Overall/Final Verdict
With a painted interior, simple and sleek exterior, and support for extended, high-end hardware the Elite 120 Advanced from Cooler Master is a perfect fit in either the HTPC or LAN party rig. No overly obnoxious lighting or loud fans mean the Elite 120 will stay subtle until you want to show off your hardware and cabling efforts. Cooler Master basically designed a case the size of a Shuttle, but without the proprietary power supply and even more room for cool hardware. In this small case you could put together today's top of the line Ivy Bridge CPU with an HD 7970 GHz Edition or a GTX 680 and pack the rig full of hard drives. Basically, this is all you really need unless you plan on running SLI or Crossfire in the future. There are a couple downsides to the Elite 120 of course, most notably the power supply sticks awkwardly out of the back of the case. I would have much rather seen them make the case an inch longer and give more room overall. It makes me wonder if they didn't plan on everyone using shorter power supplies and changed their mind after. I'm also curious why they would include one USB 3.0 port on the front but not a second. The connection internally handles two, so I feel like this is wasting half of the plug when its being used. With that being said, I haven't even gotten to the best part, the price! At just under $50 this case packs in a lot of features. The last Mini ITX case that we tested was over twice this price. The Elite 120 isn't perfect, but it is a great deal for a case that can fit the perfect LAN setup right inside.
