The MasterBox 695 costs 24,000 yen, which comes out to roughly $157, so it's definitely not cheap, but it represents more than just surface-level value. A chance to carry forward your physical collection means more there than in the West, and, a s IT Media describes it in their coverage , "If it's junk, BD drive is also," alluding to how a case like this transcends conventional budget-conscious outlooks. If you want a Blu-Ray drive in your PC, you now have an option to do so in a modern chassis.
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Hassam Nasir Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
Notton That partial fan cutout makes it looks like a hack job. That CD drive spot will get in the way of a tower CPU cooler, especially dual towers. There were a whole bunch of creative design workarounds in the 2010's to fix that specific issue. I know CLC are more popular than in the 2010's, but a 240mm is baseline for 2025. That 5.25 slot is getting in the way of a 280mm or 360mm. Reply
Misgar Notton said: That CD drive spot will get in the way of a tower CPU cooler, especially dual towers. Yes, they do seem to have restricted the depth of the case too much for large coolers. I have an old Aluminium Cooler Master ATSC case, with enough depth for a full height (2 x 5.25") LTO SAS tape drive, plus two optical drives. It also holds four 3.5" hard disks and two 3.5" floppy disk drive bays (but I don't have a floppy drive installed). As with any build, you should pick your components to suit the case. If the parts don't fit, you've bought the wrong case. Reply
mikethepoor It's nice to have that option even in a modern case, but I'll stick with my Rosewill Blackhawk. It has room for three intake fans or a 360mm radiator and still gives me one ODD slot (or four ODDs if I'm willing to drop to two fans or a 240mm radiator). Reply
dimar I don't see what's the deal. There's no shortage of stock for cases with 5.25" drive bays. I have a 5.25" AFT mult card reader with 4x USB 3.0 ports, and a Pioneer BD burner drive for burning M-Disc for long term storage. If you need one you can easily get it. Reply
Dr3ams I only buy cases with optical drive bays. I like to watch my collection of Blu-Rays on my PC, plus I rip physical copies of music and still have a collection of software on CDs. The bequiet! Dark Base 900 I own has a drive bay near the top. It can be removed to install a third 140 mm fan, but the case has six bequiet! fans that are more than adequate. Reply
master737373 dimar said: I don't see what's the deal. There's no shortage of stock for cases with 5.25" drive bays. I have a 5.25" AFT mult card reader with 4x USB 3.0 ports, and a Pioneer BD burner drive for burning M-Disc for long term storage. If you need one you can easily get it. There's a shortage of them in Japan, hence the scope of this article. Reply
thestryker I'm moderately surprised this doesn't seem to be using ancient tooling like the last couple Cooler Master released. This looks to be based on either the MasterBox 500 or 600. The official specs show 360mm radiator support on the top so I'm guessing that's why the bay sits as low as it does. I gave up on 5.25" drive bays because the number of modern case tooling with them can be counted on one hand. There have been plenty of cases with support, but most are using very old internal designs. Either a USB enclosure or external drive work perfectly fine. I went with a slim external drive and the only problem I had was the amount of vibration which was easily resolved with an anti vibration pad stuck to the bottom. Reply
BillyBuerger I haven't given up on optical discs yet and still buy movies on blu-ray when possible. But that's getting hard these days. I gave up on 5.25" drives in my PC years ago. I have a slim external blu-ray drive. When something comes up that I need it, I plug it in, use it and then put it back in the drawer. My PC is becoming very minimal which I like. In addition to having to have space for a large ODD, that also means dealing with SATA data and power cables and routing those which I don't miss at all. Reply
bit_user Anyone looking for an decent, inexpensive ATX mid-tower with 5.25" bays could do worse than Fractal Design Focus G. I just built a system in one. It's decent for the price, but beware that in spite of not being exactly small, everything fits rather snugly, inside. https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/focus/focus-g/black/ My three requirements were: 5.25" bays, dust filters on all the intakes, and otherwise compact. A big plus was that I could mount dual 140 mm fans in the front. And if you don't like windows, I can confirm that the side panels are swappable (i.e. so you can move the window panel to the other side), but Fractal Design won't sell you an extra windowless panel. Max cooler height (165 mm) might be an issue for use with higher-power CPUs. Reply
bit_user Misgar said: I have an old Aluminium Cooler Master ATSC case, It appears you meant ATCS. BTW, I never knew Cooler Master made aluminum cases, but I'm also not surprised. So, why did they fall out of fashion? Scratch too easily, or something? Misgar said: As with any build, you should pick your components to suit the case. If the parts don't fit, you've bought the wrong case. Huh? I pick my components first, then find a case to fit. I couldn't imagine doing it the other way around, unless it's some case you absolutely love and are dedicated to using. There was only ever one example of that, in my case: the Silverstone PT13. It's as "mini" as a DIY mini-PC can possibly be, while still using standard components. It was quite an adventure that I wouldn't want to repeat, but ultimately worked out pretty much how I'd hoped. https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/PT13/ Reply
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/pc-cases/cooler-masters-new-pc-case-with-5-25-inch-drive-bay-launches-in-japan-as-residents-continue-to-embrace-optical-drives-masterbox-cm695-is-unabashedly-towering-and-addresses-the-countrys-reluctance-to-ditch-physical-media#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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