Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini-ITX Chassis Review

Peter Donnell / 11 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

This is the biggest win for the Elite 130, it’s priced far cheaper than many of its direct rivals from companies like Silverstone and BitFenix. Given its overall component compatibility and front panel design it’s an absolute bargain for just £45.95 from Overclockers UK and can be picked up for as little as $50 from many major US retailers.

Overview

Coolermaster may not have changed a whole lot since the Elite 120, but the little tweaks they’ve made are all for the better. The new Elite 130 has taken an already great product, given it a much-needed facelift and put it back to market at the perfect time for the chassis industry. Given the current interest in SteamBox style systems as well as LAN gaming, there are many system builders out there who want to build a high-powered gaming rig that will be both easy to transport, and small enough to fit under their big screen TV.

The Elite 130 is a versatile beast, capable of holding a decent amount of storage to be a competent HTPC, but leaving more than enough room for a little water cooling, a full size (and powerful) power supply, and a large graphics card, pretty much all the things you need to run a high performance gaming system. The best part of all is that the chassis isn’t expensive, meaning you can afford more of your budget towards a more powerful graphics card or CPU.

Cheap doesn’t always mean a product has to look or feel cheap, the Elite 130 feels very durable and well made and while it doesn’t pack a few extra features such as dust filters, it is easy to open up and keep maintained. The new front panel will look great in almost any environment and while it may not be the greatest looking chassis design ever, it’s a far cry from looking bad.

It’s component compatibility is high, but that’s hardly a surprise given that it’s rather long design. It may look compact at the front, but the added depth leaves a lot of room inside for big components and it’s really quite large for a mini-ITX chassis.

Pros

Low price makes this incredible value for money
13.5″ GPU support (Including AMD 7990 and GTX 690)
Full size ATX PSU support
Room for up to 3 x 3.5″ or 5 x 2.5″ drives
Great front panel redesign
Water cooling support

Cons

Dust may be an issue with so much ventilation and no filters
Low profile CPU cooler required (easily resolved if you use a 120mm AIO water cooler)

“Coolermaster rarely disappoint with their products and the Elite 130 is no exception. At this price range, while having this level of build quality and the capability of holding a seriously powerful gaming system puts the Elite 130 way ahead of the competition.”