gets installed securely with a bracket in the case, and is installed a little further into the case to allow for a nice handle on the bottom backside of the case. Overall this case is WELL WORTH the small amount they are asking for. I have built with cases that cost 3x as much that don't make as much sense as this case did. Beautifully built.
Excellent budget case. The front and top "design" are actually just patterned dust filters. The plain steel chassis has holes drilled in it, excellent airflow, allows tons of different fan configurations, and then just replace the dust filter to hide the mounting screws. Novel approach that some will hate. I like it.
Pros: Budget case, good price.
-Fits a whole mATX board in a frame the same size as other one that only fit an iTX mobo
-Excellent space behind mobo for cable routing
-edges aren't very sharp
- recessed psu tray, allows you to keep the power cord somewhat against the case, instead of point out directly at the wall
Cons: No PSU shroud, I don't mind
Dust filters may be a turn off for many
Would've been 5 stars but the acrylic panel was heavily scratched on delivery due to internal USB 3.0 and audio cable head connectors not being secured inside, I already request a replacement due to that issue, otherwise the case is a very curious design from Cooler Master, you can place it horizontal or vertical, a total of 6-cooling fan (140mm x5 and 120mm x1 ) and just two 2.5" HDD/SSD and one 3.5" HDD can be used on it., making an update to this review the 2nd case arrive same way scratch, I did contact to Cooler Master customer support on-line to try to get an acrylic panel replacement direct from them but this has been a pain in the ass!
I was looking for something smaller and affordable to transplant my microATX system into from an old Antec 900 that provided decent air flow for my 4790k and RX 580 and I settled on the Q300L TUF edition. There is decent room in the back for cable management but I suggest going with a modular power supply to save the space that's there. I have an older Corsair CX750 that isn't modular and I am having a tough time closing the back cover completely and I don't have any room in back for my RGB controlller and all of the wiring. This is definitely a great case for the money, though. The modular structure and customization options are hard to beat with other manufacturers.
Feature Product
- I/O panel can be adjusted in 6 different locations and the Case can be positioned: vertical or horizontal
- Edge-to-Edge Acrylic Transparent Side Panel offers a full view inside
- Body depth height: can support normal size ATX power supply
- Front Magnetic Design Dust Filter with open perforated front, top and bottom for high air performance
- Extra space behind the motherboard tray for hidden cable management
Description
The Master Box Q300L is your straightforward option in the lineup of the brand new Master Box Series from Cooler Master. A Series that might be small in size but excels in functionality and modularity without compromising on the thermal performance. Although the size wouldn't tell, the Master Box Q300L supports a standard ATX PSU which we don't see often in the market with this size. Based on the different system setup, the I/O panel can be adjusted to six different locations, three options at each side of the case. You can decide which setup fits your system best. Due to the cube design of the frame and special pattern design on the magnetic dust filter will make the chassis stand out from the rest. The combination of a practical design and the unique customizable outlook makes the Master Box Q300L The perfect choice for office and home.
This is my first micro atx build and the main reason why I decided to do it is the unique look of this case. Most other small cases have that cube look which is not my style so this case really stuck out. It is rather small (which I like) but still has plenty of room to work with. It's also lightweight and perfect for portability. All my previous cases never had enough space in the back for cable management but this case has plenty of room to spare (a regular hard drive can be mounted back there). There's also 2 slots for SSD's.
I'd consider this case to be a great deal because of the 2 included RGB fans which can be a little costly on their own. The case also has a nice quality to it and I like that it takes a regular atx power supply. What makes this case really shine is its customization options. The rubber on the thumb screws allow it to be laid on its side, and the I/O panel can be moved to 6 different locations. Airflow doesn't seem to be bad despite it looking like the acrylic panels would choke the system, but there is a vent that allows the air to escape. Check out the images to see how small this case looks compared to a full tower.
Now here are some concerns. You have to be very careful not to scratch the acrylic panels, especially when wiping off (They attract dust). My case arrived with some abrasions on the RGB shroud panel at the top front of the case but it's not too noticeable. The removable handles are made of a hard rubber which is great for traction but dust can cling to it rather easily. I really do wish they had an option where the customer can upgrade to the full 4 RGB fans with the appropriate hardware, but that's just what I would like considering the images for the product show both panels occupied with fans. Also I should note that one of the holes in the metal frame that holds up the acrylic side panel was a little too small and I needed to thread it simply by using a screwdriver to force the screw in straight.
To cycle through the RGB modes they suggest sacrificing the reset switch to plug into the rgb controller, but pressing the button on the RGB controller box also cycles through the different modes and colors. You can also buy a vandal momentary switch and create your own reset/RGB cycle button if you're up for a little modding :).
I debated whether or not to knock a star off for the minor cosmetic blemishes but it's not really worth it. I'd highly recommend this little case.
READ. For the price, this is a fantastic box. Sturdy, and nice color scheme. There are a couple things that I am not a fan of though:
The pattern on the side of the case is not engraved onto the metal. It comes with magnetic sheets that give it its pattern on the side. These come off easily and can get kind of annoying. Nonetheless, you can take them off and it’ll still work great.
The worst thing for me though was that the box was missing a rubber foot, and I couldn’t stand it vertically. I had to call amazon and get some off-brand rubber feet. This was what knocked a star off of the rating for me.
In summary, for the price though, it’s pretty darn good!
I have to say for a $40.00 case, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality I got.
THE GOOD:
The Airflow is obviously great. The top, front, and bottom are covered in dust filters. The Front IO panel can actually be moved to the top, bottom, or left side. I went with a top mount and it was easy to move with just 4 tiny screws to remove. The 3.5 HDD Mounting Bracket in the back works great and I like the mounting solution for the SSDs as well with them being mounted to the front for those that like to show off their SSDs. One pet peeve of mine in cheap cases is not having a cut out to feed the CPU power cable through once the MOBO is mounted but no such problem in this case. Speaking of cable routing, there is a ton of space in the back to hide and route cables. I have a non modular power supply in this case but there are no PSU cables showing in the front of the case. I was able to wind them up behind the SSD Mounting Points and I still had no trouble putting the back panel back on.
THE MEH:
Considering the top and front are made to look like Swiss cheese it is not a silent case but that should be expected to begin with. My only complaints are somewhat nitpicks. First I do wish they had one more fan in the front of the case. Second I don't ever like knockout PCIE brackets. Sometimes components change and having no way to replace the brackets kind of stinks. Also the acrylic side panel will be a scratch magnet.
THE TL;DR:
This is a great budget case with a lot of features for just $40.00 and so long as you have reasonable expectations based on that price range, you will not be sorry. Best for the money in that class in my humble opinion.
Q300L: First off I want to say that I am not hating on this case, honestly one of the best cases out there at the price point (wait til it goes on sale if you want to get it). In the pictures included you can see I've got a pretty hefty set up, ryzen 5 2600x, GTX 1080, and a 650 watt 80+ gold rated psu. Btw, I have a scythe Mugen 5 CPU cooler in there and it's about 154 mm and the max CPU cooler height for the case from what I read is 157mm so kudos on cooler master for allowing pretty beefy coolers to work in this build although you might want to try water-cooling. My setup be a little overkill for such a cheap case but I simply can't get over the size (it's not very big at all) and design of the dust filter meshes, they're so darn cool lol. That being said I ran into a few issues which I think have been sorted out as of now, but I was getting blue screens of death after putting my build together in this case (I think it was a driver issue so not the cases fault) but at first I assumed it was thermal performance which is not the best in this case. You DEFINITELY need either more fans or at least replace the one cooler master supplies because it is garbage. I've got 3 total and plan to add two more when my fan hub arrives. However, I stressed the GPU (with the 3 fan config) with the side acrylic panel off and on and then stressed the CPU and GPU at the same time with the panel on and you can see the results in my pictures. Not terrible BUT I have very high quality aftermarket Corsair fans in there NOT whatever cooler master provided which was only one fan. Temps never got above 75 from a software perspective though i can see from a practical standpoint how some of the actual temps could be a touch higher as software isn't 100% on temp readings. All in all its a good case if you have fans to mitigate the heat. I doubt you'd need that many fans if you were trying a less extreme CPU/GPU combo like a ryzen 3 1200 and a 750ti or some such. But I would recommend it! I'll update if anything changes temperature wise though.
***UPDATE***
I did not like the thermals I was getting with 3 fans and with 5 fans in my r5 2600x and GTX 1080 set up, I do not believe they are in check for extended gaming periods which is what I use this PC for. I've built a new budget oriented PC in this case only using the supplied coolermaster fan (which honestly does nothing but might as well include it) and thermals are well within acceptable range. For reference, I've put a Xeon X3430 and GTX 750TI in this case and everything remains very cool and temps are well within acceptable ranges I believe 65 was the highest temperature and that was on my GTX750TI, you do however need a better than stock Intel cooler for you to be getting decent temps I have a cryorig m9i and it works flawlessly very happy with this build and would feel very comfortable gaming on it for long periods of time without risk of thermal throttle or exceedingly high temps on either the CPU or GPU.
This is a great case, for the money I could ask for better. It provides pretty good air flow and was easy to work with on install. This was my first build and it turned out great with this case. Cable management is fairly easy and with ample amounts of areas to mount fans your setup will stay cool. I installed a 120mm radiator and fan on the exhaust vent in the rear and it fit no issues. Some reviewers have said that the holes for the fans are too small, but I found that you can use the normal mesh holes on the case as they are spaced perfectly for 120mm fans. I mounted 7 fans and a radiator in mine. My only complaint is the viewing panel. As it is Acrylic, it will scratch very easily. I already have a scratch on mine, and was very careful to avoid the issue.
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