Product Listing

Cooler Master Elite 430 Black

By Vincent Chang - 8 Nov 2010

Conclusion

Conclusion

Cooler Master's Elite series of mid-tower casings are generally mainstream products that are affordable and most important of all, competent. They may not have the most expensive parts or fancy designs, but for its price, we bet consumers aren't that fussy. The Elite 430 Black follows in this vein. It has a decent, ordinary looking exterior design that won't win any creative awards. The steel material used along with the ABS plastic is standard for such casings and while we weren't fans of its rough texture and seemingly scratch-prone surface, it's more than acceptable.

At around S$79 in retail, the Cooler Master Elite 430 Black is a decent, entry level mid-tower casing.

The interior is spacious enough to 'satisfy' its claim to supporting even the longest of graphics cards, but it's not that spacious. Due to the lack of cable management options, those who have a full set of components will find free space quickly taken up by cables and it will take some effort to organize them properly. The bottom half of the casing in particular may get quite packed since the HDD and PSU cables will converge there.

This may have some implications for the cooling, more so if users leave the cables in the bunch. Cooler Master only includes one front fan by default, which we doubt is sufficient, though again a likely result of cost control. The incomplete tool-free nature of this casing may also be a sore point for some, but since our installation process went smoothly in spite of that, we aren't that critical.

At around S$79, the Elite 430 Black is certainly affordable and provides decent value. However, it does face competitors like the Ikonik EN2 which does cable management much better and comes with very similar features and an identical price tag. From this perspective, the Elite 430 Black comes across as competent, but not close to the top.

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7.5
  • Aesthetics 7.5
  • Functionality 8
  • Usability 7.5
  • Value 8.5
The Good
Competitive price
Easy to install
The Bad
Lacks cable management options
Only one cooling fan included
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