HAF 500

Having using Corsair Carbide 400R and Antec DF500 for last few years, I was looking for a bigger and good looking mid-tower case in the range 10-12k after seeing minor drawbacks in each of my existing builds.Corsair Carbide, bought in 2014 at Rs. 6400/- is great at almost everything, except absence of the transparent panels at front and side to show off my rig and one less fan mount at the top. Antec DF500 is cramped behind the motherboard tray for cable management and hard to clean the area around the front fans.Full towers, although very desirable, I feel they are expensive for what they offer over mid towers, and unless one requires to build an ultra expensive and ultra luxurious rig, bigger mid towers are way to go as they can do 90% to 95% of the tasks of a full tower and at around 50% of their price.Asus TUF GT501 was in my radar which was a perfect fit for my requirement but it lacked the 3rd USB port at the front and front fans' are kinda hidden and RGB are not addressable, in spite of priced above 12k, decreasing the show-off quotient a little :)Then I got the similarly sized HAF500 at a deal price of Rs 9899/- at Amazon India. Just a shade smaller than the ASUS one, but that I can live with. Now after using it for 2 weeks, I am happy with my purchase, giving it a 4.5 star for some minor CONs, and with a desire to buy a full tower in future...PROs:1. It's big, just a shade smaller than a full tower2. 2 nos inbuilt 200mm ARGB fans at front and one 120mm at rear keep inside cool3. Dust filter at the top and below PSU.4. Generous amount of space behind motherboard for cable management, around 3 cm, one of my primary requirements. You never fill cramped for organizing cables.5. USB type-c Port at front for connecting phones. Many other do not provide this even at the same price point.6. Thankfully HDD LED indicator and connector is present, which is seen skipped now a days in many other cabinets.CONs:1. No dust filter at the front behind the 200mm fans. I had to buy 2 nos separately, one 280x140 mm and and one 140x140 mm as the length of the opening behind front fans is 360mm and width is more than 120mm at some places. And 360x140 mm dust filters are very difficult to find.2. Sometimes lack of one additional USB port at the front panel is felt when KB and mouse remain connected and you need to connect your external HDD. Some cabinets provide up to 4 USB ports at this price point.3. Only 2 nos SSD mounting option, behind the motherboard tray and absent in the inner side beside motherboard tray. The space is occupied by some strangely placed cable coverings, which felt unnecessary. It will be a drawback for many who does not have more m.2 slots in their MoBo.4. Build quality although adequate, feels not up to the mark at this price point. My older Corsair Carbide 400R has much more sturdier metal frame and covers.5. Glass panel is kept in place by only one screw and and a bracket fixed to the glass corner. Although seemingly adequate, 4 screws at the 4 corners directly on the glass, just like the Antec DF series cabinets, would have been much better. Seems to be a cost-cutting measure by CM.6. No full length PSU cover. HDD brackets remain exposed which gives it a little untidy look in an otherwise roomy and neat cabinet.7. No provision for mounting 140mm fan at the rear in spite of the generous width of the cabinet.8. Common purpose switch for ARGB mode change and RESET button and can be used for only one purpose at a time. A dedicated switch would have been much better. Seems another cost-cutting measure.9. Strange kind of screw provided for locking m.2 disks. Very difficult to fix. Even my mother board came with similar screws. Really don't know what is going on here and why they cannot just provide screws with wider heads. Hope next generation hardware will come with better m.2 locking mechanism, just like RAM lock or PCIe card lock.10. Although tool-free, no "Secured" thumb screws are provided, which is present in my Corsair Carbide 400R since 2014!!! where they do not fall off and remain attached to the metal panel even after un-screwing.11. The total length of the cabinet seems to be measured with all the protrusions, including the thumb screws at the back!!! This unexpectedly makes it a little shorter in length/depth than by older Carbide 400R.9. LED on the GPU fan would have been an added bonus.