COOLER MASTER MASTERBOX MB511 RGB Review.

The COOLER MASTER Masterbox MB511 is a successor to the ill-fated Masterbox Lite 5 RGB. Masterbox Lite 5 RGB made RGB mainstream in budget cases back in 2018 but left a lot to desired in cooling aspects and overall build quality.
After looking at the latest iteration of the same, I am glad to say that pretty much all the issues with the older model have been fixed and have been given a well-deserved facelift.
Case has improved in pretty much every aspect and it’s a very competitive case in the Rs.5000 to Rs.7000 price bracket and I’d say it punches well above its weight.

Overall features and Build Quality

Overall Chassis quality has improved greatly and has no obvious flex while handling the chassis and building. Attention to details is good and has the right amount of cutouts for cable routing.

• Cutout to route the CPU power cable and Top and front fans from the back.

• Large and Easy cutouts to route cables like
• USB 3.0 & 2.0 Headers
• Front Audio Headers.
• Front I/O Headers
• GPU power connectors.

• 3 Large Cutouts to easily route
• Motherboard 24 pin
• Sata cables
• And USB 3.0 cables for a clean hassle free building experience.

Radiator Support

Since the Fans are mounted to the frame from the front, we can easily use the full space for the radiator and can easily mount even a 60mm Radiator.

Cabinet also has up to 165mm clearance for air coolers meaning you could fit the biggest and meanest of the air coolers in there without a hitch.

HDD Caddy is offset to make space for the 360 radiators in the front.
Because of this, large PSUs are a right fit and max clearance for the same is 180mm / 7.08″ and it can house 3 3.5 HDD and two SSD on the back.
Semi modular & Modular PSU would be the ideal for a clean build, but there won’t be any major issues with a non-modular one also.

RGB Lighting

Case comes with a normal 4 Pin RGB header which is pre-connected to all the fans via Cooler Masters own splitter.
Lighting can be controlled via all the popular RGB softwares like Asus Aura, MSI Mystic Lighting and Gigabyte Fusion etc and if you have an older motherboard which does not have an RGB header you can control the same via the provided Manual RGB Controller.

Front I/O

Case comes with standard front Panel I/O:

• 2 USB 3.0 ports.
• Headset & Mic header
• Power and Reset Button.

*USB Type C is missing but it’s minor issue considering the price point of the case.

Performance & Thermals

Although I didn’t have a PSU and Ram handy to do thermal testing with Indian ambient temperatures, I have zero doubt that the case thermals will be on top of the charts compared to any other case in the price segment due to the complete mesh front panel and 3 pre-installed fans. I will post some temperature results from www.Hexus.net to give you a good idea of how well the case does in thermals vs the competition. From the below results, it’s pretty clear that the case even in stock configuration is a top-notch performer.

Conclusion

Cooler Master definitely has a winner on their hands here with no deal-breaking flaws at this price point.
COOLER MASTER MASTERBOX MB511 RGB is a top-notch case even for the most demanding of users and ticks all the important checkboxes of a great case and cuts the right corners to reduce the price.

Air cooled or with an AIO of any size, the MB511 RGB can handle it all with ease. Four included fans in the case mean even the most demanding users can get away with the stock configuration.

Some minor annoyance that I’d like to mention on a closing note which I’d like to see Cooler Master improve in their next iteration of the case listed below:

• Fans are 3 pins connected to a Molex ( Come on CM it’s 2019!! Let Molex die please)
• Lighting control integrated into the case front IO Instead of a manual controller, this would make it easier for even people with older motherboards to control the lighting.
• Rubber Grommets for the large cutouts in the side at least

Overall the case is near flawless for this price point. MASTERBOX MB511 RGB recommendation from me to anyone looking for a Cabinet under Rs.6000 to Rs.7000 and in all honesty it punches well above its price point!