all right so i'm sitting at my desk two days ago and wrapping up my last video and oh my goodness
jay's two cents releasing an nr200p max video like what in the world i didn't even get my
review unit yet and it's not even launch day but hey let's go with the flow and
i've still got some fantastic information to share with you that a spec sheet won't
all right welcome to machines more so this will be more of a short quick talking head
video no review just yet i apologize because there are some logistical constraints holding
up the review unit and of course i do hope to get soon and test it thoroughly for all of you in the
sff community and i will do my absolute best the good news is i can't possibly break an embargo now
and the other better news is that i got to sit down with shen the product manager of cooler
masters case division and we had a fantastic conversation about the nr200 where it's been
and where it's going the max and i tell you it these are things that i didn't know about the
nr200 before and i would be remiss if i didn't share that backstory with you and how the nr200p
max falls into cooler masters strategy yeah all this stuff is information that he was comfortable
with me sharing with the community here and you probably won't hear about this in any other review
so imagine a world without the nr200 and we're not to go back very far right it's only about a year
ago but we might still be talking Ncase M1, Ghost s1, Formd t1 and frankly i didn't know if there
would be a meshlicious now but it's very possible that small form factor might still have had just
the boutique halo about it now the nr200 project started back in 2018 and that's three years ago
and cooler masters specific goal was to disrupt the pc component industry specifically where it
came to sff cases now not too many people today and then want to spend 300 on a case and there was
an obvious market there but they had to pioneer it and as a case department there was overwhelming
enthusiasm many of you know the technical manager behind the case Matteo right he posts on sffpc
quite often is a great guy and designing a product for mass manufacture takes time the support of
management and tremendous resources and when it finally debuted we all cheered it on myself
included because it was an affordably priced elegantly designed case that played well with so
many components and that was their mission to make sff affordable accessible and look at the reaction
from the other case manufacturers since right in fact this case is the reason they even put their
name behind these 850 watt sfx power supplies and the other sfx power supplies but yeah two years
for the nr200 and for me the fact that someone can look at 18 liters now and say you know i
could build a system in this and i can play triple a titles and then i can go straight to doing some
3d renders and then do some workstation stuff on this thing well that's enough reason to recommend
it to all of your friends right and we still have people who think that all these components
stuffed into a little box is a bad idea and we know it's not and perhaps that's where we move
on to part two of the saga in a world without an NR200P, maybe we wouldn't even have known
that bottom mounting an aio was a bad idea i mean it's not that bad it's not great either right and
it wasn't long after that launch seeing all that enthusiasm pile up against a very strange global
supply chain remember before we were able to fight over gpus we were fighting over sfx power supplies
and sf 750 is the original scalper's choice but cooler master they knew they were onto something
and it wasn't long after that max project kicked off and as kind of a part two of that mission
the cooler master started to iterate their next version and they were very diligently picking
up feedback along the way they didn't just want to have an sff case made by a mainstream case
manufacturer they wanted it to be the mainstream so with your feedback the nr200p max was developed
and many of you know about those new color choices that they had asked
us about on uh on reddit on sffpc but did you know the max was actually part of that survey too
take a look if number two looks familiar you know why because they've been watching you guys with
all your 3d printing your drilling your modding and yeah you know if you've seen on the channel
i've done my share of the modding too right but where does that place the nr200p max into this
mission well i know that many of you really wanted this thing to be a top and bottom capable dual
radiator k so to speak right and it's not quite that right and some of you want a few millimeters
of air cooler clearance and it's also not that so what is this max all about then if not the
fulfillment of part two of our needs and our wants well it's the nr200p but it's made into
an even more approachable format now users don't necessarily have to do their research as to what
cooling components will fit with what power supply now some of us like to do that and that's fine too
but this is a package at quite a reasonable price tag and it's a huge value proposition and easy
way to get into sff those of us that are more skeptical might think this is a way of cooler
master to easily move some inventory of 280s and sfx power supplies and i'm not saying that there
isn't a huge amount of synergy there for the company because they already make these parts but
as i am informed the length of the tubing and the length of the cables are specific
customized to the case and it really isn't just your normal retail stock
so the nr200p max it's more than that right and while i love sff i am conscious that there could
be someone out there who doesn't know much about compatibility with mini it exports or how small
an sfx power supply is but that person could be really interested in a small form factor still
and getting into that game and that's who this is for of course it's not really just for gamers
and one of the details that they shared with me was you know look at this three and a half inch
drive support the color is specifically chosen to be more neutral especially to strike a balance
for those people like designers that are working from home and needed something neutral and that's
great too and i can appreciate that so i know perhaps it's not quite there yet in terms of some
of the laundry list items that a lot of you would like to have but you know what they're listening
and one thing i was very happy to know that they are excited and stoked about seeing our mods so
i'm not going to feel so bad about grinding and drilling away at the case anymore
for those of us that are modders we still have the regular nr200p right now but i am told it's
their goal to be absolutely adaptive flexible and receptive to feedback so we can absolutely expect
more models in the max series and this isn't the end all and be all of max so keep modding
away keep sounding off and i am planning an episode where i'll showcase all of your creations
throughout the past year folks this is a company that pays attention things happen a bit more
cautiously in the corporate world but everything i've seen thus far in my continued relationship
with these guys they're top notch and they're awesome and i did have to sneak one in there
wanted to see if the max would be available as a standalone case and the short answer is for now no
there are no plans for that but later on possibly and you know i think we will look forward to that
possibility and i know personally i'd love to see a dual rad one too and also a d15 version
but then again where's the fun if we don't get to chip away at the case right so yeah thanks
again shen for the info he's a super down to earth guy and you know what i'd love to
have him and matteo on a live stream here on the channel in the future okay so just my two cents
to share today but we can dive right into that case when it gets here i can show you what it does
and how it does it the thermals and all the other good stuff you guys want to know if
you have any questions you anticipate please let me know i can take that into consideration
when that happens in the meantime we've got a lot of fun things to review also so make
sure you're subscribed and hit that bell for notifications give a like thanks for watching