Custom PC - UK (2020-03)

impressive,witha CPUdeltaT of65°C,althoughthatwould

likelyplummetusinga liquidcooler.TheGPUdeltaT of54°C

wasalsohighforwhatis a modestGPUwithreasonable

cooling,meaningmostGPUswillli kelyhavetorampuptohigh

speedsinordertokeepthingscoolandpreventthrottling.

Conclusion

WewantedtoliketheCoolerMasterMasterCaseH

andinsomeways,it’sstillwortha look.It’scuteto

lookat,canhousea reasonablypowerfulsystemand

issupremelyportable.ItsRGBfanalsolooksgreat.

However,wefeeltheinternaldesignisflawed.There’sa

lotofwastedspaceandthelackofa dedicatedexhaust

fanmeansthere’sjustthePSUandgraphicscardleftto

getshotofheat.Unfortunately,bothareoftenpassively

cooledatlowtomediumloadsinmodernhardwareand

thismeansthingsgettoastyveryquickly.It wouldbe

easytomakeit smallerandimprovecooling,especially

fortheGPU,andwhile theabilitytofitanAIOliquidcooler

ishandy,it won’tsolvethemorepressingissuesofan

awkwardinstallation,lackofcablestowageandpoorGPU

cooling.Thismeanswecan’treallyrecommendit formid

tohigh-endsystems,althoughforAPUsandlow-end

GPUsit’sworthaddingtoyourshortlist.

ANTONYLEATHER

VERDICT

Acutebutflawedmini-ITXcasethatneedsa majorrethink.

iPHONE

+ Cutelooks

+ 200mmRGBfan

+ RoomforAIO

liquidcoolers

ANSWERPHONE

• Mediocrecooling


• Pooruseofspace


• LimitedCPU
  coolerandGPU
  clearances

OVERALLSCORE

70 %

COOLING

17 / 30

FEATURES

13 / 20

DESIGN

22 / 30

VALUE

18 / 20

TEMPERATURE RESULTS

CPU DELTA T

CoolerMasterMasterCaseH100 65°C

0255075100

GPU DELTA T

CoolerMasterMasterCaseH100 54°C

0255075100

CPU cooler height is modest at 83mm thanks to the PSU on
top, but placing this vertically, as with other small cases such
as Raijintek’s Metis, would limit the impact of the MasterCase
H100’s secret weapon – a 200mm RGB intake fan. This
delivered reasonable airflow despite being relatively quiet,
and the case even has room for 200mm radiators up front
too, although finding room for the rest of your water-cooling
hardware could be challenging. Of course, your best course
of action is to use a 120mm or 140mm AIO liquid cooler, and
there’s plenty of space in the front of the case for this and
excellent ventilation too. There are no removeable dust filters,
but the vents are made from fine mesh, which should prevent
larger dust ingress. With fairly boring views through both side
windows, Cooler Master has sensibly opted for steel panels,
which likely helps it to hit a very low price point of just £50.
Build quality is decent enough, it feels solid and there
are four rubber-bottomed feet to help reduce vibration.
The front panel offers the basics including two USB 3 ports,
audio jacks, power and reset buttons, and Cooler Master also
includes a small wired remote to control the RGB lighting
should your motherboard not come so equipped.

Performance
We’ve updated our mini-ITX test gear to include a Palit
GeForce GTX 1660 StormX OC 6GB – a tiny but powerful
GPU with a large cooling fan, which we lock to 60 per cent
speed. This is in part because our previous card was too long,
but with its blower-style cooler, it was also not particularly
representative of GPUs we’d recommend buying. With the
CPU and GPU under full load, temperatures weren’t that