Cooler Master Elite 343 RC-343-KKN1 No Power Supply Micro ATX Mini Tower Case (Black)
$ 26.55
Cooler Master RC-343-KKN1 Elite 343 No Power Supply Micro ATX Mini Tower Case – Black
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3 thoughts on “Cooler Master RC-343-KKN1 Elite 343 No Power Supply Micro ATX Mini Tower Case – Black”
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Quite Impressed,
So, my case arrived today. I came home and it was sitting on the front porch. Showed up with no dents or dings in the package which was good.
Since this was the first part of my new computer to show up in the mail, I was quite excited.
After unboxing the case and looking at it, I came up with the following things to say.
First, The CONS.
-There was nowhere to mount a 2.5″ SSD. I was a little bummed that I’m going to have to use a conversion tray, but I’ll probably get over that. You would think that with how prevalent these are becoming that this feature would start being standard. But hey, it was an inexpensive case, so I can’t complain.
-The feet have NO grip to them.
-Modability on the front seems to be limited. But it’s a good looking case so I’m okay with that.
Now, the PROS.
-The edges of the steel are rounded. I was playing around in the case and didn’t nick my skin even once. That was pretty awesome.
-The 120mm fan in the front of the case was an actual coolermaster fan which was nice.
-The 120mm fan also cam with a 3pin mobo to 4pin molex converter. This will make it easy to connect if I want to limit the number of ugly molex connectors inside.
-The buttons on the front give a very satisfying click. I like it.
-The mounting hardware for the motherboard came in a little ziplock bag that included a good sized handful of zipties. White ones. Black would be nice. But I’m not complaining.
-The front panel connections are set deep in the case so they will be easy to hide. They are a decent wire gauge so you don’t have to worry about breaking them while connecting them or doing cable management.
-The mounting holes are perfect for my Micro-ITX board (Zotac Z68-A-E!)
The case is light, it’s small, and slick looking. I’m a fan.
Good job Cooler Master!
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|I like it.,
I completely agree with Rubyhunter’s review, so I won’t repeat what s/he already said and just add a few additional thoughts.
First off, kudos to Amazon for overboxing this! Order these from the usual online tech retailers, such as the Ovoid-shaped one, and they just slap a label on the retail box and hope for the best with the usual unpredictable results. Good job, Amazon. Extra points for you.
It’s a cheap case. No getting around that, but there are some little surprises in there that give the impression that it costs more than it does. The real fan, for instance. A filter at the air intake (though it’s not going to be the easiest thing to clean from the looks of it). Nice looking buttons/lights that have a pleasant feel to them. It uses rather thin gauge steel everywhere, except for the plastic snap-on front. A pleasant surprise was the attention to detail on stiffening and rolled edges. You can actually work inside this case without drawing any blood. All exposed edges are rolled. Good job, Cooler Master.
The 120mm fan in the front has a 3-pin motor with no tach connection if you choose to use the molex adapter. I’d have been totally in awe of CM if it had a four-pin PWM motor. Since I didn’t need it anyway, I just removed it. With any mobo less than a few years old, chances are that you will find a PWM fan controller for at least one of the chassis fans, so you’d be disappointed hooking it up to the included fan. If this applies to you, I recommend replacing the CM fan with an Arctic Cooling four-pin PWM fan. You’ll be much happier with the results.
You have to remove the drive cage and front panel to remove the fan. The front panel pops off with a bit of difficulty while you simultaneously pinch three barbed retainers on each side. Props to CM for the long leads from the front panel connections. Props also for good assembly practice (where a lot of people will never see it), using heat shrink tubing over all the soldered terminals. The connectors are all appropriately labeled, so you’ll have a good chance of getting them installed correctly the first time.
The drive cage is removable, but not conveniently. There’s a single thumb screw securing the top of the cage to the bottom of the internal/external 3.5″ cage, and then four screws anchoring it to the bottom of the case. Those are removable from the outside. With the four-drive cage out, there’s a lot of room for working. With it in, you’d better have small hands and a fair amount of patience. I’m not convinced that it’s possible to install/remove drives in all four slots with some mobos. Plan accordingly.
I was kind of underwhelmed by the “tool-free” 5.25″ drive installation. Basically you slide the drive in (expect a fairly tight fit) and lock it into place with a plastic gizmo featuring two pins that stick into the drive (you have to hope that the pins on YOUR device line up with what they expect) and then locks into place with a quarter turn fastener. Ehhhh. It works, but just barely. Fortunately there are provisions for typical screw mounting, at least on the upper slot. The lower slot doesn’t have a complete set of holes because the lower track is blocked on the right side of the case. As luck had it, I have a nonstandard device that did fit, but only in the top slot. The DVD drive fit perfectly in the lower slot.
One area they compromised on is the lack of a removable mobo tray and using screw-in standoffs on the fixed tray. I’m not crazy about either. A consequence of the non-removable tray is that you have to negotiate the installation of the mobo, which can be kind of tricky if you have a large HSF mounted. Once it’s in there, there’s very little working room, so adding the HSF post-installation isn’t a likely option. The standoff business is probably a minor gripe, but you do have to keep in mind that you’re screwing a standoff into the tray, and then installing *another* screw into the standoff to hold the mobo. You don’t have to have a ME degree to see that this isn’t the greatest design practice. Two screws in series… which one’s going to hold when you go to remove the one that’s accessible. So your best alternative is to use a 1/4″ nut driver to torque the standoffs to the tray fairly tight. 10-15 lb-in ought to do the job. Then install the mobo and tighten those mounting screws only as tight as necessary, which is maybe 2-3 lb-in. Then you won’t have any unplanned difficulties when you go to remove them.
In summary: Compared to a top of the line Lian-Li $500 showpiece, this rates 2-3 stars. Factoring in the price, it’s a solid 5-star.
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|Great case!,
Excellent case for the money. Sturdiness is average, I’ve seem better, but I’ve also seen worse. The looks are great, one of the best I must say. Does not include 80mm fan, just the 120mm in the front. Plastic feet are ok, case is roomy and comes with all the hardware. I installed my 750watt Antec PS in it and it fit just fine. Great buy overall.
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