Friday, January 28, 2011

Cooler Master launches two new budget Elite series cases

Cooler Master has introduced two new value-minded Elite series desktop cases. The Elite 343 is billed as a budget enclosure for the "average user," but it also offers a compact solution for gamers that don't require a massive full-tower case like the HAF 932 or HAF X. Although it isn't quite as short as Thermaltake's Armor A30, it measures a narrower 7.20 x 14.04 x 17.55 inches.




Given those dimensions, the Elite 343 only accepts microATX motherboards. It has room for two 5.25-inch drives, five internal 3.5-inch drives, one external 3.5-inch drive, and four rear expansion slots. It also supports graphics cards up to 250mm long or 363mm if you remove the HDD cage (necessary for flagship cards like the GeForce GTX 580), as well as CPU coolers up to 148mm tall.


Meanwhile, the Elite 371 is classified as a mid-tower case, measuring 7.5 x 16.7 x 19.6 inches. Its larger frame affords it an extra 5.25-inch bay, three more rear expansion slots, as well as support for full ATX motherboards, graphics cards up to 315mm and CPU coolers up to 163mm. Both new arrivals have two USB 2.0 ports along with audio and mic jacks on the front I/O panel.


It's worth mentioning that both enclosures only come with a single 120mm fan. The Elite 343 supports a maximum of three fans (two in front and one in back), whereas the larger Elite 371 can hold up to seven (two on the top and side, one on the front, back and bottom). The latter also has dust filters pre-installed on all its fan grills. Both cases should be available soon for around $40.



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