Inside
Digging into the Elite 130 is easy with just a single panel that separates the inside from the outside. The entire interior of the Elite 130 has the same black finish that the rest of the case has, along with that all of the cabling for the front panel connections is the same black color. Being a Mini-ITX case there really isn’t all that much to check out, but let’s break it down section by section.
Starting up in the top of the front of the Elite 130, the 5.25-inch drive bay is designed to pull a little double/triple duty. If you decide to not use it for a disc drive, you have mounting points for a 3.5-inch hard drive or two 2.5-inch SSDs.
Under the 5.25-inch drive bay we can see the intake fan that is mounted at the front of the case. Cooler Master designed this area to have enough room to install a 120mm radiator should you decide to water cool your rig. The side bracket here is removable but does give you more 2.5 and 3.5 drive installation options. You can also mount a 3.5 or 2.5 inch drive directly to the bottom of the case here as well.
Along with the motherboard along the bottom, there is a second fan that pulls air from the vents in the side of the case and blows it across the motherboard to keep things cool. This is really important because the Elite 130 uses a full sized power supply and it is mounted directly above the motherboard. Not only does this limit the amount of space you have for airflow but it also means you can only run very small CPU heatsinks, letting hot air get stagnant right above the motherboard would lead to overheating very quickly.
