Cooler Master MasterBox MB500

What’s cooler than being cool? Being cheap, too, obviously.

- Phil Iwaniuk

YOU COULDN’T ASK for more than this budget-end case provides for a very reasonable $70. Five years ago, a case with three RGB fans and a tempered glass panel would be considered wildly opulent, and priced accordingly. And now, here we are, in the age of flossing, Fortnite, and Facebook scandals, staring a budget case in the face with those very features.

Cooler Master has the kind of pedigree to pull off such a feat, you understand. It’s easier to put together a low-end gem when you’ve been putting in the design graft on higher-end models like the venerable HAF X, and iterating on those solid foundations for years, than it would be to devise a solid chassis from scratch. There’s not much HAF X DNA visible in the aesthetics of this MasterBox MB500, but the fundamentals of good airflow, easy access, and solid build quality are definitely present and correct.