Cooler MasterN200 - Mini Tower Computer Case with Fully Meshed Front Panel and mATX/Mini-ITX Support

I had a slim form factor computer with M-ATX components that were beginning to show age. I effectively gave it to my 10-year old son for his minecraft and occasional writing. I had an Intel Core i3 from 2011 with integrated graphics HD-200. It was good enough for Minecraft although it got "laggy" occasionally according to my son. So I thought it was probably due to the integrated graphics performance. These days, CPU performance improvements seem to have hit a ceiling and I don't really see significant performance improvement from generations to generations, except maybe when you run heavy-duty applications like video editing and large data set processing. For browsing, youtube, minecraft, I suspect new SSD drives and graphic cards would address the bottlenecks better.Since the slim factor case was too small for any graphic cards, I had to buy a new case. I didn't want to buy a regular ATX case, because he's only 10. I don't expect him to need 3 hard drives, 2 graphic cards, water cooling systems, 1000W PSU in the next 3 years. Micro-ATX seems to be the sweet spot for sufficient expansion flexibility and efficient space. I also wanted a good quality case. My last one was partially made of plastics (it had two plastic stands to stand up the main case that recently broke). I want to build a cost effective, high quality minecraft PC that has more than enough power to make him happy for Xmas.For this purpose, this computer case is really PERFECT. What I like about it:1. Quality build: The whole case except for the front cover is made of metal (not sure what type), and painted evenly with black paint. This is much nicer than a "high-end" Dell XPS I saw in Costco. The screws that come with the case also seem to have high quality. The two pre-installed fans are made by Cooler Master, not a no-name maker. That's reassuring to me. The fans are very quiet, too.2. Surprisingly large space: This is a case for Micro-ATX motherboard, or the smaller mini-ITX. But the space left after you install the motherboard is surprisingly large to me. Usually small cases have trouble installing large graphics cards. For that reason, I was going to compromise for a single-fan Gigabyte GTX 960. The heat dissipation probably isn't very good, but I wanted to build a small computer. Then I found this case that can easily support Gigabyte GTX 960 Windforce (the 2-fan model). The case layout is very smart. It positions the 5.0 and 3.5 internal bays on top, the PSU and additional hard-drive bays at the bottom. So the middle part is wide open. You effectively have the entire front to back case depth to install your graphic card. It handles my Gigabyte with so much easy. I suspect I could've installed a 3-fan model if I had wanted to. And then on storage bays, I have a DVD drive, a hard drive only, which I put all on the top internal bay. There is another internal rack that can host 3 3.5 HDs. I doubt I'd ever need that many drives. In total, with 1 DVD rom, 1 HD, 1 mATX motherboard, 1 2-fan graphic card, 1 WIFI PCI card, 1 mTAX 450X PSU, the stock CPU fan, the case inside doesn't seem crowded at all. It's not empty, just well utilized. Very smart design for a mATX case.3. Reasonable cost: 49.99. If you buy from newegg, I saw a $20 rebate. I just skipped the hassle and bought here. This is a pretty decent price.What I don't like about it:1. It supports ATX PSU. This would be a plus to most people because of the ATX PSU flexibility and power. I already have a mATX PSU. Thus I needed a converter plate. Fortunately I saved the mATX to ATX converter plate that came with my PSU (which I bought a year ago). It didn't turn out to be an issue for me, but if I had bought my PSU many years ago, or it came from another pre-assembled PC, I would've been out of luck. My point is, this is a mATX case. It's great that it can support ATX PSU, but it should include a converter for mATX PSU.2. The HD audio head for the front audio panel got broken when I tried to install / uninstall / reinstall it over the 2 days as I received several upgrade components (e.g. the WIFI PCI card). Because of the limited space, I needed to unplug the head from the motherboard a couple of times to make room. It was really hard to reach the head itself, so I pulled the wire attached to the head. After a few times, the speaker wire came off. I was able to fix it myself in 30 minutes. But it worried me a little at first that I had to buy another case. Net net, this might not be the vendor's fault, but I wished the wire fixture were stronger. Next time I will be very careful.In summary, this case is great for me: a minimalist and (somewhat) perfectionist. It has just enough space (and a little extra) for a high quality mTAX build with high-end graphic cards, quality and quiet fans and case build quality and materials, and at a good price. If you want a monster case to play with constant upgrades, this might not be for you. I just wanted a good case for a good 10-year old boy's game PC and then be done with it. This worked really well for me. My son is super happy. :-)

The Cooler Master N200 is easily one of the best micro-ATX cases I’ve worked with, especially for the price.✅ Incredible airflow thanks to the fully meshed front panel✅ Compact but very easy to build in✅ Room for fans, radiators, SSDs, and even a 240mm AIO✅ Clean, minimal design with solid constructionIt’s a great choice for budget builds, home servers, or general-purpose PCs. Cooler Master did an amazing job overall.However, there is one issue I ran into:The motherboard standoffs. When you install your motherboard, things seem fine — but when you try to remove it later, the screws can get so tightly stuck in the standoffs that the whole standoff unscrews from the case with the screw still attached. Once that happens, getting the screw out of the standoff is nearly impossible. I tried everything, but they were just locked together. And unfortunately, the standoff doesn’t go back in securely either.It’s a small issue, but definitely frustrating if you do upgrades or maintenance often.That said, I still really love this case. If Cooler Master fixes the standoff issue in a future revision, it’ll be near perfect. Just handle the motherboard screws gently and be prepared in case you need pliers. Otherwise — this is a fantastic case with unbeatable value.

This is a great computer case for a budget build. It is a well constructed steel chassis that is great for a mATX motherboard build. I liked the front ports and the ability to add a DVD/Bluray drive. I had no issues adding my components to the case either.There is one issue to consider though, and the reason why I dropped this down to 4 stars. The fan on the front has a bit more RPM than most fans I've worked with and for some reason it sounds very noisy and annoying with how it lays against the front grill. When taking it out, the noise was almost a non-issue, but when it was inside against the case, it was an issue. My theory is that the airflow going through the grill created the sound problem.I had a solution to fixing this issue. I took two steps: the first was to replace the fan with a better fan that didn't spin as fast. This fan still created the sound, but it was less noticeable. The second and more important change was that I went to a hardware store and bought a few small rubber washers that I added as padding between the fan and the case, which allowed the fan to sit back maybe a quarter inch or so which helped prevent the airflow from creating the noise against the fan. Now it's a 5 star case!