Cooler Master HAF 500 H500-KGNN-S00 Black Steel / Plastic / Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: 1. Removable motherboard tray that lets you swap components quickly.
2. Very sturdy construction. I had a HAF 922 in the past, and the side panels were a bit flimsy. No flimsiness here.
3. All black interior that's designed cleanly and easy to work in.
4. Handles on the sides of the case make transporting it very easy.
5. X-Dock is great for swapping hard drives, and the trays for it are the best I've used.
6. Plenty of room on the bottom half to store all of the ugly stuff. Fully assembled, you only see the parts worth showing off, and nothing obstructs airflow.
7. Remove the sides and the top (with six thumb screws), and you have a test bench with fantastic air flow. Put them back on, and you have a well-built and protective case that does not lose much in the way of air flow, due to all of the ventilation holes.
8. The 2.5" cage is removable if you do not need it.
9. Room for two 80mm fans and a 120 on the back, 120s or 140s on the front, and a 200 on top. Also room for radiators for water cooling.

Cons: 1. The fans are extremely noisy. Unless you wear closed headphones, you will want to replace them.
2. The 5.25" cage is not removable. I've no use for it, and it would make working inside the case even easier.
3. There's only room for two 3.5" drives. Not a problem for me, but if you plan on using more, you'll have to get creative.
4. No USB3 to USB2 adapter is included. If your motherboard does not have a USB3 connector, you will not be able to use the front USB ports without an adapter.
5. It's hard to get to the front dust filter. You have to remove the top, both sides, and pop off the front panel, which may result in one of the X-Dock drives coming loose if you're not careful.
6. Would have been nice to have rubber grommet holes between the front of the case and the motherboard tray to hide some unseemly cables.
7. I had difficulties getting my SSD to fit in the X-Dock. After screwing it into the tray, and sliding the tray into the dock, the drive was positioned too low to line up with the connectors. I tried both trays and both slots. I ended up not screwing in the two screws nearest the connectors, which left the drive loose enough to maneuver into the correct position.

Overall Review: I know the cons section is hefty, but they are all minor nitpicks that don't take away from the fact that this is a great case. It's unique, stylish (though many people seem to find it ugly), easy to work in, and fun. Normally I hate swapping cases because cabling never turns out the way I wanted, but this turned out great.

All in all, for a hundred bucks, if you have the room for it, and are looking for a test bench or an easily transportable LAN case, or just want something fresh and new to try, give this a go. Cooler Master did a fantastic job, and I plan on using this case for a very long time.

Pros: Smart design, Love the layout of hardware and setup is conducive to IT work.

Cons: Drive bay tray arrived broken. After looking at it closely, the drive bays are cheap and broke along a thin line of plastic. This is a design flaw. The designers should have been able to forsee that this would break easily.

Overall Review: Disappointed by the cheap quality of the drive bays. Other than that, it is a good case. However, as this is marketed as a 'Test Bench', it seems like the parts which will be used for testing should be designed for high volume usage, which this is not.

If you intend to use the drive bays to test hard drives, they WILL break on you eventually. Minus 2 eggs.