| Cooler Master Elite 371 RC-371-KKN1 |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | ||||||
| Written by Austin Downing | ||||||
| Sunday, 08 May 2011 | ||||||
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Closer Look: ExteriorThe exterior of any case is the first thing everyone notices. This translates into many companies attempting to create cases that stand out. Many times those cases either end up being a love/hate affair or have a major price increases in order to fit all of the features into them. Cooler Master has forgone many of these extra features and instead has made a sleek black and silver exterior for its Elite 371.
The front of the Elite 371 is for a majority made of a black mesh that gives the system a very nice look while at the same time keeping the weight of the system down. The three externally accessible 5.25" drives have covers that can be removed very easily using the clips on back of the faceplate. Sadly the internally the 5.25" drive bays have their covers held in place using small pieces of metal which means once removed they are unable to be replaced.
Cooler Master has added the ability to expand the cooling ability of the Elite 371 greatly. No where is this more apparent then the top of the Elite 371 where to empty spots for optional 120mm fans are containted. These also have a smaller mesh cover under them to help keep dust out of a users newly built system.
The rear of the Elite 371 contains seven expansion slots so that most setups will work beautifully inside of this case. Sadly, the expansion slots are of a breakaway type, which can lead to some complications. The 120mm fan in the rear is the only fan that is included. It is a Cooler Master design rated at 1200RPM, with 44CFM and 19.8dBa.
Inside of the Cooler Master 371 you can see that there is plenty of room for placing large ATX motherboards and extra-long video cards. Sadly there is little cable management built into the Elite 371. The only way to keep cables out of the way is to run the longer cables through the drive bay first in order to shorten them a bit.
The backside of the Elite 371 is fairly unremarkable with very little in the way of useful traits. The opening to access the rear of a motherboard is large enough to use with even large coolers backplates.
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Comments
It looks like Coolermaster is trying to fill every niche and void in their line-up.
Nice review Austin. Thanks.
I am really new to building computers and am starting one that includes this case. You seem to be really smart at this sort of stuff so I want to build my own computer for recording but I'm not sure what type of components that I want to go into this case. If it's possible could you please enlighten me with your knowledge and maybe make some suggestions?
Thanks