Cooler Master launches USP 100 chassis with 550W PSU

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Cooler Master has launched its $99 USP 100 "enthusiast ready mid-tower chassis" with an accompanying power supply. The USP 100 offers several increasingly popular features, like a hole in the motherboard tray that grants users quick access the underside of a CPU, and ample room for cable management to keep a system's guts nice and tidy.

The steel enclosure can accommodate graphics cards over 11 inches long and CPU coolers over 6.5 inches tall. It can house up to four 5.25-inch drives, six internal 3.5-inch drives and one external. The case only ships with a 120mm front intake fan, but 80mm/90mm/120mm fans at the bottom, rear and side are optional if additional cooling apparatus is necessary.

The bundled (bottom-mounted) 550W Extreme Power Plus PSU features 32A spread across two 12V rails, six SATA and two PCIe connectors, 70% power efficiency, a 120mm fan, and a two-year warranty.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37435-cooler-master-launches-usp-100-chassis-with-550w-psu.html

 

[BlindObject]

It looks nice, but I like my cases to have windows to show off the goods and etc. I really like the CPU back hole though, they should make that standard. The PSU is okay I guess. I'm thinking about getting either a Antec 900 or the Xclio XCLIO A380BK. I don't know if I should go for a Full tower.

 

[TomSEA]

550W for an "enthusiast" case? I wouldn't go less than 750W for today's enthusiast rigs (including sound cards, SLI cards, etc.) The case looks fine - I just don't think the PS meets today's demands.

 

[dividebyzero]

TomSEA said:
550W for an "enthusiast" case? I wouldn't go less than 750W for today's enthusiast rigs (including sound cards, SLI cards, etc.) The case looks fine - I just don't think the PS meets today's demands.

True enough. You wouldn't be SLI'ing (or Crossfiring) very far with 2 PCIe connectors and a 70% efficiency rating. Still, throwing one of their UCP PSU's into the deal would likely double it's price. Better off releasing the chassis without power supply and let the consumer pick what fits the bill.
Not a huge fan of Cooler Master PSU's in any event- chassis yes (love the ATCS 840)- but prefer Corsair/Enermax/OCZ/PC P&C (and thumbs up for Gigabyte's Odin 1200 )

 

[TomSEA]

Agreed, dividebyzero.

I'm not sure what they were thinking here. The case looks nice, has decent dimensions. But to outfit it with only one fan, slap in a mid-range PS and then try to promote it as an "enthusiast" case? Nuh-uh. Any enthusiast knows this is not a good combo.

I would have preferred them outfitting it with all the fans (and decent fans), then leaving the PS up for us for the $99 cost. I would have been tempted then.

 

[Guest]

What can you do with a 550watt power supply? Simply put, not a whole lot. I use an HX850 from Corsair that runs a 3870 x2 and another 3870 with no problem. There's no way this case could support much more than a mediocre system, it looks nice though.

 

[Guest]

I'd buy it for $69.99 without the lame power supply!

 

[ET3D]

From a review I read, real world efficiency is more like 80%. In general, to me it sounds pretty attractive. People buying high end SLI rigs would indeed better get another PSU, but this should easily handle a Core i7 750 with a Radeon 5870.

 

[RealXboxMaster]

A 450 watt is more than enough to power a PC and play ur games. 750 watts or more if ur running a ultimate gaming rig..When you start adding all of those nice lights and dual card setup..etc that demands alot of power.

 

[pcnthuziast]

Watts isn't what's important, it's the amps that counts and many 450w PSU only have 24-32 which won't cut it for a decent gfx card. Something like a Corsair 450w has 40 amps which would be enough for a mid range card.

 

[JudaZ]

I dont get this new placement of the powersupply in the bottom ogf the case. Everyone knows that heat travels up. So the heat from the powersupplywill travel up the whole case. Sure you havve fans, but its an unnessary heat source in my book. Whould be better to keep the PSU at the top and possible turn it uppside down so the fan in the PSU blows the heat up and out of the case, not down and in the case like is common today.

placing the PSU in the bottom is just stupid.

 

[captaincranky]

I dont get this new placement of the powersupply in the bottom ogf the case. Everyone knows that heat travels up. So the heat from the powersupplywill travel up the whole case. Sure you havve fans, but its an unnessary heat source in my book. Whould be better to keep the PSU at the top and possible turn it uppside down so the fan in the PSU blows the heat up and out of the case, not down and in the case like is common today.

placing the PSU in the bottom is just stupid.

You should take this up with Antec. Their 900 gaming case mounts the PSU on the bottom. They've sold a gazillion of them, and I've yet to hear about "cooling problems" with these cases.

I agree to this point, the choice of a PSU should be limited to a unit with a rear fan. In this configuration, the heat is exhausted before it has a chance to rise, as the radiational heating delivered by the PSU case is negligible.

Heat does indeed rise, so thanks for the 5th grade science update.

Here's the thing, in this "case" the hot air only should get as high as the massive cross flow of air provided by the 3 120mm fans. Any that's missed would be scavenged by the 200mm top fan. It certainly doesn't linger inside the case.

I do agree to this point, hot air rises from PSUs, and for that matter, people as well.

As to the Cooler Master case offering, I don't care how good or bad it is, it's not worth potentially having to suffer their abject, dismal, and, for all intents and purposes, non-existent customer service.

 

[BlindObject]

The case on the bottom isn't for cooling, it's so the case isn't top heavy and I think it's a bit more neat when the case is on the bottom. But it's all up to your preferences.

 

[captaincranky]

The case on the bottom isn't for cooling, it's so the case isn't top heavy and I think it's a bit more neat when the case is on the bottom. But it's all up to your preferences.

I'm not quite sure but I think you mean the PSU.

To wit, "The PSU on the bottom isn't for cooling, it's so the case isn't top heavy and I think it's a bit more neat when the PSU is on the bottom. But it's all up to your preferences".

 

[pcnthuziast]

captaincranky said: I'm not quite sure but I think you mean the PSU.

You're not sure!? rofl

 

[Guest]

where's the top exhaust and the black interior?

and please don't bundle it with that powersupply.

i'd pay a max of $50 for it

 

[RebelFlag]

This looks like a smaller version of the HAF 932 which I have. None of the heat from the power supply gets into the upper/motherboard section of the case. The case is divided just above the power supply area, and has it's own intake fan, and then exhausts out the back of the case. All of the other fans on the rear of the case are exhaust only, so none of the hot exhaust air from the PSU gets sucked into the case.

I do agree that the power supply is not going to cut it for an enthusiast case. I run a Corsair 750W PSU and was worried that it was not going to be enough for a quad core and SLI.

 

[TorturedChaos]

I gotta agree with everyone elses power supply gripes. Looks like a decent case, just doesn't have the PSU to back up the 'Enthusiast' claim. I'm not even running SLI, just one graphics card, and I have a 730 Watt PSU (ok so its a bit over kill, but I got it on sale for a really nice price ) Ditch the PSU, drop the price accordingly, and then we can talk.

I do like the amount of room the give you for your graphics card tho. Ran into issues with my 9800GT b/c its rather long. And the overall appearance is nice.

But overall I think ill stick with my Antec 300 Black Illusion case.