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Smooth and sleek, the WaveMaster looks the part
Behind the door you'll find four 5.25in bays and one 3.5in
The side panel slides off after removing three thumb screws
Four thumb screws secure the motherboard platform

There was a time when the only thing that mattered when purchasing a PC case was how many expansion bays it had. There was little to differentiate as far as design went, and almost every case you could find was finished in a fetching beige colour. Oh how things have changed.

These days buying a case for your PC is a mind boggling experience. There is just so much choice that you can spend days deciding how you want your new PC to look. Gone are the days when a PC had to be clothed in boring beige, now your PC can be black, silver or even transparent.

The WaveMaster case from CoolerMaster is a beautiful looking case constructed from brushed aluminium. With the door on the front closed the WaveMaster looks smooth and sleek and bares no resemblance to the beige boxes of yore.

Behind the door you’ll find four external 5.25in bays and a single 3.5in bay. Since I haven’t used a floppy disk for years I mounted a fan controller in the 3.5in bay, allowing me to speed up the CPU fan when putting the processor under heavy load or slow it down to a whisper when I’m just browsing the web.

Internally there’s space for four hard disks with ample space left between each bay to ensure that there’s no heat dissipation issues. The case comes with two 80mm fans installed in front of the hard discs. These suck cool air in from the front of the case and draw it over the drives to keep them cool. There’s another 80mm fan at the rear of the case which expels air that’s become hot while it has circulated around the system.

Bundled with the WaveMaster is a packet filled with all the screws and mounts you’re going to need. It would have been good to have some cable ties included as well to help you keep the system internals tidy as you build your PC. One problem I did encounter was that the head sheared off one of the screws as I was installing a DVD drive. The screw was only halfway in so there was very little torque being applied to the screw. It took a lot of frustrating effort with a set of needle nose pliers to get the broken screw out. Disturbing as this problem was, it wasn’t really CoolerMaster’s fault. After all, there’s only so much quality control you can do on a packet of screws.

Gaining access to the inside of the case is a simple procedure that requires no tools. Three thumb screws hold each of the side panels in place, and due to their aluminium construction they are light and easy to remove and replace.

An excellent feature is the removable motherboard platform. After removing four thumb screws the entire motherboard platform can be slid out of the case. This allows you to lay the motherboard platform flat on your workbench while you’re mounting the motherboard. This feature also makes it quick and easy to install your memory, CPU and cards. Even the screws that hold the expansion cards in place are thumb screws so there’s no need to get the screwdriver out to install your graphics card. Once the motherboard is mounted and everything is fitted to it, you can just slide the whole thing back into the case and replace the four thumb screws.

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