Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Case Review

1. Introduction2. CM Elite 120 Advanced: Packaging and Bundle3. CM Elite 120 Advanced: Exterior Design4. CM Elite 120 Advanced: Interior and Installation5. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Today we are going to take a look at Cooler Master's latest small form factor offering, the Elite 120 Advanced which boasts an impressive specification.  It has room for a full-size power supply and for long dual slot graphics cards, making it an ideal choice for those looking to build a powerful gaming system.  We look forward to seeing how it fares in our tests.

There are a number of small form factor cases available on the market which are designed for a variety of applications.  Over the past couple of years we have seen a number of companies including Silverstone and Bitfenix release small form factor cases designed for gamers.  These are ideal for taking to LAN events like Multiplay's i-Series as they are easily portable and can be configured with high-end components.

Features

The Elite 120 is supplied in a compact brown cardboard box which feels reasonably robust in construction.  The front of the box features a large diagram style image of the case and a list of features.

Turning the box around reveals a detailed breakdown of case's specifications.  Inside the box the case is sandwiched between two slabs of polystyrene for protection.

The included bundle is limited as the only item included aside from the screws and accessories for installation are a series of plastic cable ties.

Compared to an average mid-tower case, the Elite 120 Advanced is very small indeed.  It's about a third of the height of the Silverstone Temjin TJ04 and a few centimetres wider.

The main part of the chassis is constructed exclusively from SECC steel which is powder coated black.  The front panel of the unit is constructed from a combination of grey brushed aluminium and black plastic.  The case is reasonably attractive overall but the design isn't quite as pleasing on the eyes as that of the BitFenix Prodigy.

In the front of the case there is a single 5.25″ drive bay along the top and front panel connections either side.  On the left hand side we find two USB2.0 connectors and headphone and microphone jacks.  Moving over to the right hand side we find the power and rest buttons alongside a single USB3.0 port.

Removing the front panel of the case reveals a 120mm fan which sucks cold air into the case.

There are large air vents on either side of the case as well as a smaller vent on the top to feed the power supply with air.  These should help to keep a powerful system cool.

Moving round to the rear of the case we can see there is section that protrudes a few centimetres from the rear of the chassis.  This is obviously how Cooler Master has managed to make room for a full size power supply in this chassis.

Accessing the inside of the case is very simple indeed.  Rather than having separate side panels, the top and sides of the case are made from a single sheet of steel which is bent into an U-shape.  This is secured into place with three thumbscrews.

At the front of the chassis there are three 3.5″ hard drive bays and a single 5.25″ drive bay.  Two of the 3.5″ bays have 2.5″ drive adapters pre-installed for solid state drives.

The floor of the case also acts as the motherboard tray.  We have to install the four stand-offs before screwing the motherboard down into place.

If the CPU cooler features a backplate you'll need to attach it to the motherboard before installing it into the system as there isn't a cut out in the bottom of the case.  You will also need to consider that the case has very limited headroom for CPU coolers.  The only suitable model we had available at the time of review was the Intel Reference cooler.

After installing the motherboard into the system we set about getting the graphics card into place.  The case has plenty of room for performance graphics cards, providing they only occupy two slots.  There is a large vent in the side of the case which provides airflow to the graphics card.

Next we installed the power supply into the system.  We decided to challenge the case a little and see how it coped with a non-modular power supply.

We installed the Corsair GS800 which is highly regarded among gamers.  We no longer install optical drives into our test systems which was quite handy as we were able to use the 5.25″ bay to stow all the surplus cables. We managed to achieve a net build without restricting airflow too much.

Finally we installed our solid state drive into the system.  There are 2.5″ drive adapters are pre-installed into two of the 3.5″ bays which makes it easier to secure the drives into place.

For our tests we will be using an Intel Reference Cooler to cool the Intel Core i7 3770K CPU.  Our test system also features an AMD Radeon HD 6950 graphics card.  We tested the system at stock settings as the reference cooler wasn't capable of a significant overclock because of its thermal limitations.

Test System:

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: MSI Z77IA-E53
Cooler: Intel Reference Cooler
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2
Memory: 4GB (2x 2GB) Kingston HyperX Genesis
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6950
Power Supply: Corsair GS800
System Drive: Intel 520 Series 240 GB
Monitor: Viewsonic VX2260WM
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Software:

CPUID Hardware Monitor
Prime95 64-bit
Furmark V1.9.2

To test the thermal performance of the Fractal Design Define R4 we loaded our test system for 15 minutes using Prime95 and Furmark and recorded the maximum temperatures reached using CPUID Hardware Monitor.  We then restarted the system and left it for 15 minutes before recording idle temperatures.  Room temperature was maintained at 20 degrees C for the duration of our tests.

These temperatures are quite toasty which is a likely combination of the reference CPU cooler and restricted airflow.  This isn't surprising in such a compact chassis though.

To test the acoustic performance of the case we placed a digital dBA meter 1m from the front of the case and replaced the Radeon HD 6670 with a HD 5550 Silence.  We also momentarily detached the CPU cooler fans so we were only taking the noise from the case fans into the final reading.

We were quite impressed by the acoustic performance of the Elite 120 Advanced as it recorded a fairly low noise level in our tests.

The case doesn't offer great sound insulation for the other components in the case, though, and the graphics card fan was quite noticeable on our Radeon 6950 as it's positioned right next to a large vent in the side of the case.

Overall we are left with generally good impressions of the Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced.  It has been cleverly designed to house a powerful mini-ITX based system, making it ideal for a portable LAN gaming PC as there is plenty of room for large graphics cards.

We are impressed by the build quality of the case which is quite reasonable considering the price point.  However, the exterior design doesn't have the ‘wow' factor of the Bitfenix Prodigy.

The compact form factor means that there isn't a lot of space to work with inside.  The main issue with this is the lack of headroom for CPU coolers as the only model we could find that would fit was the Intel reference cooler.

This means it would be quite difficult to build an overclocked gaming machine in this chassis as most small coolers won't provide adequate cooling performance.

At a price of £40 from Overclockers UK, we feel that the Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced offers great value for money.  If you're looking to build a compact gaming system on a budget this is one of the best cases out there.  Sure the Bitfenix Prodigy is more attractive to look at and offers more room for CPU coolers but it's about £25 more expensive which puts it into a different price league.

Pros

• Great value for money.
• Room for long graphics cards.
• Good build quality.
• Quiet fans.

Cons

• Limited CPU cooler headroom.
• Uninspiring design.

KitGuru says: An excellent option if you're looking to build a HTPC or compact gaming PC on a budget.

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