MasterBox or MasterOven? Cooler Master Q500L Review
MasterBox or MasterOven? Cooler Master Q500L Review
2019-04-28
good people I'm Dimitri and what do you
think about the space-efficient case
layout what elements do you think
comprise to make that perfect space
efficient enclosure I think for 2019
hopefully more companies will tackle
that exact question seeing smaller cases
fit larger hardware without compromises
that normally accompany the small cases
and hopefully that is what we'll
experience today with the Cooler Master q500l
didn't realize just how bad I am with
inboxes but check this out we have the
Hardware Canucks dust filters there we go
doesn't look very good see this kind of
strange so the reason why this case is
exciting is because its original intent
was for a micro ITX enclosure but now
they've added additional PCI slots and
move the power supply to the front so
that you can use a full ATX system
inside of it and that is exciting the
curve at least you know beefed up the
steel litter because it's very thin
doesn't give you a lot of confidence in
the actual structural integrity of this
in case oh wait a second this is acrylic
it will totally get scratched up before
I finish building let's leave the
plastic own also a mis glass I don't
miss acrylic hello I'm looking for some
fans well are you married yeah I have a
ring what is your favorite number I
would say 3 do I have the perfect fan
for you this is the new thermal tech
ring trio 12 fans with good static
pressure for radiators it is a beautiful
frame with double side and center ring
illumination with soft and super bright
spill with razor chrome and
compatibility control it through your
smartphone the RGB plus software on the
PC or Amazon Alexa well I'm gonna take
these home perhaps you should to check
them out in the scription below alright
so what is so exciting about the Q500L
so first of all the price point is 59
bucks it's affordable it's pretty
compact yet it supports all of your ATX
hardware so in ATX PSU the front ATX
motherboard you can mount a 240 right at
the top given you move the power supply
bracket slightly down and allocate some
of that space for the radiator although
it's pretty compact and I probably
advise against it just stick to a normal
CPU cooler like I have here as for the
GPU clearance so because the power
supply is right in front of the
motherboard that limits your GPU
compatibility to 11 inches even if you
have like a slightly shorter power
supply that does not span into the first
PCI slot the cables will still be
exiting so I would say 11 inches to be
safe and slightly more if you have a
shorter power supply or if the Cape
like exiting from one of the sides so
yeah now the build quality as I've
mentioned is not fantastic and they also
wish they've done something with the
dust filters it's kind of cool to
customize the exterior using dust
filters but be nice for them to include
like a different kind of design
variation but I guess maybe those come
as accessories now the cool thing about
this whole perforation design for the
top front and the bottom is the fact
that you have some flexibility on where
you can mount things for example the PSU
bracket you can move it up and down
depending if you are installing anything
at the top or at the bottom if you need
extra clearance for the GPU for example
that's pretty cool the same thing goes
for the fan installation for the top and
the bottom depending on where you want
to kind of install it you know you're
not logged down to one particular
orientation or mounting location
furthermore you can actually move the
side IO either to the top or the bottom
depending if you like that orientation I
like it in the default position because
it hides the power supply area otherwise
you can have see the cables and Lumis
behind it in terms of cable management
this is one of the easiest cases I've
dealt with and last while because
there's plenty of room behind the
motherboard the cutouts and all the
appropriate positions or where the
cables exit from the power supply you
can route them directly to the back so
they don't occupy any other space and so
that brings us to cooling and there are
multiple issues with the Q500L
unfortunately so first of all the
included 120 ml rear exhaust fan is not
good it does not push air and also the
actual frame blocks a lot of the fan
looks like it was designed for like you
know 92 millimeter spacing instead of
the 120 / spacing it be nice if
Coolermaster open up that area I don't
know why it has to be so restrictive and
second of all there are no intake fans
included so the power supply covers that
entire front section so you can't really
install fans there unless you're going
for like an SFX power supply at the top
you can still mount a 120 or 140 at the
bottom but you kind of almost rely on
like passive intake based on the CPU
cooler and the exhaust fan and a GPU
cooler but generally you'd have this
kind of heat accumulation below the GPU
that you could combat by installing
additional intake fan but the issue here
is that the case feet are way too short
it kind of chokes the bottom fan and
also the dust filter is ridiculous they
should have just included the same
filter at the bottom as we see in the
top in the front you could orientate the
case line down giving you a little extra
breathing room from the bottom then then
the side but the looks of that
orientation they don't really work for
me personally and so that brings us to
temperatures which unfortunately this is
a bit of an oven at stock configuration
the CPU is pretty toasty adding a bottom
fan helps to cool down the GPU slightly
now we're placing the stock fan
completely gives us much better CPU and
GPU temperatures and here's the open
configuration with the side panels off
just so you get an idea on how cool this
case is without any side panels and when
compared to other cases at stock
configuration we have the hottest CPU
temperature in this entire stack as for
noise levels given that only has a
single exhaust fan it's not too bad
but given it's basically fully open you
know the ventilation design yeah
everything will be audible it doesn't
really lock down the noise too much and
so based on this poor thermal
performance it's got me thinking who is
this case for so first of all it's
affordable
second of all it's pretty small for an
ATX size and it supports standard ATX
hardware the only limitation would be
your graphics card length but you're
probably are not going to be installing
any monstrosity inside this thing given
it's only $59 now the thing is it's not
a replacement for your ITX users you
know the ITX direction is a lot more
expensive normally while here it's like
a medium-sized actually would be smaller
than the medium-sized enclosure and that
it's its main advantage for $59 though I
was hoping to see a better dust filter
at the bottom more designs available for
the user and not just like what comes at
stock here the rear fan section to be
opened up so it's not as restrictive but
I am impressed with the cable management
situation that we've got going on here
very easy to work in and the side panel
closes just fine alright so that's it
for the Q 500 l and honestly I was
expecting slightly better thermal
performance given it's just a
ventilation box but it all comes down to
that rear exhaust fan which is not good
and also having no intake so there you
have a little oven inside for your
hardware unless of course you remedy
that by installing additional fans which
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check it out down below all right guys
I'm Dimitri thanks so much for watching
let me know what you think of the Q500L comments below
make sure to check out the cell the
relevant content thanks much for
watching I'll see you next video you
also what do you think of the color
we're shooting raw
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