Performance/Installation
Designed for the mini ITX motherboard form factor, installing the board should be quite painless. Motherboard risers are included and install easy, and everything such as I/O panel and PCI lined up as they should. Speaking of PCI Express devices, Cooler Master extends the support for high-end video cards by accessing the drive bays and cabling from the opposite side, leaving a plenty of room for the card to extend the length of the case. We installed the GeForce GTX 580 and even had room left over, which would be great for stashing extra cables. The venting on the case should line up with most active cooling shrouds on cards as well.

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The adapter trays for 3.5” to 2.5/1.8” also work well, securing into place with no issues. The rails for the 3.5” drive work without problem as expected.

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We were confident that the Elite 120 Advance would support normal sized ATX power supplies just by looking at it, so instead we decide to test if we could install an extended power supply, such as the Cooler Master Silent Pro 1500W. Removing the back bracket and sliding the unit it, the fit is definitely tight, especially with cords between the drive bays, but it is possible. Obviously modular cable connections wouldn't work as well, but it did show that for such a small case there was a little room inside. The 80mm even server as extra support allowing the power supply to rest on it, although the standard mount should handle the job. 

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Because the Power Supply mounts above the CPU, clearance is very limited for heatsinks. Our stock AMD cooler on our mini ITX test setup was a little tight, but still had enough room to pull air in. To give you an idea of clearance using an Intel stock heatsink we took another photo. As you can see there would be a little more room.

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Needless to say, the Elite 120 Advance will be able to handle any normal ATX power supply, Video card, and stock heatsink. In our testing with only two fans there isn't a lot of noise being made. Being a small case cooling will always be more of a concern, but between the two fans, the PSU fan, and the vents on the chassis we didn't have heat issues. I love that the Video card is right next to the side panel with vents as well, it pulls cold air in and blows the hot air out the back. Even with the cases cooling ability, I still would recommend going with a video card that vents out of the case just to keep temperatures down as much as you can. Video cards that vent their hot air into the case would make this small box a little to warm for my comfort.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #28220 13 Oct 2012 00:20
A Mini ITX case from Cooler Master that costs less than $50 and will fit just about anything.

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