Cooler Master Launches N300 and N500 ATX Mid-Tower Cases

[btarunr]

Cooler Master, an industry leading PC component manufacturer today announces the N series, a brand new series of compact mainstream cases. The N series brings liquid cooling support up to 240mm radiators and improved air cooling performance wrapped in subtle and simplistic designs.

N series cases were designed with cooling performance in mind, especially liquid cooling. The full mesh front panels and a large amount of vents all over let air stream through the case with ease. The N300 supports up to 8 fans, including a 120mm vent on the all important side panel to keep high-end VGAs fed with fresh air, and support for two 120mm fans or one 240mm radiator on top of the case. The N500 supports up to 9 fans, adding a second 120mm slot to the side panel, and extends to top mounted vents to dual 140mm vents, including support for 240mm radiators.



Despite the compact designs, there's plenty of room to install extra long graphics cards, several ODDs, HDDs and SSDs, and still have space to route and hide cables. The N300 supports up to 320mm long VGAs and has a maximum capacity of 2 ODDs, 8 HDDs and an additional SSD slot. Thanks to its height the N500 supports 3 ODDs. It makes away with half the HDD slots to provide a direct stream of fresh air from the front panel to the VGAs. This also allows it supports over 400mm long VGAs and makes room for a dedicated tool-less SSD cage for 3 SSDs.

Both the N300 and N500 are available in 4 configurations - with or without a windowed side panel, and with two USB 3.0 ports (N2 edition) or with a single USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports (N1 edition). USB 3.0 Super Speed enables up to 10x faster file transfers and full speed charging of mobile phones (~1A).

N300/N500 will be available in EU in May . Price and availability may vary by region.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Octavean]

I kind of like it. It reminds me a little of the old Antec 300 but with a better design,.....

 

[Vancha]

Did we ever find out how to route cables in the N300 with those two fans in the way?

 

[Madn3ss795]

Did we ever find out how to route cables in the N300 with those two fans in the way?

lol, can't. Cable routing doesn't mean much with the N300 anyway. Only 1 hole and the motherboard tray is extremely close to the side panel.

The N300 just arrived in my country - Vietnam - with its price tag 5$ lower than Corsair 300R Windowed version. Not sure how will it survive here The N200 also arrived with the same price tag as the N300, about 75$. Niche mini tower.

 

[Mif]

3.5" bay... What is this, 1996?

 

[brian111]

3.5" bay... What is this, 1996?

I don't think you had to go back quite that far, but point taken.

 

[Krnt]

Looking good!, and the amount of fan intakes is pretty nice, if it has a good price its going to be in my next build.
And the 3.5 bay is going to be useful for some memory card reader, and maybe more USB's on the front

 

[blibba]

3.5" bay... What is this, 1996?

Looking good!, and the amount of fan intakes is pretty nice, if it has a good price its going to be in my next build.
And the 3.5 bay is going to be useful for some memory card reader, and maybe more USB's on the front

Do you mean the 5.25" bay?

Most desktop-class hard drives still use the 3.5" format, and cases like this are definitely not in the SSD-only price bracket (if there is such a thing).

 

[TRWOV]

Do you mean the 5.25" bay?

Most desktop-class hard drives still use the 3.5" format, and cases like this are definitely not in the SSD-only price bracket (if there is such a thing).

There's an external 3.5" bay.


I don't like the blank slots on the front panel I/O, they could add a couple of USB2.0 slots there. I actually like this one a lot, I was considering a 200R or 300R for my next case but this looks pretty good too.

 

[blibba]

There's an external 3.5" bay.


I don't like the blank slots on the front panel I/O, they could add a couple of USB2.0 slots there. I actually like this one a lot, I was considering a 200R or 300R for my next case but this looks pretty good too.

Oh I see. There's quite a lot of stuff for those external 3.5" bays still, and indeed you can just use them for a hard drive.

I wouldn't recommend a low-end C'M' case to anyone, by the way. They're flimsy and poorly thought out.

 

[dwade]

I still don't understand why 90% of PC cases are still so archaic and ugly looking. Do 3rd world consumers gobble this up or what.

 

[Vancha]

I still don't understand why 90% of PC cases are still so archaic and ugly looking. Do 3rd world consumers gobble this up or what.

What do you consider to be a good-looking PC case?

 

[Animalpak]

That radiator integration is freakin amazing !!! Hope more case manufactures do the same !

 

[TRWOV]

Oh I see. There's quite a lot of stuff for those external 3.5" bays still, and indeed you can just use them for a hard drive.

I wouldn't recommend a low-end C'M' case to anyone, by the way. They're flimsy and poorly thought out.

poorly thought? such is the nature of low end cases but flimsy? I've used CM cases for a long time and I couldn't described any of them as flimsy... well, there are the Thermal Master cases, I suppose those are indeed flimsy.

The N300 seems to be the not so long ago released CM Force 500 with a different front panel (meh) and the N500's layout actually resembles the 200R/300R. What I don't get is the USB slot configurations, why not 2x2.0+2x3.0? It's either 2x3.0 or 2x2.0+1x3.0. :shadedshu

 

[renz496]

agreed about the front panel USB ports. why not 2 x USB 2.0 + 2 x USB 3.0? also wondering how much spacing does N500 has behind the motherboard tray. about N300 and Force 500 just change the PSU placement (plus new front mesh) then you got a whole new product . well maybe N300 is for user with much longer/heavy PSU.

 

[Nortrop]

Did we ever find out how to route cables in the N300 with those two fans in the way?

Routing, if you could call it that, is appalling. Too bad, kinda liked the simplistic design.

 

[TurdFergasun]

Looks better than my 1st gen cm690 and i had to put in some effort to get it to that point, but I'm not that anal about it, and it doesn't impede airflow in any meaningful way. Figure if I was I'd opt for a more expensive unit in the first place like the corsair 600T or c70's that has plentiful routing options.

 

[TRWOV]

also wondering how much spacing does N500 has behind the motherboard tray.

Looks to be quite enough to route the PSU cables.