Introduction:-
Coolermaster needs no introduction. They’ve designed and built some of the most popular cases, heatsinks, etc over the years. Their product portfolio is very diverse and includes monstrous cases like the ATCS to the cheap and cheerful no frills Elite 310 including the CM 690 which sold in massive numbers all over the world. The USP 100 which I have reviewed here today shares its DNA with the 690/690 II Advanced with many of the excellent features being offered at an excellent price which makes it a very interesting case for those on a tight budget. I personally hate cases with mesh based designs; look at me transparent side panels with neon lighting tubes and LED fans. I prefer a more understated, classical approach to cases. I bought the Coolermaster USP 100 out of desperation and I shall be unbiased keeping aside my likes and dislikes as I review this case.
Features and Specifications:-
The dimensions given here are in inches. There is a provision for mounting a 120mm fan at the base of the cabinet right beside the PSU.
For more details, visit the product page here: - USP 100 - Cooler Master
The USP 100 is available in two colours – Black and Red. The case reviewed here is black in colour.
Packaging:-
The Cooler Master USP 100 ships in a plain brown box with black outlined images and text highlighting the features that it offers such as the rendering of the chassis, seven listed features and a check box to signify colour of the front mesh, etc. Styrofoam and plastic sheets kept the USP in excellent condition during its long journey from wherever it was made(China) right into my hands.
Bundle:-
The USP 100 comes with a brown cardbox which has four 5.25†plastic drive fasteners, three 3.5†plastic drive fasteners, a 120mm LED fan, a bag of screws and motherboard mounts and a 3.5†drive bracket for card readers and floppy drives. The manual which ships with the case is pretty intuitive and will help novices in easily putting together a system with the USP 100.
Exterior:-
The USP 100 has a simple design which doesn’t include complicated metal work and plastic fixtures. This was primarily done to keep the costs low. The case is heavy and well built and I think is made of 0.8mm SECC (steel). I found the build quality to be on par with many Antec Cases. The front bezel comes in either black or red. There are five optical disc drive bays on the front of the USP 100, as well as an I/O Panel.
The I/O Panel which is located at the top of the bezel, offers USB 2.0 ports, Mic and Headphones jacks and an HDD indicator light. The power button is uniquely hidden on the front of the bezel behind the Cooler Master badge. There is no separate reset button. The tray at the top of the case easily accommodates a portable external hard drive. There is a thin strip with blue LEDs which lights up once the system is powered on.
The left side panel is a flat black panel with a handle featuring space to mount a single optional 120mm intake fan. The right side panel is even less adorned than the left, offering only a handle. The handles are a nice touch and make removing the side panels nice and easy.
The rear of the chassis has a simple design offering a bottom mounted PSU, seven unventilated expansion slots and a 120mm fan exhaust bay as well as the motherboard I/O Panel. The base of the cabinet features an exhaust for the PSU and another 120mm fan mounting.
It also features four large rubber feet which prevent the case from slipping and offer excellent vibration and dampening facilities as well good ground clearance for hot air to be pushed out by the bottom mounted exhaust fans.
Interior:-
Removing the two thumbscrews on the side panel gives us access to the interiors of the USP 100. I do wish the unpainted steel interior was painted black but then that would’ve made the case more expensive. The USP 100 comes with a single 120mm LED fan in the front.
To avail better cooling one simply has to add more fans. There are four 5.25†bays, and the seven 3.5†bays, one of which is for a floppy drive and has a swappable front cover. At the top there is a large hole for CPU cooler back plate access which is very handy if one were to change the stock CPU heatsink with a large aftermarket heatsink.
There are rubber grommets at the base of the area where the PSU is to be mounted. This helps reduce vibration from the PSU during operation.
There are plastic clips to aid with cable management already in place. This feature has been picked up from the more expensive Coolermaster 690 series. The cut-outs for the expansion cards slots have thumbscrews which make adding or removing GPUs or other PCI cards very easy.
The internal wiring is kept simple. Included here is the front fan wiring on the left that offers both 3-pin and 4-pin Molex connectivity. From the I/O area we see one USB 2.0 connection and the HD Audio and AC’ 97 connectors and in the background are the power, power LED and HDD activity connections.
There is a large gap between the side panel and the rear of the motherboard tray with cut outs in it at the top as well the bottom. This is where most of the cables go to keep the cable management in the chassis nice and neat. This also aids in the airflow within the cabinet.
Removing the front bezel is easy and can be done by pushing gently on the black clips which hold it to the steel frame. On removing it we can find the dust filters for the mesh based front bezel. The removable front mounted 120mm fan can also be easily accessed from here.
The above video shows the thickness of the steel panels used. Note the dull thud when I knock on the side panel. This thickness aids in reduced operation noise and vibration dampening.
Installation:-
Installing my system in the USP 100 was easy and extremely quick considering the huge amount of interior space at my disposal. The chassis can easily accommodate cards which are 11†in length. I used an ATI 5850 (MSI Twin frozr 2 edition) which is longer than most reference 5850 cards. The USP 100 can easily swallow a 5870 crossfire solution. The thickness of the steel side panels and the sturdy build quality of the USP 100 makes it an ideal case if you are looking for a silent solution. The rubber feet also help in this aspect. The mounting of the hard drives does pose an issue – the drives can’t be mounted with their connectors pointing towards the rear. They have to be mounted with the connectors point outwards. The sideways mounting techniques for the hard drives don’t really give the front 120mm fan a chance to cool them efficiently when in operation. This does lead to somewhat higher hard drive temperatures (2-4 degrees Celsius). The USP 100 can easily handle large aftermarket heatsinks.
There were no sharp edges or corners, everything had been nicely rounded and polished so that the assembler doesn’t have to risk cutting his hands or fingers while working with the USP 100.
Test Setup:-
Let’s now look at the operating temperatures of the case at both idle and load scenarios. The system ran for 30 minutes with no processing being done in the idle scenario. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was played for 30 minutes in the load scenario. HWMonitor was used to measure the temperatures.
Idle Temperatures:-
Load Temperatures:-
Conclusion:-
The USP 100 is a good looking cabinet and dishes out loads of functionality along with its looks. It weighs almost twice what the Coolermaster Elite 430 weighs and the price difference between these two cabinets is barely Rs.300. The USP 100 does many things right and will last much longer than most of the other flimsily made cases. However owners of longer video cards might have a problem installing their GPUs in the USP 100. A bit more emphasis should’ve been given to the cable management system by adding a few more cut outs in the mother board tray. The hard drive mounting system should have been designed to cool the drives better. However these are tiny little issues which can be accepted. This is also a great case for case modders. The USP 100 has the ability to hold up to five fans for cooling, four of which are optional. It also has a tool-less retention system that does work well. This case does offer excellent cooling potential. The USP 100 is a good case with really sturdy build quality, it is a well thought out and designed mid tower which offers good value for someone looking for a solid all-around case setup. The Coolermaster USP 100 offers a lot for its asking price of Rs.3000.
