Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced review

Performance Analysis

We'll start with the good news, which is that in terms of GPU cooling, the Elite 120 Advanced doesn't fair too badly. Though still significantly hotter than the BitFenix Prodigy, its GPU delta T of 56°C is certainly respectable, and cooler by at least 2°C than the other cases we've tested so far. Tucked away in the corner, the graphics card simply takes cool air in through the ventilated side panel and exhausts the resultant hot air through its rear, and as such is essentially left to its own devices.


Conversely, the case's attempts at cooling our CPU were pretty woeful. Its CPU delta T was a whopping 55°C, six degrees hotter than the next highest temperature we recorded. The CPU's position in the case instantly has it at a disadvantage as it is walled in very tightly by the PSU, the rear (and very hot) side of the GPU and the drive cage. Its supply of cool air is limited by the front panel, and the side 80mm fan appeared to be too low to be of any real effect, and was partially blocked by our motherboard's daughter board. With nothing to exhaust the hot air, the CPU essentially sits in a box of air getting hotter and hotter. On the plus side, the case fans remained quiet throughout our testing, never rising to anything more than a soft air noise.


Conclusion
Though our stress testing evidently proved too much for the Elite 120 Advanced to handle effectively, particularly in terms of CPU cooling, we feel it would be unfair to dismiss it entirely based solely on this as there are a number of things that work to its advantage.

The sub-£40 price point is a major plus, especially given the all round decent build quality. The fact that building a system into it is unproblematic is also a significant achievement given the case's tiny proportions. The lack of dust filters and any real cable management system is a shame, but certainly forgiveable in this price range.

With support only for low profile CPU coolers and no exhaust fan, the Elite 120 Advanced doesn't seem to be targeting users who wish to build high end, overclocked mini-ITX systems, and if that's you we suggest you look to the more suitable BitFenix Prodigy. However, for anyone looking to build an affordable, discreet and less demanding HTPC, for example, the Elite 120 Advanced is an excellent choice.