COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX 5
eu.coolermaster.com £55
FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE R4
http://www.fractal-design.com £80
5 6
Starting with that layout, though, you can squeeze
in a whopping eight 3.5in drives as well as two
5.25in drives, which is fairly ludicrous by modern
standards, particularly as the huge stack of 3.5in
bays gets in the way of longer graphics cards. It
takes removing just a couple of screws to slide out
the whole middle section of bays, opening up a nice
gap for your graphics card to extend into.
Elsewhere, this is clearly a premium case with
quality touches everywhere. You also get masses of
cooling options, with seven 120/140mm fan
mounts. Two of these are occupied and combine to
provide good overall cooling, with the lowest CPU
temp on test and a mid-table result for the GPU.
And as for that trick up its sleeve? The case is
plastered in sound deadening material, meaning
that only the strong whoosh of fans comes through.
Still, there are plenty of other cases with more
modern layouts that would probably suit
most users better, including Fractal’s
own Define S.Elsewhere, this case has plenty else going for it too.
The simple angular design with the full ventilated
front panel works well, and it’s an impressively
compact case. Despite this you still have room at
the front for a 2x120mm radiator and a rear 120mm
radiator/fan, though you do miss out on an optical
drive and have only two 3.5in/2.5in combi drive
bays and one 2.5in bay.
Also, despite the generally modern layout with
the PSU and drives at the bottom and the nice
looking stuff at the top, CoolerMaster hasn’t fully
covered up the bottom. You get a plastic shroud
that screws into place over the PSU but the drives
are left exposed. Otherwise you get good cable
routing options and two preinstalled fans.
As for cooling, it performed very well. The front
fan being directed straight towards the graphics
card meant it had the lowest GPU temperature on
test while the CPU temp was mid-table.
Overall, the MasterBox 5 is a solid
option for a good price.The Define R4 is still a popular and widely available case but
it’s one of Fractal’s slightly older designs now. As such it has an
older-style layout that puts more emphasis on drive bays than
compactness and cooling. But it does have an ace up its sleeve.This case has great side panels. No really. So many cases,
even the premium ones, have side panels that are a pig to get on
and off. Here, though, the screws line up properly and the
panels slide effortlessly into and out of position.75 % 70 %
Budget cases
GROUP TEST
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