Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 stars~$600 Case With Exploding Controller and Underpaid Lethargic Customer Support
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2023
TL;DR: Systemic RGB / Controller issues known and ignored by Cooler Master. CM support will lie about if it is a known issue. Use a SATA splitter, read the manual, do everything you're supposed to do and then still have to pray nothing explodes so you don't have to rely on CM technical support. Price is sky-high for a crap product. Don't waste your time or money.
I'll start off by saying I bought this case for $591.47 net. Before taxes it was ~$558. So a roughly $600 case with components that will smoke at first boot. The fan and rgb controller for the C700M is /garbage./ Having gone through two of them now despite Cooler Masters technical support assuring me that the wiring configuration was correct. Note, in the picture I was using the multiple connections of a single SATA cable daisy chained onto the controller.
At the point of second failure, I started asking questions regarding what might be wrong. I sent them the pictures of the damage, I inquired about various possible causes, I asked to confirm how I should be testing to ensure PSU/cables/MOBO is fine. The responses from CM were "unengaged," to say the least. This is NOT necessarily their fault; I understand if you're paid the same as someone at a Home Depot you probably aren't prepared to deal with your employers components regularly failing. But at the very least, I shouldn't have to beg for a reply to my emails / questions. Even if the response is "we don't know," that's better than ghosting me and acting like I'm annoying you. When you finally do get them on the phone, they will straight up just lie and say this isn't a common issue. Looking through the Amazon reviews I see that this definitely is a well known issue.
For the third controller I ended up buying a multimeter to verify my ADD_GEN, USB, CHA_FAN motherboard headers were all fine, as well as a SATA>Molex adapter to test the SATA cables (which also returned as fine). I also bought a SATA splitter since it's the only thing I could think was wrong other than potentially a grounded wire somewhere in the case. Powering on the PC worked without smoke at that 3rd time. I began explaining to tech support I'll start plugging my components back in one by one and testing the same way, hopefully with nothing bad happening. A logical next step.
In the middle of explaining it, CM technical support just hung up on me. I guess they figured since now the controller isn't literally exploding, they don't have to listen to me anymore??
I bought a ~$600 case, I'd expect customer support to be on par with that price. Other companies like Corsair give you top-of-the-line customer support for products that are half that price.
This is a ~$600 case, it should last at least 6 years if not more. I've had a ~$175 Roswell case last me for over 5 years. If something goes wrong with this case now, how on Earth can I expect Cooler Master Technical Support to even do anything about it knowing they'll act like this? The whole time I'm thanking them when they actually do respond, apologizing and saying I empathize with their position, just being polite and cool with them -- their response is to be rude, uncaring, and unhelpful.
Looking at other reviews here I can see that they literally don't fix this problem. They'll send "repair kits" and replacement parts that will band aid and then continue to fail within a few months down the road. Horrid.
The quality of material is obviously garbage since the "material" can at any moment short out and catch on fire.
The case itself is easy to assemble, and the cable management is nice, but with the controller causing this much grief "assembling" the PC has been a nightmare.
The style is actually really beautiful, and is exactly what I wanted for this build, but style means nothing when the product is hazardously malfunctional and customers are treated like trash.
I'll be getting my refund from Amazon and going with a case merchant that actually cares about whether or not their product works.
