Customer Reviews

Elite 330 Mid Tower Chassis

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After upgrading GFX to a Sapphire RADEON HD 4870 my old Packard Bell case was not up to the job of cooling it, my new build which is also my first build has a extra 120mm front intake fan, the temperatures are down 15-20c, the case is cool to touch even at full load and even though its a little noisier when at idle than my old case it don't get any louder even under extreme benchmark stressing.

Lot of reviews say this case metal is thin, well it is but not too thin and this helps cooling too.

Knocked a star off for because the power button click sounds a bit cheap, it might last or might not, but you can actually use the reset button to power pc on/off until a replacement is sorted.

Also includes 2 front USB ports and Audio In/Out for headphones or speaker/mic.

Very roomy ATX form factor case with one 120cm rear(Top) fan. Airflow is very good with an added 120mm zalman fan I have in front(bottom) - this allows cool air from the front bottom to be sucked in which then rises to the top back where it gets sucked out. Not sure of the benefit of the funnel unless you have alot of PCI devices attached maybe, but in any case its removable(four screws)

Both Side panels very easily removable and there is plenty of room at the back for any motherboard attached input slots you may have

Whilst I would support the positive comments of other reviewers about the screwless design and the case in general, it might be helpful to know that, after a relatively short period of use, I encountered an unexpected/unacceptable problem with the power button stemming from poor materials/design. As I could find no source of spare parts this created a potential 'write off' in an item I would expect to last for years.

The return 'spring' for the (nicely illuminated) power button is actually made of plastic, moulded to create a leaf spring 'cradle' that keeps the button centred in its housing. Mine simply fractured and failed. Come on designers....skimpy plastic leaves for a return spring? Yeuk!

With judicious surgery I managed to modify the cradle, and manufactured a shaped steel replacement spring, glued in place to keep the button centred and thus useable. I have to be careful to ensure that the button does not get 'cocked' or jammed (with resultant risk to the BIOS and my heart!), but as my wife actually managed to do this recently, I have sadly decided that the case will have to be consigned to the scrap heap....for the sake of 1p worth of plastic. I will dig out one of my older, less aesthetically pleasing, but reliable cases.....as tarnished beige will no doubt be coming back into fashion shortly.

Would I buy this particular case again? NO.

I agree with the other review of this item it is a great case:

Pro's:
- it arrived efficiently (two days)
- it has room for four CD/DVD/Blu Ray drives
- it has space for two floppy drives
- it has one rear 120mm fan installed
- the front panel comes off easily
- the mesh at the front is cleanable and removable
- the CPU fan funnel lines up with my micro-ATX motherboard
- it comes with a useful variety of screws for everything you need
- it looks cool and is very sleek

Con's:
- i have none

EDIT: after a year and a half the front audio and mic jacks have packed in after fairly regular use. This is a pain, having to rely on my motherboard and fiddling with the cables at the back, the usb is still working well, I would still recommend the case or maybe the newer Elite 430

I bought one of these for my brother to replace an ageing case while upgrading his computer. For this side of £30, it's a bargain.

It is full ATX, so that means 4 DVD drive spaces, two floppy drive spaces (although one is used up as a front panel for 2xUSB, and headphone/microphone jacks), and up to 5 hard drives. I installed two DVD drives and two hard drives into it, and the screwless system employed works very well. Not all screwless systems do, so this is definitely a big plus for this case.

The build quality is perfectly acceptable for the price. Something that particularly pleases me about the front is the fact that the lights for power on and HDD activity are not too bright - I use my computer to watch DVDs etc, and in the dark there are plenty of cases whose indicators are far too bright. The HDD light is a low-level red, and the power on is a blue circle around the power button. Much more discreet, and much more to my taste.

My only word of warning is that if you are someone who wants to install a high performance graphics card, such as XFX Radeon HD 4870 (HD-487A-ZF) Graphics Card - 1GB GDDR5 Memory, PCI Express 2.0 Bus (which I own elsewhere), it probably won't fit inside this case. These graphics cards are very long. However, for anyone who uses a mid-range graphics card (or even onboard graphics), this case is perfectly good.

i recently bought this case as for a replacment for my old one and its good quality and has excllent cooling options. you can fit front fan into this case which is nice as i have a blue one with a swirl effect.... looks lush, if your looking to build a computer into a cheap and cheerful caseing, this is the one

Just to add that is this is probably the best case I have had, easy to work on, plenty of room, amd plenty of bays to add drives etc.

Complete with a bag of screws and motherboard screws. These can be used however this case is completely screwless!(apart from M/B) Screwless is such a great idea and very secure.

All in all a very good buy 10/10.

I purchased this chassis to replace the one that came with my original Asus Barebones Vintage system that I custom-built. The good news is that there is plenty of room in here for a mini-ATX motherboard; however, there are excess PCI/PCI-e slots which you will not be able to make use of unless you have a full-sized ATX motherboard.

I particularly like the extra space for placing hard drives, which are situated close to where the SATA data connectors are on a typical mini-ATX. There is also space available for a memory card reader drive (which operates via USB but is the same size as a floppy drive) and I made good use of this space.

However, there are a couple of things to point out. Firstly, I have an enormous nVidia graphics card - well, not so much the card itself is enormous but the attached heat sink mechanism. It is so large, and is situated towards the bottom of the motherboard (in the PCI-e x16 slot), that it makes me unable to use the two regular PCI connectors beneath it and also impedes the ability to use several of the bays available for hard drives.

Secondly, it is difficult to get the data SATA connectors attached to the optical drives (the spaces at the top of the chassis, opposite where the power supply unit goes), because of spaghetti junction of cables from the PSU that are headed down towards where the SATA connectors are heading up from.

The inclusion of an extra (chassis) fan is fantastic as my motherboard has a special connector just for it, and I did not have to use the supplied adapter to connect it directly to the PSU, which would have made the cabling nightmare even greater.

So in sum I would say that my complaints relate to the mess of cables and the extraordinary size of certain components, such as nVidia graphics cards (look for low-profile graphics cards if you can!), and the fact that I have a mini-ATX rather than full ATX board, and not the chassis itself. There really is plenty of space here and couple with the chassis fan your system is likely to be cooled very nicely and therefore the components will perform better and last longer.

Delivery was also very fast and efficient especially considering it found its way to me all the way from Germany and through 12 inches of snow!

:)

It you're looking for a no-frills quality case then this one from Cooler Master will take some beating. With space for 4 external and 7 internal drives, all with "screwless" quick-release fixings, then there's more than enough drive capacity for just about any configuration. There are no sharp edges inside to rip your fingers to shreds when you're assembling your system and there's comprehensive hardware pack included as well.

Although the gauge of the sheet metal is a little on the thin side, the whole thing is so well put together that the case is more than structurally sound. Add to this a quality paint finish and front panel assembly and it's difficult to believe that it costs less than £30.

Bought this for a very simple build. The case has enough room for a lot of components. Even a reasonably large graphics card should fit in here. The build quality is great and the tool-less design on the drive bays and PCI slots works very well.

Overall a solid case with great air-flow and a nice look.