Cooler Master CM Force 500 - The First of Its Kind
The CM Force 500 is the first of a new mid-tower CM Force casing series from Cooler Master. At first glance, it sports a dark, classy look with muted facade. With cooling options on both side panels, it supports up to a total of six cooling fans. Read on as we uncover more details of this all-black casing.
Cooler Master CM Force 500: The First of Its Kind
The CM Force 500 is the first from Cooler Master's new CM Force series that was just launched a few weeks ago. We did a quick check on Cooler Master's global site and found the details for the casing, somewhat ignominiously, buried deep in the "Others" section for mid-range chassis offerings; while the Eilte-, Silent- and even Centurion-series, each has a fleshed-out product range. This appears to make the CM Force 500's existence, a sublimation of some product designer's afterthoughts. However, with that said, Cooler Master is indeed one of the biggest manufacturers of computer chassis and they often update their products with timely refreshes.
The Cooler Master CM Force 500 is a mid-tower chassis that sports a black, classy facade. At first glance, we felt that it bore a strong resemblance to the Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus.
At first glance, we felt that the CM Force 500 bears a slight resemblance to the Elite 431 Plus and this can be attributed to their dark, classy facades. Read on to find out if their resemblances are merely skin-deep or there are more differences to set these two casings apart.
Exterior Design
According to its manual, the CM Force 500 is made up of black steel and plastic, and it tipped the scales with its empty weight at 5.23kg. That's very light case for a steel case, but that also revels that the metal used is relatively thin to achieve this. The next immediate feature that struck us after un-boxing is the presence of a pair of air vents on both its flanks. The vent on each side supports either a 120- or 140mm cooling fan; its larger vent supports up to two 120mm cooling fans.
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The smooth facade of its front panel is broken by a pair of subtle folds that each end in a thin sliver of black wire mesh. The I/O ports occupy the top of its front panel, which comprises a single USB 3.0 port and a pair of USB 2.0 ones. For audio, there is a microphone jack and another for earphones.
The facade of the CM Force 500 is black and classy; however, the two glossy plastic vertical stripes looked a little out of place at its front panel.
The top of the chassis is a steel top with a matte back finish; there are no accessories like a storage tray or any cooling options.
At its rear, we can see that the chassis supports a top-mounted standard ATX PS2 power supply unit (PSU). Having reviewed a slew of mid-tower casings that support bottom-mounted PSUs, this is a hark back to the past where such a configuration was common - even for an entry-level chassis. We also noted that the metal plate that cover the expansion slots of the CM Force 500, need to be bashed out when installing an expansion card. Even the holes meant for accommodating the tubes of a liquid cooling system are given the same treatment as they need to be bashed out when the need arises (and as can be expected, no rubber grommets). Also, the CM Force 500 doesn't have any options for bottom-mounted cooling fans.
Most of the casings characteristics at the rear give way that the CM Force 500 is an entry-level chassis - from the top mounted PSU, to the old-school expansion slot covers that need to be forced out and the sole rear 120mm cooling fan bundled with the case.
Interior Design
The steel side panels are held in place with thumbscrews that are easily removed without the need for any tools. Inside, you'll note that there are no removable drive bays for the CM Force 500; fortunately, the installation of the drives is tool-free.
The interior of the CM Force 500 is roomy and is touted by Cooler Master to be able to accommodate high-end graphics cards like the AMD Radeon HD 7990-based ones. (Of course, if you can afford that class of graphics cards, you would get yourself a high-end chassis and not an entry-level one such as this.)
After the removal of the right steel panel (as seen below), we were able to see a single large cut-out on the motherboard tray that will allow us to mount customized CPU coolers. There's also a single cable management cut-out near the top of the CM Force 500. To the left of the large cut-out, there are options for mounting up to two 120mm cooling fans that correspond to the intake vents found on the side panel. This should be ideal to cool your storage array, but do note that it will impede direct access to service those drives; you'll have to remove the fans to gain access again.
We can see the two mounting options on the side for a pair of 120mm cooling fans - ideal to cool your hard drives. Beyond them, we can see the vertical structure that holds all the drive bays in place.
Delving deeper into the chassis, we see the bundled 120m cooling fan that sits above the two punch-out holes for water cooling tubes and seven expansion-slot covers. As mentioned earlier, there are no options to mount any cooling fans at the bottom of the casing.
A closer look at the interior of the case and note that there are are no bottom-mounted cooling options.
The CM Force 500 boasts of a tool-free installation experience and there are two types of retaining clips for the 3.5- and 5.25-inch drives that would be installed in the chassis. Both types of clips are similar in design but they are not identical. Supplied with the case are two pairs of 3.5-inch retaining clips, and one pair for the 5.25-inch bay variety. There is also a single pair of retaining clips for the external-facing 3.5-inch drive bay.
The retaining clip for installing drives at the 3.5-inch drive bay.
The retaining clip for securing devices at the external-facing 3.5-inch drive bay.
The front panel is easily removed from the chassis with a quick tug at the bottom of the panel. The plastic drive bay covers can be easily removed by pulling at their retaining tabs; even the wire-mesh, at each side of the panel, can be removed.
The black wire mesh can be removed by bending its retaining stubs; however, we see no point in their removal unless they need to be cleaned of dust and debris.
After removing the front panel, we can see the cooling options at the front of the CM Force 500; it can support a single 140mm cooling fan or a pair of 120mm ones. This means, you can opt to install front intake fans either in front of the storage bays, or at the side. However, it's probably not a good idea to use them both concurrently at the same height level.
We removed the front panel cover and we can see more options for mounting cooling fans.
Interior Design (Part II)
We proceeded to install our testing component parts that make up a typical system. After we screwed on the board's standoffs, we installed the board, followed by our 267mm (10.5-inch) long graphics card. We needed to bash out two expansion slot covers and during the process, we accidentally inflicted a little damage to one of the expansion slot opening's edge after we removed the first cover. Fortunately, the second one was bashed out without any incidents. From our analysis, the steel in that area is particularly thin with little support on both ends, hence it's prone to bending or accidentally damage with just a little force. Fortunately, other parts of the case isn't as prone to this issue.
We accidentally damaged one of the edges of the first expansion slot of the CM Force 500 as we bashed out its cover.
After the removal of the two expansion slot covers, we proceeded to install our graphics cards. After its installation, we noted that there was a lot clearance between the card and the drive bay ahead of it. While a much larger card like a GTX 690 might be pushing it, the target audience of this case are unlikely to splurge on ultra expensive top-of-the-line graphics cards to have any conflict with the case.
Initially, we were worried about the lack of removable drive bay options as this meant that high-end graphics cards may not fit into the CM Force 500. However, the chassis was able to accommodate our card with a lot clearance between it and the drive bay vertical structure.
Next, we proceeded to install our 3.5-inch HDD with a pair of the retaining clips; the procedure was straight-forward and the retaining clips were fastened with a quick turn of the knob.
We slid in our 3.5-inch HDD after locating an empty drive bay.
The task of securing our 3.5-inch HDD was made straightforward by the pair of retaining clips that easily fastened with a turn of their knobs.
Despite the unfortunate minor damage at the expansion slots, the installation of the rest of the components went smoothly.
Conclusion
The CM Force 500 is a classic example of an affordable mid-tower chassis, with ample options for cooling fans. This is especially so for the side-mounted cooling fans. Unfortunately, it's a pity there was only a lone bundled rear fan.
The CM Force 500 is a reliable workhorse of a mid-tower casing; with its tool-free installation of both 3.5- and 5.25-inch drives as well as its numerous cooling options. Its attractive SRP of S$65 makes it enticing; however, only if one can overlook its shortcomings.
Its thin steel construct at the rear had us a little worried as the expansion slots needed to be bashed out; and the two holes that are meant to accommodate tubes for liquid cooling systems, will also need to be punched out as well when the situation calls for it. Such flimsy construction at such potentially "high-impact" areas of the CM Force 500 does mark the Achilles heel of this casing.
The last casing that we reviewed, which called for such muscle work, was the Enermex Ostrog mid-tower casing. This casing did fair better than the CM Force 500 as the former featured rubber grommets to cover the tubing holes while the CM Force 500 still resorted to bash-out hole covers that are extremely crude in implementation. In addition, the Ostrog featured a removable, external-facing 3.5-inch drive bay while the CM Force 500 had none. On first impressions, we found the CM Force 500 rather similar to the Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus. Both of them feature tool-less drive bays; although the Elite 431 Plus' 5.25-inch drive installation is better implemented than the CM Force 500. In terms of drive bays, the CM Force 500 supports up to eight 3.5-inch ones (1 external-facing; 7 internal ones), making it an excellent choice for rig builders who have a large number of supported devices. Both of the casings can accommodate high-end graphics cards.
Although the CM Force 500 is made of the same 0.5mm SEC steel and hard plastic combination as the Elite 431 Plus; its rear steel construction at its expansion slots is rather flimsy as we accidentally damaged it while punching out one of the covers. This puts the CM Force 500 clearly behind the Elite 431 Plus; and when compared to the Enermex Ostrog, the CM Force 500 lacks options for bottom-mounted cooling as well as a removable 3.5-inch drive enclosure. Both of these casings hardly cost much more than the S$65 price that the CM Force 500 commands. However, if one can overlook some of its glaring shortcomings, the CM Force 500 should make a reliable and affordable chassis to house your components without straining your overall budget for a DIY desktop system.
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