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Cooler Master Elite 430 Case Review
Author: Will West
Published: Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Case layout and Features Cont.
The Elite 430 comes with 5 internal 3.5" drive bays but only a handful of tool less connectors. Considering that normal budget builds use 2 drives or less this shouldn't be a problem. However if your build requires more drives the traditional screw method works quite well.
The installation of a hard drive consists of removing the holders on each side the drive rail, installing the drive, and replacing the holders. Unlike many cases we have seen, the Elite 430 does give you the option to secure both sides of the drive.
The Elite 430 does feature PSU at the bottom of the case which seems to be . The PSU has air being pulled up from the bottom of the case that even has a filter attached to it to keep dust out of the PSU. Also in this area has a placement for either a 120mm or 140mm fan.
The trickledown effect can be seen here give that the Elite 430 does feature an open back plate behind the traditional processor location.
The Elite 430 is able to support large video cards including the Radeon HD 5870. Here we have Radeon HD 5870 installed with plenty of room around all sides. The only part the may be a problem is when multiple video cards and hard drives installed at the same time. Not a likely scenario in a budget built, but you never know.
A common feature of any "pre-modded" case is the large side window. Most Cooler Master cases leave this feature out since modders like to cut their own designs. Having such a large window on a budget case like this is a huge plus for sure.
