A 15.2-inch-square by 9-inch-deep box made of 0.80mm steel sheet, the Q300L V3 delivers rigidity that’s amplified by its semi-compact dimensions. (Our sample’s black; you can also get it in white.) A surprising feature in this extreme-budget case is its modular front port panel, which you can move to various other positions (more about that in a moment). It’s reflective of Cooler Master’s FreeForm 2.0 campaign, which allows for case-component swappability and relocation.
On the port panel, one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports abide, plus a headset (headphone and mic) combo jack. All are arrayed around a lighted power button that wears a black sticker to take on a lighted-ring appearance when the finished system is powered on. The panel is surrounded by a PVC filter sheet, and repositioning the ports to the top of the front panel requires only that the sheet be rotated 180 degrees.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Flipping the case the other way, you can see that the right side’s panel is held in place by big screws that also can serve as four alternative case feet. That’s right, the case is designed to function in either vertical or horizontal orientation.
The rear panel features a nicely sized single 140mm exhaust fan on a dual-pattern mount that also supports 120mm replacements (should you want to swap it out). Also back here is a folded-out cardholder tab and a boxed-in power supply mount. That removable box is designed to space the power supply past the bottom panel’s corner radius. (In an elegant design flourish, this panel is curved at both front and back.)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
As a builder, I’ve made a fairly big deal of the fact that folded-out designs for a case’s PCI Express card mounts are a cheap and inconvenient substitute for a boxed-in slot panel. But it wasn’t until I was reviewing a certain high-end case that I put numbers to that inconvenience. For trouble-free PCIe card insertion, some high-end boards and graphics cards need the gap above the card slots to be at least 0.75 inch high, and removing the slot covers from the Q300L V3 opens its gap to nearly an inch. So not only has Cooler Master addressed the greatest of my concerns regarding this cost-cut, it’s done it in a case that’s way cheaper than some much pricier offenders.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
I removed the power supply’s spacer, as well as the card slot access cover, in the photo above. Here’s what those pieces look like (below)…
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
While the top, front, and bottom panel’s fan mounts all match, their filter sheets differ. The top sheet has only the vent holes; the front sheet adds a wide hole for the port section (as alluded to earlier); and the bottom has four, oh, let’s call them “flovals” (flattened ovals) plus two round holes to fit around the four snap-in feet and the bases of two pushed-in rubber plugs.
All three sheets stick weakly to the case via magnetic edge strips. The bottom panel’s rubber plugs provide additional support to prevent that filter, at least, from falling off.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The top and front panels have wide mounting holes for the port module, which can be relocated to either the top of the front panel or the front of the top panel and finished simply by swapping the PVC dust covers. (A fourth location, at the back of the top panel, is too close to the rear fan to be useful.)
As for the fan mounting on the top panel? The fan-mount holes are spaced to support two 120mm fans positioned in the middle or offset 42mm to the left, or a pair of 140mm fans in the middle or 32mm to the left. The offset holes provide additional clearance between motherboard components and any top-mounted cooling devices.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
And you may need that space. You see, there’s only 22mm of clearance between the top of the case and the top of the motherboard, and even most fans alone (without a radiator) are 25mm to 26mm thick. Using the offset mounts with our test-standard 240mm-format cooler gave us 56mm of horizontal clearance between the right edge of our cooler and our motherboard’s top surface. No interference problems there.
Users who want a more symmetrical appearance might instead mount all their fans to the front panel, where motherboard spacing isn’t a factor.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Q300L V3’s motherboard tray has no extra holes for motherboards with reverse-facing cable connectors (a la MSI Project Zero or Asus BTF), but two extra holes below the motherboard area, hidden behind the power supply, do wonders for cable management. The tray extends all the way to the front panel, providing space to press-mount two 2.5-inch drives via included grommets and threaded pins.
Note that the edges of the panel opening have six notches (two top, two front, two bottom) and the same number of panel clip-mounting holes, even though only two of the clips are filled. The design welcomes builders who want to push the limit, attempting an inverted build with the glass-paneled opening on the right side. (Just know that doing so might reduce the performance of gravity-assisted heat-pipe component coolers on your GPU and motherboard chipset, so proceed with caution.)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The space behind the motherboard tray is more than sufficient for stowing excess cable lengths in most builds, and Cooler Master even offers an alternative use for part of that space: drive mounting.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The mount in question is a removable tray with holes spaced to fit either one 3.5-inch or two 2.5-inch drives. Unlike the mounting points on the motherboard tray, the drive tray’s holes accept ordinary screws (which are also included in the installation kit).
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
