Cooler Master TD500 Mesh v2 PC Case Review

Conclusion – A great value case and a big upgrade over the original TD500 Mesh

Cooler Master’s original TD500 Mesh was a best selling chassis for the company, offering users an airflow-oriented tessellated mesh front panel, sub-£100 pricing and all of the features that users would expect from a premium PC case. This includes its addressable RGB 120mm fans, its tempered glass side panel, power supply shroud, and its support for all-in-one CPU liquid coolers. 

With the TD500 Mesh v2, Cooler Master wanted to offer their customers more and do so without increasing the price of their TD500 above £100. With families across the world tightening their belts as fuel costs rise and inflation soars, the PC building world needs great budget options, and Cooler Master’s TD500 Mesh v2 is designed to deliver that. 

Let’s start by talking about the TD500 Mesh v2’s upgrades. For starters, the case now has a tool-less tempered glass side panel, which means that users of this chassis can easily remove their case’s side panel for system cleaning, hardware upgrades, or anything else without needing to fiddle with four independent mounting screws. This upgrade makes the Mesh v2 a lot easier to use than its predecessor, and gives the case a cleaner external appearance.

The TD500 Mesh v2 is also taller than its predecessor, allowing users of the case to install up to a 360mm liquid cooling radiator and fans (55mm total thickness) without interfering with your motherboard or VRAM heatsinks. This is a big deal for users who want to add an AIO to their systems, and users of custom liquid cooling setups could possible squeeze an even larger radiator in that space if their motherboard and DRAM doesn’t use overly large heatsinks. On top of that, the v2’s removable top panel makes fan, radiator, and motherboard installation a breeze.  

One of the things that we like about the Mesh v2 is that it has premium features that most manufacturers would consider axing from a sub-£100 case, but not Cooler Master. This case includes an integrated fan/RGB controller out of the box, and a useful PSU shroud cover that allows TD500 Mesh v2 users to choose if they want to showcase their PSU’s logos/branding. These could have easily been exclusive to lower this case’s material costs, and the case would have been a lesser design had that happened.

Given its pricing, Cooler Master’s TD500 Mesh v2 delivers solid performance levels and an overall enclosure design that can act as a solid baseline for future upgrades. This case has enough room to mount a 360mm AIO CPU cooler at its top, or a custom liquid cooling loop should users divide to go down that route. The case can even support EATX (12″ by 10.7″) motherboards, should an upgrade like that be on the cards. With this in mind, the Cooler Master TD500 Mesh v2 is an easy winner of our Value for Money award, though we do wish that this case featured a rear RGB 120mm fan out of the box to match this case’s front fans.

Cooler Master’s original TD500 Mesh design was already popular, and with their v2 enhancements we expect the TD500 Mesh to continue to be a huge success for Cooler Master. Cooler Master have addressed all issues that we had with this case’s predecessor, giving us nothing major to complain about with new v2 model. Cooler Master has listened to the feedback of reviewers and their fans, and as a result the TD500 Mesh v2 is an instant success.      

 

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