Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced M-ITX PC Chassis Review

So there we have it, the Elite 120 Advanced M-ITX chassis from Cooler Master, I can honestly say this chassis was an absolute pleasure to work with, when I took it out of the box I didn’t really think much of it, its design is that of a large shoe box at first glance, but after spending time building the system I came to realise that everything is where it needs to be, providing superb functionality throughout.

Little things like the separately wired USB 3.0 and 2.0 sockets with cables on each side of the chassis help with cable routing, extra cable tie loops cut into the inside of the case help keep your cables in check, I’m sure a better job could be done on cable management within the case but given I had an unobstructed airflow throughout I didn’t much see the need for a chassis that has no windows on it. The ventilation is superb, with vents cut in all the right places to provide a solid front to back airflow throughout the case, even without Intel 2500k CPU & GTX 560ti running inside this thing I see little reason for heat to be an issue. Our Akasa cooler had more than ample room in here too, while the cooler is sufficient, you could go a little further on cooling if you were looking to run some overclocks on your system.

I’ve seen this chassis fitted out with i7 CPU’s and a GTX 690 running high end games (obviously at those spec) at iSeries, it’s not the lightest system when built up, but it is small enough to throw under your arm, so much so that Cooler Master seem to have forgotten to put a handle on the top so you can carry it around like a tool box. But the same can be said if you need a compact, low to mid spec M-ITX system, for use as a HTPC, media server or something small enough to sit on your desktop without “getting in the way”, giving the chassis great versatility.

The best thing about this case though has to be its price, I’ve seen these on the market for as low as £30 in some places and that is already worth of bang for buck award just based on it’s price vs performance, but it’s exactly that, you get a lot for your money here, it’s really well built, it can handle a high spec gaming rig with a huge graphics card if needed, a full size power supply to keep your high spec components running, a full size optical drive, reasonable cable management, native USB 3.0 support, even if it is just one front port, A cable management cutout on the back for any internal/external devices and it can all be fit into a compact and discreet box, which is why I am more than happy to award the Elite 120 our Editors Choice Award, because it really has out classed itself for a chassis that can be bought for under £40.00.