Cooling Options

The MasterBox 5 case was designed with high-end components and cooling system flexibility in mind to keep all your gaming hardware running cool and reliable. There are four different case fan mounting locations along with support for liquid cooling.

Air Cooling

The MasterBox 5 comes with two Cooler Master fans preinstalled. One 120mm intake fan on the front panel and one 120mm exhaust fan on the back panel. Both fans are very quiet (1200 rpm); but they do not move a lot of air. Additional fans can be added or substituted if you want more airflow.

(120mm front intake fan – included)

(120mm rear exhaust fan – included)

The following table lists the noise generated by the two included case fans while operating at three different speeds set by powering them from an external variable output power supply.  Sound Pressure Levels were taken 3’ from the front of the case.  The ambient background noise level was approximately 26 dBA.

With both fans running at full speed (12V) the noise is barely audible while providing baseline airflow through the case.  Slowing the fans down still keeps a little air moving but silences the fans to the point they are virtually silent.

The MasterBox 5 enclosure is designed to support large, tower-style CPU coolers up to 167mm (6.5”) tall. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cooler fits in easily with room to spare.

Overall, the MasterBox 5 provides entry level cooling with very little noise. Some users may be happy with the included two cooling fans, especially if you are using liquid cooling for the CPU (and relocate the rear fan to the front so you have two intakes). However, if you plan to rely on air-cooling, you may want to add or change case fans to increase airflow.

Liquid Cooling

The MasterBox 5 case offers several options for installing single, dual, or triple fan/radiator liquid cooling systems. For this review we installed two different liquid cooling systems, the Corsair H80i and H100i

The Corsair H80i liquid cooler uses a single 120mm radiator mounted on the back panel sandwiched between two 120mm cooling fans. The bundled 120mm rear exhaust fan was removed prior to installing the H80i (relocate to the front panel so you have two intakes).

The Corsair H100i liquid cooler uses a dual 240mm radiator, which we mounted onto the front panel. Unfortunately the MasterBox 5 does not permit installing liquid cooling system fan/radiators on the top panel as there are no fan openings.

Cooler Master also claims that you can mount a triple-fan 360mm radiator on the front panel, but doing so requires purchasing an optional bracket.

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