Hardware Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced review

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2012/09/14/cooler-master-elite-120-advanced-review/1

 

Bawww. It's cute.

 

That looks like a cracking little case, I must say. Pity about the low-profile coolers, were the others on the list tested with that cooler as well?

 

Might be good for a low cost LAN rig.

If only I still had mates who wanted to do that!

 

I hope so too! Nice work, it was a good read and the conclusion was spot on. I look forward to more of your articles.

 

I'm sure if the cpu wasn't overclocked the temps would be fine. You wouln't really need to overclock an i5 to just perform casual gaming.

 

This would look so cute next to the TV; did you test with the motherboard io shield attached? I know it's a silly thing, but it might make a bit of a difference.

 

Tested with the I/O shield removed - it's pretty hard to hang onto them when testing a few dozen cases!

 

Could it be to allow cables to pass through to the rear? Before there were USB3 headers on motherboards, case manufacturers used to pass the USB3 front-panel cables through to the rear USB3 ports.

As to why the chassis has the hole while fitted with the onboard USB3 connector, depending on how old the chassis is it could pre-date the USB3 motherboard connector, or the chassis was planned with the USB3 pass through method but they now think the connector is common enough to ship it with that.

With onboard USB3 headers it is a bit redundant now, but there are plenty of older motherboards with no headers and USB3 bay devices still around that require the cable to be passed to the back ports. I have a Silverstone one lying around somewhere.

 

I've actually just placed an order for this particular case and the Asrock Z77E-ITX board so was a nice suprise to see a BT review up...

I have one of those old PCI exhaust fan things sitting around which I'm going to try and mount in the case directly above the CPU and see if I can use the little vents running horizontally below the PSU area to exhaust some additional hot air. Might lower the CPU temps another degree or three...

Failing that I'll probably just chuck a Thermalright or Noctua cooler in there and call it a day.

 

Judging by the pictures, you can easily remove the 3.25" hdd bays at the bottom and use that section for watercooling, and the top for a laptop bluray drive and 2tb hard drive

 

Too bad you can't flip the PSU upside down, might help a bit. Or would it create problem being that close to the HSF fan blowing the opposite direction immediately below it?

Bit disappointing, I must say. I've been keeping an eye out for a mini-ITX case for a new build. If i get lazy and don't feel like scratch-building it, that is. But maybe this is a bit of middle-ground. With a little planning, this could probably be modded into something better than it is. Being $50 doesn't hurt there, either. I wouldn't feel bad about Dremeling the almighty piss out of this, where I likely would if we were talking a $100 case (let alone the nutjobs that chop up their Level 10s - no disrespect intended to those here who have done just that, naturally, I just couldn't bring myself to touch a case that cost that much.)

 

That's exactly what I was going to say

There might be a chance - depending on the CPU and HS of course - that you'd be able to use the airflow generated by the PSU fan to provide the CPU HS airflow (i.e. do away with the CPU fan entirely). In fact I have had a design like this in my mind ever since I learned about mini-ITX.

Such a setup would undoubtedly cause a certain amount of heat-soak for the PSU's internal components, but I think with some careful choices (and if that doesn't pan out then a fanswap on the PSU) it could be made to work.

 

Looking at the pictures on the last page I can't help but wonder if using a different board than the Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe would lower the CPU temps. That daughter board with the voltage regulators seem to be blocking an awful lot of the airflow from the 80mm fan.

*EDIT* And here's me again asking questions before I'm fully awake. (I swear one of these days I'm going to have a normal sleeping pattern even if it kills me) Shown this review to someone else and then saw this was mentioned in the review. Idiot...

 

Yeah, my H55-ITX is cooler than that with an i7-860 in this case. I'm planning the PSU as CPU exhaust mod myself, and yes, you can do that in this case. I've got the 860, a 570SC and plenty of wires in mine. I need a modular power supply like nobody's business.

 

Thread revival

Wondering is this mobo would fit in the case?

It says it's a micro ATX but it's seems smaller than them, more like a DTX

 

ive just got this case for £25 and am thinking of putting in a old i3 530 and a board to match but am not really sure as to which cooler to use.

 

Been debating this for a while.

You are going to have to measure the available space around your cpu socket, especially if you are using a full size gpu.

So far only 1 out of the 3 coolers I was looking at would even remotely fit.

My thread