Overall and Final Verdict
With the popularity of the Elite 120 it isn’t a surprise that Cooler Master would be interested in putting out another Mini-ITX case. I was a little surprised at first that the Elite 130 is the same as the previous model with the front design changed slightly. However, taking into consideration that heat can be an issue in some Mini-ITX builds, I don’t blame them for wanting to improve on that. Of course I would have liked to of seen them tweak the power supply mount that sticks out of the back, or at least offer an optional mount that doesn’t for those who go with a short power supply. They also stuck with the single USB 2.0 port on the front (with the two USB 3.0 ports of course) when they could have ran two USB 2.0 ports of the internal connection they use. Even so, the benefits of Cooler Master’s design still outweigh the downsides. It has been and will continue to be a great LAN rig due to its size and capacity to hold a large video card and a full sized power supply. I would still recommend it, especially at less than $50.
