Cooler Master Mastercase Maker 5t Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The Cooler Master Mastercase Maker 5t launches today, and should appear at major retailers pretty quickly with an MSRP of £229.99. This obviously isn’t cheap, but keep in mind that this is a flagship chassis built for enthusiast grade systems. Is it expensive? Yes, but is it worth the asking price? Absolutely. You really do get what you pay for here, lots of features, premium build quality and plenty of style.

Overview

The Mastercase Maker 5t had out jaws on the floor from the moment we took it out of the box. Without a doubt, this is a sexy beast of a chassis, and while we know that style is subjective, we argue that few will find it unattractive. When it comes to building a high-end system, performance is obviously key, but these days people take their system’s aesthetics just as seriously. The matte black finish combined with the metallic speckled race car red stands out, and makes on heck of a visual statement here, and when you throw on the red LED lighting, the whole thing just oozes quality.

Build quality is flawless through, so much so that the chassis weighs more than most people would care to lift. Two huge sheets of tempered glass certainly give it that premium quality look and feel, but they also add a lot of weight. The chassis features a thick and extremely durable frame, with a reinforced top panel handle that integrates into the whole body, ensuring that it can handle the hefty weight of an enthusiast-grade water cooled gaming rig; even if your arms can’t!

The design has certainly had a lot of care put into it, and it’s little details that really make this chassis stand out, and help justify that wallet-busting price tag. The red LED lighting on the front I/O, which makes it easy to identify USB ports, the lighting and fan control functions on the front panel is a nice touch, as is the magnetic lighting strip on the interior. The lighting strip feels a little more professional and dynamic vs using LED fans, and it’s easy to reposition it within the chassis to get the right look for your build. The front panel design is stunning too, the way it hides the 5.25″ drive bays and dust filters with a stylish angular panel, while also dampening fan noise. Pull it forward and you can still open the 5.25″ ODD bays, and easily clean the dust filters; it’s a nice system and it works perfectly.

The modular HDD bays are a welcome touch too, not only can you remove them completely, you can set them to any height, or even purchase and install more. If you want a huge rack of drives for your workstation, it’ll do that for you. The GPU support is a nice touch, especially on cards that are tail heavy, and can easily prevent droop while still looking stylish; handy for some of the huge commercial and workstation cards on the market.

Cable management is flawless, with routing holes where you would need them most, routing channels behind the motherboard, cable tie loops, velcro straps, and a PSU compartment that’ll handle excess cables. Then you’ve got the fan/lighting hub, which helps keep unsightly cables tucked around the back and away from your motherboard, keeping the build looking neat and tidy.Water cooling such as custom loop or AIO are widely supported, as are the biggest air coolers on the market, so no problems there.

Overall, we can’t fault this chassis. It’s big, it’s extremely capable and it’s by far one of the best-looking chassis on the market today too!

Pros

• Flawless build quality
• Dust filters
• Exceptional design
• Two-tone paint
• Dual tempered glass windows with locks
• Separate PSU compartment
• Modular storage bays
• LED light bar
• LED-lit front panel controls
• Fan/lighting control hub
• Exceptional cable management
• Heavy-duty carry handle
• 3 x 140mm fans pre-installed
• Water cooling support

Cons

• GPU support bar can be tricky to position

Neutral

• Quite expensive, but you get a lot for your money

“Cooler Master has gone all out with their latest chassis, with a design that is sure to put a smile on the face of any enthusiast looking to build a powerful gaming rig or workstation, that compliments their hardware with ease. If you’re looking for a high-end chassis with tempered glass thrills and a chunky carry handle, it doesn’t get any better than this!”