Joined on 06/22/04
Great value when on sale
Pros: Got it for under $50 on sale. Does what it is supposed to do. Good mounting system. Socket AM4 ready for AMD systems. Solid construction. Pump quiet and I disagree with a lot of reviewers about the fan noise. These fans are not exceptionally loud. In fact, they very quiet if you set the fan speed level in bios to "Silent". They will be fairly loud, however, if you have a minimal bios and don't have the ability to set fan speed levels. Unit seems to be solidly constructed.
Cons: My only complaint is that the fan mounting screws have large, knobby heads that protrude out from the fan corners about 5mm. The purpose of this is to allow thumb tightening. However, this design is is going to present clearance issues on a lot of systems because of interference with components at the edge of the motherboard. Fortunately, I had some low profile screws from another AIO water cooler I had taken out of service whose threads matched the ones that came with this Coolermaster product. So I just swapped them for the OEM screws along the bottom edge. I deducted a star for this. Coolermaster could have added a set of screws with low profile heads to the package in order to give people options who run into clearance issues.
Overall Review: Be careful how you orient the pump. The bottom of it is not square and if the pump is placed so that the long dimension of the contact plate is toward the back edge of the motherboard it may rest on top of the electronic components between the socket and the I/O ports. This will prevent the contact plate from mating properly with the top of the CPU and result in high temps.
Vantec Media Card Reader
Pros: Price. Comes with drive bay adapter to allow installation into cases with no 3.5" external bays in front panel.
Cons: I have bought several of these to install in systems I build for my clients and I see no way to attach the reader to the adapter bracket with the supplied hardware. I finally decided the best way was to use some latex or silicone calk to lay a bead around the edges of the back end where the reader makes contact with the bracket.
Mr. Snappy!
Pros: Quick! Light! Sturdy construction. Very little bloatware. Still has a couple of USB A ports. I still have a lot of USB A accessories that need A ports to connect. 1080p display.
Cons: No DVD burner. But to be fair, no new laptops in the past few years come with optical drives. The push for thin and light doesn't allow room for them. No ethernet port. Same as with optical drive. The thin and light form factor doesn't allow room for them. I still need them to configure routers occasionally so now I have to use a USB to ethernet adapter. No big deal.
Overall Review: This was a great deal at well under $500.
Mechify C Mini Black Micro ATX case
Pros: Good build quality. Very nice to look at. Stylish but clean aesthetics. Many options for fans/radiators to create excellent air flow. The front panel design has baffles that cut down on fan noise. Sufficient room between motherboard tray and side panel and lots of egress to allow for good cable management. Quality dust filters. There was enough front to back room to allow me to install push/pull fans on my AIO liquid cooler radiator using a Sapphire Rx580 Nitro plus video card but a longer card would not have permitted this. System: Ryzen 2700x/MSI B450i Gaming Plus AC/EVGA G2 650 watt modular PSU/Saphire Rx 580 Nitro Plus GPU/Coolermaster 240 AIO liquid cooler with push-pull fans.
Cons: None to speak of. PSU is a tight fit and as others have noted, it might be a challenge to store unused cables it you're not using a modular PSU as the space between the front of the PSU and the drive cage is pretty limited.
Overall Review: I think this case finds the perfect balance between compactness and roominess. Over the years, I have swung between the two extremes of full tower roominess and the small footprint of the mini ITX format but find both have their drawbacks. This Meshify C Mini seems to strike the perfect balance between the two for me. I am currently populating it with a mini ITX motherboard but I like the fact that I can move up to a mATX motherboard in the future if I want.
Lots to like with some caveats
Pros: Attractive. Sturdy construction. Lots of removable panels that give good access when doing the build. Provision for an optical drive. Good ventilation. Efficient use of space and cable management is easy. There is an open area between the front panel fan and the PSU/drive cage area that makes for nice cable storage.
Cons: This case will accommodate a 240 mm liquid cooling radiator but it can be a fight to fit one in. I am using the Coolermaster Masterliquid Lite 240 which has a pretty standard 27mm thick radiator and 25mm thick fans. I literally had to wedge the fans in past the motherboard edge. And if you install an optical drive about 30% of the fan on the front end of the radiator will be blocked by the optical drive. If you are pushing the limit with cooling a hot running CPU this could be a deal breaker. I got around this by attaching an external USB bus powered DVD burner to the underside of the case. Plenty of clearance on the underside for this. Secured the drive with hot glue.
Overall Review: A tad more width built into the case by Corsair would have been nice in order to fit the radiator more easily.
Impressive!
Pros: Very high static air pressure. Relatively quiet for the amount of air it moves. Quality construction. Mounts in 120mm fan hole pattern yet has all the power of a 140mm fan. Male and female 4 pin connectors in case you run into gender issues with other case connectors. Very low impedance. With a fan speed controller you can turn it way down without it stalling. This is very unusual for a fan this powerful. Silverstone makes good stuff.
Cons: Small amount of bearing whine when the fan is run at slower speeds. I have it on a rheostat fan speed controller so I can turn it way down.
Overall Review: I've got one of these on a water cooler radiator and the power of it compared to the fans that came with the water cooler . . . well, there is no comparison. If you put your hand on the top side of the radiator there is a huge difference in how much air is flowing through the radiator. This may be the best fan on the market, not just the best 140mm fan. I can't believe they are selling it for this cheap.