Micro Atx Tower

Cooler Grasp Is By Many Regarded As To Be The Quantity 1 Producer Of High End

INTRODUCTION

Cooler Grasp is by many considered to be the number 1 producer of high finish instances for gamers and overclockers. But everybody does not need all the additional features and particulars which you will find in Cooler Master's higher end instances. There are those who are just looking for a simple and inexpensive situation to mount their system in.

In purchase to go over the demand for those less sophisticated cases, Cooler Grasp has released the Elite 310. This case might not have all the intelligent details from the top line cases, but it do have a magnificent finishing and a structural sturdiness equal to the top the higher finish cases. Prior to additional going into any particulars, let us have a appear at the engineering specs:

Cooler Grasp Elite 310 (RC-310-BWN1-GP)
Dimensions191 x 437 x 468 mm
MaterialSteel and plastic
Weight5.8 kg
CompatibilitymATX/ATX
5.25 inch expansion bays4 external convertible + 1
3.five inch growth bays6 inner
Cooling systemBack: 120mm x one enthusiast
Front: 120mm x one fan (optional)
Aspect: eighty/ninety/120mm fan x one (optional)
Front connectors2. USB x two, MIC x 1, Audio x one (it supports Sound Hd/AC97), IEEE 1394a x 1 (optional)
PCI expansion slots7
Energy supplyStandard ATX PS2 (optional)

Initial IMPRESSIONS

The packaging of the situation does not reveal anything of the situation itself it's just a regular brown cardboard box.
When I opened the box I discovered the case enclosed in a plastic bag and guarded by white foam plastic in every finish. It should usually be sufficient for everything that can occur in transport but perhaps some kind of protection for the sides would have been great also.

There are not many equipment integrated, just a printed manual and a bag with screws.

COOLER Master ELITE 310 IN Detail: Outside

Cooler Grasp Elite 310 is a "semi-tower" which has a extremely thoroughly clean and sober appear. The front is characterized by its shiny finish which differs from the finish of the rest of the case. The front also has a silver colour body.

The case is also available with two other colours of the body: blue and orange.

There's truly no as well a lot to say about the front. It retains a reset button a power button and the corresponding LEDs. More more than the front holds a series of connectors at the bottom, with the normal USB two. FireWire and sound connectors. What is uncommon is that it also holds an eSATA port which is great. One potential issue about the position of the connectors is that they are not protected in opposition to dirt.

The right aspect of the case is totally clean but the left aspect (seen from front) retains two positions for eighty, 92 or 120mm fans. The intention is that these followers will extract the hot air coming from the graphics card and the CPU.

In the back again aspect of the situation, there are seven expansion slots. From the image below you can also see the hole exactly where the motherboard's I/O panel will be placed. To the right of the hole for the I/O panel, there is a metallic air flow grid behind which a 120mm enthusiast can be positioned. It is also feasible to set up an 80 or 92mm fan in that spot many thanks to clever positioning of the screw holes. Over the enthusiast and the I/O shield is a hole exactly where the PSU will be placed.

Concerning the placement of the PSU, I have seen it becoming more and more typical to place the PSU in the bottom of the case. The position with that is to force the PSU to take cool air from the outdoors. As you know cold air is heavier than hot air so the coolest air in a space is usually closest to the flooring. Of program at the floor is also where all the dust is. Anyhow, a 2nd point with putting the PSU at the bottom is that it facilitates the cooling of the CPU (more area).

The case rests on 4 plastic pivot factors. It may have been better if these "feet" where produced of rubber instead of plastic to better safe the case on different surfaces.

COOLER Master ELITE 310 IN Depth: INTERIOR

Cooler Masters Elite 310 is compatible with each micro-ATX and ATX motherboards as is typical with most medium tower cases. The interior of the case is instead easy as you can see from the picture beneath.

The rack for the 3.five inch difficult drives is located in the front of the situation and it enables for six models to be set up. The rack is not removable but it is not a issue since it's easy to attain the screw holes from the front (front needs to be removed). A good thing is that the hard generate rack is turned 90 degrees which makes it simple to install new drives or remove old ones, you will not be in the somewhat annoying scenario that you have to eliminate the CPU heatsink when putting in a new drive.

Aside from providing excellent choices with respect to three.5 inch difficult drives the Elite 310 allows us to install up to 4 5.twenty five inch units and 1 three.5 inch exterior unit.

The cooling possibilities of the Cooler Master Elite 310 are rather prolonged considering the situation becoming a medium to reduced finish situation. The included enthusiast is situated in the back again and is a 120mm fan with a normal 3 pin connector, but Cooler Grasp have been type sufficient to make it possible to connect the fan straight to a molex connector.

The motherboard plate is perforated to enhance the heat dissipation and to allow a much better conduite of the wiring. But due to the format of the box, the possibilities to maintain the wiring behind the motherboard back plate are extremely restricted and we are left to place the remaining cables below the set up hard drives.

ASSEMBLY OF THE Equipment

The elements I utilized for this review were:

Check equipment
ProcessorIntel E6400
CPU warmth sinkNexus Reduced-7000
MotherboardGigabyte GA-EP45C-DS3R
Graphics cardeVGA GTX 260 216 1728 MB
Hard diskSeagate Barracuda 7200.12 five hundred GB
MemoryKingston 800 HyperX DDR2 21GB (4-four-four-12)
Energy supplyTacens 600W

Numerous of the higher finish cases in Cooler Master's collection do not need the use of hand tools to install the components. This is however not the situation with this situation (humorous eh?). Nonetheless, all you need is a screwdriver and some persistence.

There was no problem to set up the GTX 260 graphics card which I used for this review, but there was not a lot area more than so I really suggest that you believe two times before utilizing this situation with a high finish graphics card of larger dimensions.

The case does not offer us numerous methods to hide the wiring, the space behind the motherboard back again plate is just as well slim which leaves us with the only option to conceal the cables in the space beneath the difficult drive (provided that you do not have more than two or 3 HDs set up).

In the assembly of the gear the robustness of Elite 310 surprised me. In contrast to other cases, where their chassis and their panels bend whilst operating them, the Cooler Grasp Elite 310 offers an impressive sturdiness.

When I first turned the system on, I was also pleasantly surprised by the low noise of the fan and its capability to move a good volume of air. But I have still noticed a lot much more effective followers so it's clear that this fan is not from Cooler Master's higher end series.

CONCLUSIONS

One has to think about the price when writing up a conclusion of this case. The lowest I could find when doing a search at Google was $27 which to me feels like a steal thinking about what this case has to offer.

Cooler Master's Elite 310 is a semi tower situation with a structural rigidity aggressive with much more expensive instances. It does not have too many extra features but a couple of smart particulars like the turned rack for hard drives and the side panel fans still makes it really feel like much more than just a regular case.

Overall, this is a situation for someone searching for a cheap solution which will function for almost any objective, nevertheless if you are creating a higher finish system I would suggest you to look more than other choices.

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Micro ATX power supply help?

i bought an ATX tower that supports both ATX and micro ATX motherboards. i need at least a 500w psu to power everything but i cant find any micro ATX psu's over 300w. can i just use a standard ATX psu? would it fit in the case? is there any difference in the size or voltage?

it doesnt matter if the psu is atx or micro atx.
yes it will fit in the case.
no, there is no difference. both have the same voltage output.

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