Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Mid Tower PC Case Review

[Apoptosis]

Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Mid Tower PC Case Review

The Cooler Master Elite 430 is a great little case offering screw-less drive bays, black interior, a bottom-mount power supply, expandability up to six 120mm case fans and support for the largest of video cards and CPU coolers, among many other great features. Available as low as $39.99, what more can you possibly ask of the Cooler Master Elite 430?

The Cooler Master Elite 430 is a great little case offering screw-less drive bays, black interior, a bottom-mount power supply, expandability up to six 120mm case fans and support for the largest of video cards and CPU coolers, among many other great features. Available as low as $39.99, what more can you possibly ask of the Cooler Master Elite 430? I can't really knock this case on any of its very minor flaws...

Article Title: Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Mid Tower PC Case Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1401/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $39.99 plus shipping

[djpinc19]

I have the Elite 310 and when I learned about this a month ago, I wanted to QQ off my Firefox.

[skier]

its a pretty cool little case, i was shocked when i first saw the price!

[ehume]

Nice review. I liked that you noticed you can use right-angle SATA cables.

I didn't notice any measurement of the behind-the-mb tray space. I know I'm a bit of a nut on this subject, but this case is only 7.5 inches wide, and if full tower heatsinks like the Megahalems are to fit, something has to give, and that something is usually the space behind the mb tray.

If you have not already, could you measure the distance from the back of the mb tray to the right panel, and post it?

Thanks.

[skier]

Nice review. I liked that you noticed you can use right-angle SATA cables.

I didn't notice any measurement of the behind-the-mb tray space. I know I'm a bit of a nut on this subject, but this case is only 7.5 inches wide, and if full tower heatsinks like the Megahalems are to fit, something has to give, and that something is usually the space behind the mb tray.

If you have not already, could you measure the distance from the back of the mb tray to the right panel, and post it?

Thanks.

Thanks!

I have to answer that with two pictures, but keep in mind the CPU support is 163mm in height:

cm_elite430_inside12.jpg (62.1 KiB) Viewed 879 times

as you can see, the motherboard tray is stamped in a way that allows thick cables(this excludes case fans which are thin enough) to go either above where the arrow goes, or all the way around the bottom of the motherboard tray section
look at the actual width profile:

(awkward angle but you get the idea) the arrow is in the same place for both images for reference, so you can see the tray is stamped about 1/4" and the distance from the back of the tray outlines to the case door is actually about 1/8".

I did not notice this during the build as I had no thick cables going behind the tray, only the cables to the H50 rear fans as the 8-pin connector on the PSU used was far too short to reach behind the tray (as was my TX 750, though it was closer). As odd as this may be, I like the way they stamped the tray (though wish it weren't as deep), because it gives a significant amount if rigidity to the tray and chassis as a whole than just a totally flat panel would have

[Aniki]

Best case for $40 at the moment imo, second would probably be rosewill blackbone ;p. Really like how much this case offers for it's pricerange

[elite430builder]

So, what cables can you hide behind the motherboard tray, can the 8pin CPU go behind it, and there would it come out? Can PCI-E cables go behind it so that long PCI-E cables dont show. Can you put SATA Data cables behind the 5.25" Drive bays to hide them. Im kind of a person who wants as few as possible cables showing, but am on a budget for my new build. Thanks for the great review.