Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
After removing the windowed side panel, you can see the internal design of the MasterCase Pro 6. To be consistent with the exterior, the interior of the case is painted black. The paint is sprayed evenly inside the chassis. At bottom of the case, there is a PSU chamber with a mounting rail, which allows the PSU to be pushed in from the outside. The other side of the PSU chamber is actually the side panel. Not only is the chamber designed to accommodate the power supply, it is also the place for you to put up to two 3.5” HDDs. The cool air for the power supply can be blown into the case through the dust filter protected ventilation holes at the bottom of the case directly. If your MasterCase Pro 6 is fully loaded with fans, graphics cards, and long radiators on top, cool air can be pumped in by up to three of the 140mm fans into the chassis through the air filter at the front panel, hit the graphics card, and be expelled out through the maximum 297mm radiator on the top panel. If the user only plans to use a small radiator or just a CPU heatsink with the top ventilation grille covered, hot air can be expelled out through the rear exhaust grille on the back panel. To my surprise, as aforementioned, two 5.25” drive bays are present in this chassis, and they are removable.
As a mid-tower that pushes the size envelope, the MasterCase Pro 6 can support regular ATX motherboards, and of course, smaller boards such as mATX and mITX. Not all the risers are screwed on to the tray already from the factory; as for unscrewed risers, users need to apply them according to the size of motherboard that will be used. Due to the fact there is no information provided in the user manual, one simple way if you are not as experienced in building computers is to lay the risers on a piece of paper on the tray, and mark the holes after a mock installation of the motherboard. According to the locations of the marks, the risers can be screwed on to the tray in the correct positions. After bolting the motherboard into position, the heatsink or water cooler block can then be easily installed and removed, thanks to the big rectangular opening on the tray. From the above photo, you can see there is one 140mm fan from the factory at the rear exhaust opening. The expansion slot covers of the MasterCase Pro 6 feature a mesh design to allow better ventilation, but I would prefer it to be a solid piece for better dust prevention, since I really doubt it makes a significant difference to just have several small holes here.
5.25" drive bays have been on personal computers since early 1980s. Now is the time to get rid of them, since we have the internet, and for everything else we cannot, there are USB flash drives. As such, Cooler Master made the optical disc drive bay removable. I like this design a lot, since, on the one hand, it provides the possibility of using a CD/DVD drive; on the other hand, it allows for better airflow if the mounting bracket is removed. From the above photo, it can be seen the HDD bracket is also removable. Two thumbscrews are used to fix the bracket in the chassis. If both optical disc drive bays and the HDD bracket are removed, airflow inside the case can be maximized. After all, two HDDs in the PSU chamber and two SSDs on top of the PSU should provide enough storage space for most people. If not, it may be time to buy a NAS.
This photo above shows the details of the top cooling bracket. You can either install up to two 120mm or 140mm fans, or a 297mm long radiator. Personally, I have not seen a 297mm radiator before, therefore I guess mostly likely the biggest radiator people is going to use here is a 280mm long radiator with two 140mm fans. Thanks to the modular design, the cooling bracket is detachable, and it is fixed to the chassis through four thumbscrews. On the left side of the photo, the pre-installed 140mm LED fan is shown. I personally like LED fans a lot, therefore I hope Cooler Master can make an optional translucent front cover panel, such that LED fans can be used on the front panel of MasterCase Pro 6. For this computer case, two colors, namely the red and blue LEDs, are available for customers to choose. Aside from the LED fan, a LED strip of the same color is also preinstalled from the factory, and the LED strip is used at the bottom of the front panel projecting light downward.
Upon removing the right side panel, you will see the other side of the PSU chamber and the motherboard tray. You do not need to worry about the cooling of the power supply, since a big opening with filter is located beneath the PSU to guarantee ventilation. Two 3.5" HDD trays are located to the left side of the PSU chamber for easy installation and removal of the hard drives. For the 2.5" drives, you just need to screw it on to the tray and use the clips to attach it to the upper panel of the PSU chamber. Regarding cable management, Cooler Master did a fairly good job here, as there are tons of room for cables. Between the motherboard tray and the right side panel, the room for cable routing is about 25mm to 35mm, which is more than enough even for thick cables. According to the above picture, three pieces of Velcro straps are included along with a channel for better cable management. By the way, there are three openings with rubber grommets right beside the bunch of cables from the front I/O and switches panel. Your PSU power cable for motherboard can be safely routed to the other side of the motherboard tray.
In the above photo, we can see how the computer case looks like with the front and top cover panels removed. Without those panels, things such as the cooling bracket and filter panels are exposed. This photo can help you to understand why it is necessary to have those cover panels, since they can highly improve the sleekness of the computer case. But everything comes at a cost; the only concern I can think of using the cover panel in front concerns blocking of the LED fans if you have them. In order to realize the “poppable” feature of the cover panels, eight adjustable magnetic catching mechanisms are installed on the chassis. In the photo, four magnetic catching mechanisms on the front panel can be clearly seen. The spring inside the mechanism allows the magnet to stretch out and draw back, such that the cover panel can be popped out and pushed back. This cover panel attaching mechanism can be considered as good innovation, since it matches my unique, practical, and elegant standards.
Generally speaking, the interior design of MasterCase Pro 6 is pretty good. All the components you need for building a computer can be nicely accommodated and kept cool. Tons of modular features are also provided for easy computer case upgrading. The paint job quality of the interior is great. More importantly, you do not to be an expert to route cables to do the job well, since there are plenty of room to do what you need to do.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
