Installation and Performance

Now it’s time to put the MX500 through its paces with an actual install. For added stress we used a non-modular power supply to fully test the cases ability to rout cabling as well as the large radiator of the H80i CPU cooler to further complicate things space wise. All in all the system installation was as hassle free as it could be. The tool-free HDD rails are a breeze and secure the drive in place without much effort. It was nothing to mount the motherboards and CPU cooler and the expansion slots held the video card in tight.

The true test of a case, at least for me, though are the little things. Cable management is a crucial part of case design and system builds and a place where some fall just short. To assist us behind the motherboard plate, Cougar has tilted the motherboard plate in ever so lightly to give us a rather large ¾ of an inch to work with. This may not seem like much but most cases usually give you less than ½ an inch to route cables back here. The all-important hole for the motherboard’s 8-pin power is also present making me happy and as you can see; even with a non-modular power supply the cable management out of sight isn’t quite the nightmare one would expect.