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By Aaron Klotz published 11 August 22

Mesh front panels are back in style

Cooler Master has announced two all-new CMP series computer chassis focusing on looks and high airflow while vying to compete with our Best PC Cases of 2022 in the future. These cases come in the form of the standard ATX CMP 520 and Micro-ATX CMP 320. Pricing and availability are undisclosed at this time.

The CMP 520 and 320 take on the same design language as Cooler Master's more premium CMP 510 and compress it into a cheaper, more simplistic design approach.

Both cases feature aggressive angular front panels and a full mesh front end for unobstructed airflow. In addition, the 520 will come with three 120mm ARGB intake fans, while the 320 comes with just two -- despite supporting the same fan layout as the 520. Tempered glass side panels come standard as well.

One feature that made its way into these cases from the CMP 510 is a breathable power supply shroud that allows you to orient your power supply up or down, depending on your needs. It also improves the airflow routing from the hard drive cages next to the PSU.

Cooler and fan support is quite extensive as well, with support for dual 140mm or 120mms on the top, three 120mms or two 140mms on the front, and 280mm radiator options for the CMP 520.

Surprisingly, the micro-atx CMP 320 retains the same cooling setup as the 520, including triple 120mm fan support in the front. However, radiator support has been dropped to 240mm in the front due to space restrictions.

Other features worth mentioning are air tower support of up to 161mm for the (bigger) CMP 520 and 163.5mm for the CMP 320. Following this same behavior, graphics card support extends to 350mm for the 520 and 365mm for the 320.

Front I/O for both cases includes one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, one USB 2.0 port, and one 3.5mm audio jack. Hard drive support extends to two 2.5/3.5-inch drive bays and two additional 2.5-inch drive bays for a total of four.

Based on the design language, we can estimate these cases to be cheaper models with a price of around $80 to $120, depending on the price of the fans. This should put them in competitive distance of other popular cases such as the Phanteks P series, G series, Fractal Design Meshify 2, and NZXT H5 series, to name a few.

All these cases have very similar cooling characteristics, with mesh front panels, so it will be interesting to see if the CMP 520 and 320 can stand out from the crowd once we get both cases in our lab for testing.

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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