Cooler Master N200 - Mini Tower Computer Case with Fully Meshed Front Panel and mATX/Mini-ITX Support

I had a slim form factor computer with M-ATX components that were beginning to show age. I effectively gave it to my 10-year old son for his minecraft and occasional writing. I had an Intel Core i3 from 2011 with integrated graphics HD-200. It was good enough for Minecraft although it got "laggy" occasionally according to my son. So I thought it was probably due to the integrated graphics performance. These days, CPU performance improvements seem to have hit a ceiling and I don't really see significant performance improvement from generations to generations, except maybe when you run heavy-duty applications like video editing and large data set processing. For browsing, youtube, minecraft, I suspect new SSD drives and graphic cards would address the bottlenecks better.Since the slim factor case was too small for any graphic cards, I had to buy a new case. I didn't want to buy a regular ATX case, because he's only 10. I don't expect him to need 3 hard drives, 2 graphic cards, water cooling systems, 1000W PSU in the next 3 years. Micro-ATX seems to be the sweet spot for sufficient expansion flexibility and efficient space. I also wanted a good quality case. My last one was partially made of plastics (it had two plastic stands to stand up the main case that recently broke). I want to build a cost effective, high quality minecraft PC that has more than enough power to make him happy for Xmas.For this purpose, this computer case is really PERFECT. What I like about it:1. Quality build: The whole case except for the front cover is made of metal (not sure what type), and painted evenly with black paint. This is much nicer than a "high-end" Dell XPS I saw in Costco. The screws that come with the case also seem to have high quality. The two pre-installed fans are made by Cooler Master, not a no-name maker. That's reassuring to me. The fans are very quiet, too.2. Surprisingly large space: This is a case for Micro-ATX motherboard, or the smaller mini-ITX. But the space left after you install the motherboard is surprisingly large to me. Usually small cases have trouble installing large graphics cards. For that reason, I was going to compromise for a single-fan Gigabyte GTX 960. The heat dissipation probably isn't very good, but I wanted to build a small computer. Then I found this case that can easily support Gigabyte GTX 960 Windforce (the 2-fan model). The case layout is very smart. It positions the 5.0 and 3.5 internal bays on top, the PSU and additional hard-drive bays at the bottom. So the middle part is wide open. You effectively have the entire front to back case depth to install your graphic card. It handles my Gigabyte with so much easy. I suspect I could've installed a 3-fan model if I had wanted to. And then on storage bays, I have a DVD drive, a hard drive only, which I put all on the top internal bay. There is another internal rack that can host 3 3.5 HDs. I doubt I'd ever need that many drives. In total, with 1 DVD rom, 1 HD, 1 mATX motherboard, 1 2-fan graphic card, 1 WIFI PCI card, 1 mTAX 450X PSU, the stock CPU fan, the case inside doesn't seem crowded at all. It's not empty, just well utilized. Very smart design for a mATX case.3. Reasonable cost: 49.99. If you buy from newegg, I saw a $20 rebate. I just skipped the hassle and bought here. This is a pretty decent price.What I don't like about it:1. It supports ATX PSU. This would be a plus to most people because of the ATX PSU flexibility and power. I already have a mATX PSU. Thus I needed a converter plate. Fortunately I saved the mATX to ATX converter plate that came with my PSU (which I bought a year ago). It didn't turn out to be an issue for me, but if I had bought my PSU many years ago, or it came from another pre-assembled PC, I would've been out of luck. My point is, this is a mATX case. It's great that it can support ATX PSU, but it should include a converter for mATX PSU.2. The HD audio head for the front audio panel got broken when I tried to install / uninstall / reinstall it over the 2 days as I received several upgrade components (e.g. the WIFI PCI card). Because of the limited space, I needed to unplug the head from the motherboard a couple of times to make room. It was really hard to reach the head itself, so I pulled the wire attached to the head. After a few times, the speaker wire came off. I was able to fix it myself in 30 minutes. But it worried me a little at first that I had to buy another case. Net net, this might not be the vendor's fault, but I wished the wire fixture were stronger. Next time I will be very careful.In summary, this case is great for me: a minimalist and (somewhat) perfectionist. It has just enough space (and a little extra) for a high quality mTAX build with high-end graphic cards, quality and quiet fans and case build quality and materials, and at a good price. If you want a monster case to play with constant upgrades, this might not be for you. I just wanted a good case for a good 10-year old boy's game PC and then be done with it. This worked really well for me. My son is super happy. :-)

Simply put, I like this case. It looks decent, the airflow is good, my selected components fit in nicely, and it now runs quiet and cool on my desk.Like all smaller cases, this one is a tight fit, so you need to consider what you want to install ahead of time and build your PC into the case.It provides some room for cable management between the side panel and the components but I wouldn't overuse that as you could potentially stuff too much cable back there and be unable to re-assemble the side panel. As long as you don't overdo it it's really convenient and helps to keep some excess cable out of the way.I had one blunder when putting this together where I had two sets of screws that look almost exactly alike and have one stuck in a standoff point mounting the motherboard (this is mostly my fault). Note to self, when it doesn't turn easily, don't just add more pressure to the screw driver...Otherwise there is a proper place for everything needed, and room to add more. I was even able to fit a properly massive Noctua NH-DH15S (not sure anything bigger would even work). This CPU cooler does prevent installing a top mounted case fan (unnecessary imho anyway), depending.If I could make any change to this case, I'd make the top panel easily removable, just like the sides. Being able to reach a hand in from the top angle would help a lot with accessing motherboard cables and ram. Of course, my choice in CPU coolers is why I'd really want that access. A smaller solution would make it much easier.One added comment: another reviewer complained about having to use brute force to get the front slots open. That is absolutely not true. The entire front panel can be removed easily. It has plastic mount points that will give way. You can just snap it back into place afterwards.To get the 5.25" and 3.5" case covers out, just pop off the facade -- then easily remove each cover by pinching their plastic sides to release tension. I had zero trouble removing them. It's also necessary to temporarily remove that whole front panel to install an extra case fan (correctly) at the front.Side note: instead of adding a side-mounted fan or just leaving it for venting, I moved the panel with mesh over to the back of the motherboard. This reduced a little noise and might even improve air flow according to how I have case fans mounted (2x front, 1x back).My initial build (have added to it since):* Cooler Master N200 Case* Intel Core i7-10700, 65W, 8 cores, 2.9 GHz LGA1200* Noctua NH-D15S* ASUS ROG Strix Z490-G Gaming (WiFi 6) LGA 1200 (Micro-ATX)* TEAMGROUP T-Force Zeus DDR4 32GB (2x16)* ZOTAC Gaming GeForce GTX 1650 OC 4GB GDDR5* 1TB WD Blue SN550 NVMe Internal SSD (system)* 4TB Seagate 5400 RPM 3.5" Internal HDD (storage)* LG WH16NS40 SATA 16x Blu-ray burner* Corsair CV 450 Watt PSUAfter the initial build I added:* 1 Cooler Master 120mm 'silent' case fan (for 2 fans, mounted at the front)* Inateck 2 Port PCIe USB 3.0 Card (needed another 20pin USB header in the case)* EZDIY-FAB PC Front Panel Internal Card Reader USB (in the 3.5" bay)

This is a great computer case for a budget build. It is a well constructed steel chassis that is great for a mATX motherboard build. I liked the front ports and the ability to add a DVD/Bluray drive. I had no issues adding my components to the case either.There is one issue to consider though, and the reason why I dropped this down to 4 stars. The fan on the front has a bit more RPM than most fans I've worked with and for some reason it sounds very noisy and annoying with how it lays against the front grill. When taking it out, the noise was almost a non-issue, but when it was inside against the case, it was an issue. My theory is that the airflow going through the grill created the sound problem.I had a solution to fixing this issue. I took two steps: the first was to replace the fan with a better fan that didn't spin as fast. This fan still created the sound, but it was less noticeable. The second and more important change was that I went to a hardware store and bought a few small rubber washers that I added as padding between the fan and the case, which allowed the fan to sit back maybe a quarter inch or so which helped prevent the airflow from creating the noise against the fan. Now it's a 5 star case!