Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
By removing the four thumb screws, we can take off the two side panels to gain access to the interior of the Cooler Master Elite 371. The first thing that pops out would be the paint job, or lack thereof. Cooler Master has decided to leave the steel metal color untouched by paint to save on the extra cost and effort. It would be more preferable in my opinion to have the interior of a nice paint finish, but it is not a something to fret about, considering the cost of this case. Below is an inside view of the side panel. As stated before, the side panel consists of two fan mounting options for more air cooling freedom, but unfortunately, it lacks air filters.
The Cooler Master Elite 371 has a fairly open interior design. The motherboard tray may not be as open as other chassis that includes a top opening or rubber grommet-ed holes for wiring. However, since the Cooler Master Elite 371 is fairly small, there is simply no room. The Elite 371 gives us plenty of open room for wire management by the interior 3.5" HDD bays instead. We will go into this in more depth a little later.
Since the Cooler Master Elite 371 is a mid-tower chassis, it is able to house ATX and mATX sized motherboards. The motherboard tray on the Elite 371 is clearly labeled by letters corresponding to its manual that provides further information. Like most cases, the Elite 371 has a 120mm pre-installed exhaust fan installed at the back. What is particularly thoughtful of Cooler Master is that they have included a 3-pin to Molex adapter to allow more flexibility when playing around with the wiring. However, the small downside is that this wire is extremely short, and some may be forced to use the Molex adapter to increase its length. At the top are an additional two optional exhaust fan cooling options that can be used. It seems Cooler Master is very generous when designing this case to allow so many additional cooling options to the case. Ironically, however, the case only comes with one pre-installed fan. The two roof fan mounts come with a large air filter that can be removed and cleaned. This will prevent dust from entering the roof if you decide to mount fans. Even if you decide not to mount fans here, the filters also act as dust blockers to prevent dust from simply settling in.
Below the roof grilles is a fairly large opening on the motherboard tray. This will allow users to easily install aftermarket heatsinks that has backplates with relative ease. Also, the hole is actually quite large. That will assist in accommodating motherboards with CPU sockets in a slightly different position.
The Elite 371 uses the conventional method of mounting the power supply. From the image above, you can see the power supply intake with a dust filter to block out dust if you ever decide to place your computer over carpet, or other areas that are likely be more congested with dust. What is missing, however, is something to raise the power supply slightly off the bottom of the case. This is what I expect in a budget case, like the Elite 371 itself. But as for more expensive cases, usually there is some sort of support to raise the power supply off the bottom of the case.
Just above the bottom mounted power supply unit bay are the expansion card slots. The system is not tool-free; and metal braces are required to be snapped off to realize an opening. This is much like removing the inner metal area of the 5.25" drive bays. Also, to complete the installation, a set of screws are provided to securely fasten whatever components you may have into place. The expansion slot covers, however, are not entirely disposable. If you decide you want to take out whatever components you may have, you can simply replace the expansion slot covers back into its place, but this time, with the use of the screws provided.
Up at the front interior of the case are the internal 3.5" and external 5.25" bay rails. According to the specifications list, the Cooler Master Elite 371 can fit up to five internal hard drives. Actually, let's rephrase that entire sentence. The Elite 371 has five hidden 3.5" drive bays. This means the case has the rails to fit five hard drives, but lacks the tool-free mounting brackets to fit no more than two. I found this quite strange (Don't worry, I double checked the bag of accessories). This pretty much means you can orientate your two HDD the way you want on the rails, but cannot put any more on in a tool-free manner. It would have been a little more thoughtful if Cooler Master decided to include three more mounting brackets, or construct the internal rails to be a dual piece system where one can be removed. This would grant more over airflow throughout the case, and could possibly allow one to install a longer graphics card. Keep in mind these are just a couple of suggestions; I don't expect Cooler Master to implement too much, as this is a budget case -- and money has to be saved somewhere.
As aforementioned, the internal HDD mounting system is tool-free. Also, seen on many Cooler Master cases would be a tool-free 5.25" bay mounting system as well. Both these systems are quick and easy to use. Something to note when purchasing this case would be that the Cooler Master Elite 371 does not support the installation of 2.5" laptop or SSD drives. I will go more into this later.
At the backside of the motherboard tray, we can really see the open interior design of the Elite 371. Let me first confess to you that when I first opened the case up for a quick viewing, I was quite excited to see what I could do with wire management. What I would suggest to Cooler Master however, would be to first completely round off the edges of the motherboard tray. This subtle difference would definitely add to the overall quality of the case, as well as having a little bit more protection for wires; wires tend to wear out when placed tightly around a sharp edged corner.
There is roughly 5mm of gap between the motherboard tray and the side panel. This is really not enough room. So, due to the open design of the case around the front, the gap between the 5.25" bay rails and the side panel is 11mm -- with the gap between the HDD rack and the side panel being a rough estimate of a whopping 33mm.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
