Cooler Master N600 Review
Category : Cases
Published by Francesco Daghini on 15.10.13
With the new N600 Cooler Master has a mid-tower in its portfolio that offer space for no less than ten fans, three radiators and extralong graphics cards. The case is compact but still roomy to house numerous HDDs/SSDs and it is equipped with removable dust filters for quick maintenance.
On the following pages we will show you the strengths and weaknesses of the
Cooler Master N600.
[pagebreak]
Preview
Specifications
| Model |
Cooler Master N600 |
| Case Type |
Mid tower |
| Dimensions |
207 x 455 x 520 mm |
| Material |
Steel, Plastic |
| Color |
Black |
| 5.25'' drive
bay |
3 x external |
| 3.5'' drive bay |
7 x 3.5'' |
| 2.5'' drive bay |
5 x 2.5'' |
| Expansion
slots |
7 |
| Form factors |
ATX, mATX |
|
Weight |
8.1 kg |
| Cooling |
Top: 120/140mm fan x 2 (optional)
Front: 120mm fan x 2 or 140mm fan x 1
Rear: 120mm XtraFlo fan
Left Side: 120mm fan x 2 or 180/200mm fan x 1 (optional)
Right Side: 120mm fan x 1 (optional)
Bottom: 120mm fan x 1 (optional)
HDD cage: 120mm fan x 1 (optional)
|
| I/O ports |
USB 3.0 x 2, USB 2.0 x 2, Audio In & Out (supports AC97 / HD Audio) |
[pagebreak]
Front
Overview |
|
| The new Cooler Master N600’s design is clean and elegant, thanks to the black finish
and the front covered with mesh. Behind it you will find space for up to
two 120 mm fans, whereas one is pre-installed. Cooler Master ships this case with a pre-installed LED Xtra Flow 120 mm fans.
On the right hand side, you'll find a piece made from plastic looking
like brushed aluminium. Integrated into this bar there are the front I/O
connectors. Cooler Master decided to equip the N600 with two USB 2.0
ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a headset and microphone connector, Start button, Reset button, and a switch
which allows you to enable/disable the fan's LEDs. Furthermore, there are three 5.25
inch slots. |
| |
Back
Overview |
|
| |
| In the bottom, there’s the PSU housing,
which offers space for a standard ATX power supply. Above that, there
are 7+1 expansions slots. Other than that, we find the the cut-out for the motherboard I/O panel, and
behind a mesh there is another 120 mm fan with 3-pin connector. There are also a couple of holes, with rubber grommets for liquid cooling
tubes. In the top left corner there is a small switch, that lets you set
two different fan speeds. You actually get a high and a low setting for
up to two fans. |
[pagebreak]
Right side
Overview |
|
| |
| After removing the panel on the right side panel, we
find quite a few interesting features. A big part of the right side
panel comes with a mesh. Behind it there is space for one or two 120
millimeter fans. You could even install a 240 millimeter radiator thanks
to the clever frame. Between the right panel and the back of the motherboard
tray, there's plenty of space to hide all your cable mess, to achieve a nice and clean cable management
on the other side of the motherboard tray. Both panels, the right and the left, are equipped with easy-to-use thumbscrews, that is quite rare, considering that usually we can't find thumbscrews on the right panel. When we take off the right panel, we instantly notice two important features:
there is a big cut-out behind the CPU socket, that allows you to mount aftermarket coolers without
removing the motherboard. |
[pagebreak]
Left side
Overview |
|
|
| |
A closer look at the left side panel shows,
that there is space for another two 120 millimeter fans or one big
180/200 mm fans. The only thing which is actually missing is anti-duster filter, which would have been pretty useful. Once the panel
has been removed, one can see that this case offers quite a lot interior
space. In the top right corner there can you can install three 5.25
drives with tool-less mounting. In the bottom right corner there is a
cage for three 3.5 inch slots. Inbetween the 5.25 inch and the 3.5 inch
cage, there you can either install 3.5 or 2.5 inch drives. The case
ships with the left pillar placed to install 2.5 inch drives. If you
want to install more 3.5 inch drives you can release a few screws and
put the pillar more to the left, closer to the motherboard. All drives
can be installed without using any tools at all, just the tool-less
rails that Cooler Master includes in the bundle are needed. If you
remove this center cage entirely, you can install graphics cards with a
maximum length of up to 430 millimeter. For appropriate cable management
there are three big cut-outs that are covered with rubber grommets.
Unfortunately there are also a couple of flaws with this case: after we
removed the center cage, we tried to install an closed-loop watercooler, but we noticed that the tubes are a bit
too short. This might be an issue that won't occur with Cooler Masters
all-in-one watercoolers. Besides that, we found out that the top left
cut-out, the one that should be used for the 8-pin CPU cable, is a bit
too tight, and it's really difficult to route a cable through. |
[pagebreak]
Top
Overview |
|
| |
| The top of the N600 is pretty
much standard. It comes with a big mesh grill and an anti-dust filter.
Furthermore it's possible to install two 120/140 mm fans, or a 240 mm radiator.
Other than that there is nothing interesting going on here.
|
| |
Bottom
Overview |
|
| |
| The bottom of the N600
shows yet another big cut-out, which got covered by a big, removable
dust filter. Right above this cut-out there is space for the power
supply which gets to breate fresh air in any case. There's also the possibilty to install
yet another 120 mm fan, besides the PSU. Eventually, we find 4 adjustable rubber feet,
which ensure a firm stand. |
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
| General |
|
+ |
- |
| The new Cooler Master N600 is quite a
good case. Keeping in mind what this case actually costs, it offers
quite a lot of different features. We liked for example the flexibility
regarding cooling options as well as storage. Additionally you can
install watercooling gear at a variety of spots, which is rather unusual
for such a low priced case. There is only thing we didn't like and this
concerns the pre-installed fans, which all feature 3-pin connectors
instead of 4-pin ones. It would have been better to have PWM fans instead of 3-pin fans.
|
|
-
Design
|
-
Fans
- Top panel |
| |
|
|
|
| Manufacturing quality / Ergonomics |
|
+ |
- |
| The build quality is very good, the N600 is produced with
really decent materials, and the black finish with a lot of mesh gives it an appealing look.
During the installation we noticed, that the routing hole for the 8-pin
power connector cable is really tight, and therefore wiring can be a bit
circumstantial. Overall there is plenty of internal space and allows you to have a very powerful rig without
worrying about messy cable management or high temperatures.
|
|
- Build
quality
- Interior
Space |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Design |
|
+ |
- |
| The design is simple and clean.
Looking at the N600 from the outside may suggest that this is one boring
case, but once you remove the side panels there is a great a deal of
features. |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Recommendation |
|
+ |
- |
| If you're looking for a case in the region of 70
Euro, which comes with quite a few decent features, then the N600 from
Cooler Master is definitely an interesting case. |
|
- Gaming-PC |
- Desktop PC
- File Server |
| |
| Rating |
|
The Cooler Master N600 gets good four out of five
stars. |
| |
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