The Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Case
Final verdict
What can we say? After a month living with the Elite 430 Black, we like it for its good looks and we look forward to customizing it completely with at least 4 x 120 MM fans.
Let’s sum up the many positives verses our negatives:
Positive:
- Good looks. Very pleasing and conservative
- Excellent airflow IF you add more cooling fans
- Superior cooling performance
- Well-managed interior space
- Excellent cable management system with intelligent cutouts for easy CPU removal and installation
- Easy customization for adding additional cooling fans
- Tool-free design and user friendly
- Dust filters are included for the front intake fan and much of the case is designed to keep dust out
- Two year warranty!
Negatives:
- The blue LED does not have an off-on switch
- There is only room for 3 or 4 hard drives in the HD cage with a full size video card(s)
- The plastic side panel is easily scratched
- The case is inadequate as is to cool high end graphics and an overclocked CPU; it *needs* more fans.
This is a great value case that allows you the flexibility to cool it as you choose. Just do not expect to use a GTX 480 with the one fan included. If you are part of its intended audience, Cooler Master has saved enthusiast’s money in exactly the right places to suit most users who want great looks, style and excellent air-cooling potential (and even water cooling) without breaking their bank. Best of all, they have designed the Elite 430 to accommodate the longest video cards like the HD 5870 and HD 5970.
Cooler Master’s Elite 430 Black deserves our “Innovation” award – and more.
— Very nice!
Our very special thanks also go out to Cooler Master for working with us and supplying us with their Elite 430 case and also supplying the prizes for our “Hidden Treasures” contest which ended this last Saturday. Check our ABT forum for the winners.
Stay tuned, we have a larger mid-tower case to review; a 775 Watt PSU review as well as more video card reviews and head to head competition between PowerColor’s over clocked HD 5870 versus GTX 480. In addition, we will also bring your a CrossFire review that attempts to explore the limits of the HD 5870 architecture. In the meantime, we will shortly have performance evaluations of Catalyst 10-5 vs. 10-4 and GeForce WHQL 197.75 for your reading pleasure.
Mark Poppin
ABT Senior Editor
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