Cooler Master Qube 500 Flat Pack - Deep Dive Review

In James own words:
'I'm one of those people who just loves to build things, whether it’s a new engine for one of my cars, an RC model, a new studio or an extension on the house, I just love to get stuck in so my favourite part of PC ownership is the initial system build. Naturally, when I heard that Cooler Master had a new PC case that comes flat pack and the users build it themselves I couldn’t wait to take a look. In this review, I get my hands on the new Cooler Master QUBE 500 Flat Pack PC case, piece it all together and find out just how good it is.'

00:00 Start
00:51 Some details
04:19 Unboxing the parts
07:40 Assembling the case for the first time
18:15 James thoughts so far
22:44 Build complete
23:54 Thermal testing / some concerns
26:14 CoolerMaster Statement
27:06 Is it worth buying?

Available in two versions
Black/White Standard Edition - £79.99 inc VAT
Early Bird promotion - £69.99 inc VAT (first two weeks of launch)
Macaron Limited Edition - £99.99 inc VAT
Early Bird promotion - £89.99 inc VAT (first two weeks of launch)
Black / White Standard Edition
• 1 x rear non -rgb Sickelflow Edge 120mm fan
• 1 x black/grey handlebar
• 1x black/great Gen mini
• 2 x Black/White dust filter panels
Macaron Limited edition
• 1 x rear ARGB Sickelflow Edge 120mm fan
• 1 x Grey Handlebar
• 1 x Mint Handlebar
• 1 x Grey mini Gem
• 2 x Accessory Hooks
• 2 x dust filer panels in mint, cream and pink

Qube 500 Flat Pack Features:
• Flat pack case is part of Cooler Masters' eco-friendly initiative, improves storage and shipping efficiency, and requires 45% less packaging compared to a pre-assembled case.
• Production costs remain the same as a pre-assembled case as material rigidity increases as the case panels require higher strength than pre-assembled case panels.
• Next-level customisation with swappable colours, a customisable system layout, plus a large accessory eco-system.
• Compact design with a total volume of 33 litres but there’s space for up to 8 fans, three radiators, six 3.5-inch HDDs and three 2.5-inch SSDs plus 365mm space for graphics cards. Also an E-ATX motherboard if you use an SFX power supply.
Need to mention:
• Multiple PSU mount options – three front, one bottom
• Storage option – 4x 3.5-inch (top, side rad mount, floor, motherboard tray) 5 x 2.5-inch (2 x motherboard tray rear, 1x motherboard tray front/rear
• Built-in vertical GPU holder
• Multiple layout/orientation options – Feet on front, rear I/O on top / test Bench mode / move feet from bottom to to for inverted layout / put the feet on the side for horizontal orientation like the HAF XB.
• Cable Management options

Build Specification
• CPU – Intel Core i7-12700K
• Motherboard – MSI MEG Z690 Unify
• Graphics Card – RTx 4080 INNO3D iCHILL
• Memory – 32GB ( 2 x 16GB Modules) GSKILL Trident Z5 DDR5-6400
• Storage – 2TB WD_Black SN850 PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD
• CPU Cooler – Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240 Atmos
• Power Supply – Cooler Master GX III 850 Gold
• Case fans – Noctua NF-F12 PWM Chromax.Black.Swap
• Chassis – Cooler Master Qube 500 Flat Pack
• Operating System – Windows 11

Final output – colour grading/titling etc:
iMac Pro 18 Core/Vega 64/128GB
iMac 2019 9900k Vega 48/64/1TB
Adobe Premiere Pro CC (PC)
Davinci Resolve Studio 14/15 (Mac)
iPad Pro 12.9 inch (2018) machines with LumaFusion
Final Cut Pro (Mac)

#coolermaster #qube500 #pcbuild

[reginastephens]

Another hard working and honest video from James.

[flemmino]

this case is great and i'm using it for my new build. for anyone who wants one, just use a smaller 2 fan case. my zotac 2070s mini will do great in this and still leave lots of room for air to flow from the bottom up (i'm installing 2 bottom fans and one side fan underneath the psu for my setup, as well as a 280mm cpu aio up top later on)

[elviscera]

I like the size/concept and would purchase if Cooler Master were to offer the RHS Metal panel separately (the Qube 500 replacement parts catalog is rather lean).

[gamernerd]

You could have easily added the fans and radiators before you mounted the panels. That way you have no issue with mounting after putting together the panels. Dont think of building in this case like a traditional one.
When using the extra radiator fan shroud, Just swap the side panel with the glass panel which is perforated.

[wereoctopus]

I've been considering this vs the Fractal North, especially since it's quite a bit cheaper here ($129 AUD vs $229, though the North includes 2 fans). I like the cheese grater aesthetic, the holes make convenient mounting points for all sorts of weird DIY hardware, and I wouldn't mind the extra cleaning that permanent removal of the dust filters would bring. It's a shame you can't get a version with two of the steel/mesh side panels (rather than one steel and one TG), given the so-called "modularity" of the case.

edit: I guess I could just move the TG panel to the right side -- even if I cared about seeing cable clutter, I could stick a piece of paper over it, or use it as a glass frame for a cross-stitch piece.

[DorothyStoller]

Qube is a pretty cool name well done cooler master for not being rubbish.

[miguelzl]

was looking forward to this review, never disapoints great work lml

[sergiolandz]

i would reccomend a sfx power supply if you are going to build in this case... Really awesome case though hopefully we see more of this type of case.. They really made it easy to build this case.

[benjaminsonksen]

It would be great if we could purchase an additional rear panel to eliminate use of glass completely.

[frclayton]

Very nice presentation. I was quite interested to see this case. It seems a to be an excellent concept but still has a bunch of flaws: case could be more rigid, air flow is BAD for a heavy processor/GPU and lateral frame for radiator, near the glass, is a shame. Maybe, mATX boards and lighter GPUs can have a more comfortable temperature operation.

[allanbergstrom]

Good they made a provision for vertical mounted GPU.

[taylorshin]

I just migrated my itx sub workstation to this case. It surely was fun to build and seen many potentials.. But I cannot still understand why the PSU needs to be at the front... Since this build is ITX, I could have attached PSU at the bottom. But there was not any stable location for PSU...

Probably ok for anything below mid tier which is this sub machine with Linux installed. But I would not put anything high end here... I think the weird fan mount is there to reinforce the frame? But yeah, it is not screwed on both end... Not sure why it is there... perhaps for benchtop mode.

My setup is 5600G+7600 with Wraith cooler. So yeah, it never goes beyond 65 degrees. I think I have seen this kind of set up in OEMs..Dell gaming desktop from 2020 etc.

[LeeNeighoff]

This case has a very similar airflow profile to the NR200. I have an NR200P MAX, and setting all fans (2x top rad, 2x bottom) to exhaust decreases CPU temps while keeping GPU temps low. Mesh side panel becomes passive intake.

Bottom intake is great for the GPU, but then your only main exhaust is through the radiator, which is sucking up most of the heat from the card.

I wonder how the temps change just swapping bottom to exhaust.

[ChillBuilds]

I would probably just pull the dust filters off of the top panel only with the config in this video.

[E_Proxy]

Is it possible to mount 4 3, 5" hdd when put in the horizontal config? (feet on the side panel)

[jevilreal]

Hi, how low can the psu go? Can it be inatalled on the bottom so i can install a 120mm fan in front so it blows at the cpu cooler?

[eliteaceninja]

I completely disagree with the bad air flow. I have gone from a cooler master h500 to this case. Installing bottom fans and side intake fans with 240mm AIO I am getting better temps from this case. The review does not explore all the options and is very one sided view. Disappointed as I really like this channel but this review could put lots of people off.

[Adel-sjue]

Have the airflow problem been solved??

[lorenzomasini]

Will there fit my RTX 4090 Palit GameRock OC?

[budiisnadi]

The cardboard box alone is good enough for PC case.