The Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Case

Cases and Cooling

The PC case has evolved over the years from from its original passively-cooled closed white or beige box. All of the hardware has become hotter and hotter over the years as evidenced by the growing capacity of power supply units – especially for gamers. As PC cooling has developed over the years, so have cases to meet their growing cooling needs.

The hardware outputs all of its heat into the case and there must be a good way to transfer and remove this heat or else the inside case temperature rises. In turn, a hot case raises the temperature of the hardware inside, leading to their possibly shortened lifespan or instability if overclocked.

Cooling thus becomes critical to an overclocker. If we lower the case temperature, we lower the hardware temperature and generally we can overclock better with cooler components. The latest PC cases come equipped with fans that intake and exhaust a large volume of air, thereby lowering the temperature of the hardware inside. Many modern cases come standard with an intake fan and an exhaust fan. Even more extreme cases will have these fans as well as adding fans to the top, bottom and sides.

Unlike the Gladiator 600’s big top 140 MM fan to exhaust hot air from your case which otherwise tends to pool at the top of a case, the Elite 430 only comes with space for two optional 120 MM fans.  Be aware though that in many builds the CPU cooler may be too close to put in the rear top fan.  The Elite 430 comes with only one fan included – one 120 MM intake fan at the front of the case. You can easily add 5 more (optional) 120 MM fans for extreme airflow and cooling – one fan at the rear, a fan on the case bottom next to the PSU, a 120 MM side panel fan and two top case fans.

You might notice that the top section has dust filters.  Well, if you are using them for exhaust fans, my suggestion is to remove them and move them to the bottom of the case where there are none; they will protect your PSU from sucking dust into into it.  The second thing that a PC builder will appreciate – besides the Elite 430’s reasonable price – is its attention to detail. The very worst thing is sharp edges inside a case and there were none in this one. The other thing that is important to consider when building a PC is to not grab the cheapest budget case that you can find. Technically, you don’t even need a case; you can set everything up on a workbench.

It is important to consider that a well-designed case properly holds the components in exact relationship to each other; there is no mismatch or straining anything anywhere to add or remove hardware. And we give high marks to the Elite 430 for being a solidly constructed and sturdy case.

In addition – if designed properly – a good case will help to keep cooler air circulating around your expensive components and help to prolong their life by keeping them as cool as possible. Heat is an enemy of your hardware and Cooler Master understands this.  All of this became critical to our project where we must overclock our budget CPUs to perhaps attain the performance of those many times their price.

Cooler Master’s name “Elite”continues their tradition of quality entry-level value cases. We have been using our Elite 430 for about a month – switching hardware in and out several times  – and we like it. Now that it has been properly introduced, let’s explore the Elite 430 and begin our build.