Performance
Having powerful hardware packed into a compact box may look nice and tidy, but the tight confines don't bode well for cooling, especially when there's only one chassis fan as standard. CPU temperature, inevitably, is a little higher than most larger enclosures, albeit not alarmingly so.
The same could be said for GPU cooling performance. We'd be inclined to add at least one additional fan, and flexible mounting options provide plenty of permutations. Front-to-back or bottom-to-top airflow paths are easily achievable.
In its default configuration, the Q500L does struggle to keep our processors running cool, resulting in higher temps, higher fan speeds, and more noise. The case could be made noticeably quieter by removing the default DC exhaust and adding a couple of PWM fans, but don't expect great things in terms of out-the-box performance.
