Cooler Master NCORE 100 Max ITX PC Case Review
Meet the NCORE 100 Max
Small footprint, large impact! Meet the Cooler Master NCORE 100 Max
Not everyone has the space for a large PC, or the desire to fill their desk space with an overly large box. That’s why the Mini ITX form factor has always been appealing for PC builders. With their new NCORE 100 Max, Cooler Master has applied the skyscraper concept to the PC case market. By creating a high tower, they have created a PC case with a tiny footprint that can contain large graphics cards like Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 or AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
At its minimum size (yes, this case can expand), the NCORE 100 Max takes up the same desk space as an A5 sheet. That leaves users with a lot more desk space to utilise than traditional PC case designs.
One notable feature of this case is that it can have its width expanded from 155mm to 172mm. This enables support for wider graphics cards. In its expanded size, this case can support GPUs that are up to 3.9 slots thick.
NCORE 100 Max Add-ons – This isn’t just a PC case
Out of the box, this PC case ships with an integrated power supply, and an integrated CPU cooler. Both are designed to make the best use of this case’s custom form factor. PSU cables are sized specifically for this case. This case’s integrated liquid cooler is also thicker and more fin dense than the company’s retail CPU liquid coolers.
With support for Mini ITX motherboards, this case can support the latest high-end CPUs. Cooler Master has stated that this case works well with Intel’s latest i9 CPUs and AMD’s Ryzen 9 series. This makes this case ideal for a compact workstation PC. That said, this case’s integrated 850W PSU is the smallest wattage that we would consider viable for an RTX 4090 (not overclocked) GPU with a high-end CPU.
If you want a larger power supply and want to utilise this case’s custom length PSU cables, Cooler Master has some PSU options for you. Cooler Master has their V1100 and V1300 SFX Platinum PSU, which we reviewed on this website last year.
Front I/O options
At the front of this case we have two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports and a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port. We also have a 3.5mm audio combo jack. These inputs/outputs are located at the bottom of the NCORE 100 Max, right beside the case’s white illuminated power button.
