LAS VEGAS—Shown for the first time at CES 2025 (though technically announced in December 2024), Cooler Master’s latest PC case line, the MasterFrame, lets you tinker with preconceived notions around what belongs where inside (and outside) your desktop case. Case manufacturers are constantly looking for new ways to make their cases stand out—and be more customizable, as demand for custom layouts is high—and Cooler Master is taking some steps here into enabling a degree of free-form building.
In the demo I saw at CES, you can strip down the MasterFrame to the bare frame—just the rails that make up the outline of the box—and work your way up from there. I got a first look at it last week in Las Vegas. It looks promising, but clearly, work remains to be done. Everything will hinge on the availability of parts and how the case handles its interior modularity.
Trying to Fit Into the Frame
A complete MasterFrame PC case, built out with a PC in it, looks much like your typical high-end PC case. The unique aspects of this case are all in the building experience and the design under the skin. Cooler Master showed at CES three versions of the MasterFrame PC case, labeled MasterFrame 400, 600, and 800, defined by different form factors.
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
The MasterFrame 400 is a Mini-ITX model, the MasterFrame 600 is an ATX model, and the MasterFrame 800 is Extended-ATX (EATX). All three will ship with an underlying aluminum frame, along with a full set of exterior panels and internal brackets/parts sufficient to build out a basic PC. (Two additional models, the MasterFrame 300 and the MasterFrame 500, will ship with steel instead of aluminum, but it’s unclear which form factors these will fill.) The first of these cases to come to market will be the MasterFrame 600, with pricing set to start at $199.99 in the US, or around $250 elsewhere. Cooler Master does not have a set on-sale date at this time.
How these cases look right out of the box is just a starting state, as you can tinker with the internal structure somewhat before you begin installing your components. The whole interior is structured via a series of crisscrossed rails, that, in theory, can be readjusted. You can see a hint of the rails behind the drive bay module in this picture; Cooler Master didn’t have them out and about to play with…
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
On the rails, the motherboard mounting tray, for example, is positioned, and drive-bay modules mounted. How this will work, however, with the rear-panel I/O is unclear; any such tweaks would require realignment of modules or a modular back panel. How PSU repositioning would work is also up in the air. (I didn’t see any of those parts at the suite, just the bare frame.)
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
One thing I do know you will have some flexibility on: The chassis fans can be 120mm or 140mm, and you adjust the spacing between the fan-mount rails to match. (The larger MasterFrame cases look alike they could have room for larger fans, though, maybe even 180mm. Maybe Cooler Master will tweak this before launch.)
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
Beyond the adjustable interior, Cooler Master says it will sell alternative swappable exterior panels for each model. Around the perimeter of each side is a host of magnets to hold on the side panels, along with holes to engage the rail mounts.
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
The magnets should work with new panels to come from the company, but that’s key: What will Cooler Master produce and actually stock, given three different case sizes? That is where the success or failure of this initiative will lie.
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These Panels Are the Thing…
The key differentiator with the MasterFrame is ultimately going to be the availability of those modular panels, and I’m a tad skeptical, at least at the moment, of how this will all work. Cooler Master showed off a bunch of prototype front faces and side panels, including several of striking textured glass (one reminded us of the shower stall in a 1970s home), one in slate (that one looked like a hands-down winner), and nifty panels in wood or wood veneer.
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
The thing is, stocking a wide variety of panels and faces in different materials and colors, given the three initial case sizes, seems like a large, risky undertaking. (The MasterFrame may not get off the ground without enough accessories to popularize it, and vice versa.) I’m hoping that Cooler Master will solicit input from its user community and produce sides and parts on a popularity-vote or demand basis. Case sides aren’t the kind of custom part that lends itself to home custom-making or printing via STL files, after all. I could see the initiative wither on the vine if the company were to produce a host of variants that don’t sell, or conversely, not enough variants.
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
Of the existing panels that will ship with the stock MasterFrame, Cooler Master pointed out that the default top panel is actually split into a ventilation portion, and an I/O ports portion. A Cooler Master rep noted that it’s possible to position the ports module at the front or back of the case’s top, or at the top or bottom of the case’s front. (The depth and height dimensions are the same, so the panels can be swapped.) That’s one nice bit of flexibility out of the box.
(Credit: Mark Stetson)
Stay tuned to PCMag for our eventual review of the MasterFrame. Here’s hoping that it will be accompanied by at least a small selection of swappable pieces at time of launch. The potential framework, at least, for a winner is here.
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Executive Editor and PC Labs Director
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