The Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced supports all the main elements expected in a SFF gaming PC in a fairly compact and extremely affordable $50 package.
December 6, 2012 by Lawrence Lee
|
Product
|
Cooler Master
Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case |
|
Manufacturer
|
|
|
Street Price
|
US$45
|
Cooler Master is one of the biggest players in the PC case market and has been
for as long as we can remember. Their catalogue is dominated by towers of various
sizes and price ranges from the affordable Elite/Centurion series to the massive
Cosmos.
They’ve dabbled in smaller mini-ITX cases like the fanless TC-100
we examined in 2009 but nothing with mainstream appeal has ever matriculated
until now. The rising popularity of the mini-ITX form factor is difficult to
ignore when the position of the desktop PC as the dominant species among computing
devices is in question.
|
|
|
|
The Elite 120 Advanced is one of the biggest mini-ITX breadbox style cases
we’ve seen, close in size — at first glance — to the 14.6 liter SilverStone
Sugo SG07 reviewed two years ago. At 20 liters, however, the Elite 120
displaces 25% more volume. In comparison, the
classic Shuttle systems which kicked
off the breadbox PC trend a decade ago and SilverStone look-alikes (the SG05/06)
were typically 11~12 liters. These earlier boxes were not really meant to house
hot video cards and could handle hot CPUs only with fairly noisy CPU coolers.
Like the SG07, the Elite 120 Advanced provides enough room for a powerful discrete
graphics card and aims at satisfying gamers seeking a smaller PC without compromising
performance.
The chassis has an unassuming appearance, a long and boxy breadbox sized case
with a matte black finish and ventilation slits riddled along the sides and
top of the case. It stands only about 8 inches tall but that’s enough for a
SFF gaming machine, which clearly was Cooler Master’s intention. The Elite 120
Advanced supports graphics cards up to 34.3 cm long and CPU coolers up to 6.5
cm tall (actually 7.6 cm by our measurements), an ATX power supply, a standard
5.25 inch optical drive, and up to three 3.5 inch hard drives. Cooling is comes
in the form of a 120 mm intake fan and a low profile 80 mm side fan. It’s a
very affordable case, with current street price as low as US$45.
|
|
The case ships with a short manual, a PC speaker, a small bag of screws, a
nut-driver to tighten the motherboard standoffs, four fan bolts for a second
120 mm fan, zip-ties, and a pair of drive sleds with two more inside pre-installed
to a pair of 2.5 inch drive trays.
|
Specifications: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced
(from the product web page) |
|
| Model | RC-120A-KKN1 |
| Color | Black |
| Material | Appearance: Aluminum & Polymer front Case body: Steel Alloy |
| Dimension | 240 x 207.4 x 401.4mm – 20 liters 9.4 x 8.2 x 15.8 inch |
| Weight | 3.3 kg / 7.3 lb |
| M/B Type | Mini-ITX |
| 5.25" Drive Bay | 1 |
| 3.5" Drive Bay | 3 (internal) |
| 2.5" Drive Bay | 4 (internal, converted from two 3.5” bays) |
| I/O Panel | USB 3.0 x 1 (internal), USB 2.0 x 2, Mic x 1, Audio x 1 (supports AC97 / HD Audio) |
| Expansion Slots | 2 |
| Cooling System | Front: 120mm fan x 1, 1200 RPM, 19dBA Side: 80x15mm fan x 1, 2000 RPM, 20dBA HDD: 120x25mm fan x 1 (optional) |
| Power Supply | Standard ATX PS2 |
| Maximum Compatibility | VGA card length: 343.0 mm / 13.5" CPU cooler height: 65.0 mm / 2.5" |
| Warranty | 2 years |
EXTERIOR
The Elite 120 Advanced measures 24.0 x 40.1 x 20.7 cm or 9.4 x 15.8 x 8.2 inches
(W x D x H), with a total volume of 20 liters. Note that the depth measurement
includes the bump at the back (the power supply is installed jutting out by
about an inch); discounting this, the interior volume is only 18.6 L. The chassis
doesn’t feel particularly strong but you’d be hard pressed to find a better
built case with similar dimensions for US$45.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
INTERIOR
The interior of the Elite 120 Advanced is altogether quite solid. The drive cage isn’t removable, riveted in place making it extremely rigid. The support beams located at the top edges are reasonably thick and there’s even a thin cross bar at the back of the 5.25 inch bay for extra support.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ASSEMBLY
Assembly proceeded without any difficulties. Aside from attaching the power supply to a frame and inserting it through the back, the procedure is similar to putting together a typical tower. Our only piece of advice is to hook up the motherboard headers and power connectors before installing the power supply as it hangs over most of the board.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TESTING
System Configuration:
Measurement and Analysis Tools
audio interfaces.
System temperatures and noise levels were recorded with SpeedFan and GPU-Z
at idle and on load using Prime95 (small FFT setting) and FurMark, an OpenGL
benchmarking and stability testing utility.
Baseline Noise
 |
The Elite 120 Advanced has a standard 120 mm fan behind the hard drive cage and a thin 80 mm fan on the right side next to the CPU area. Both fans are 3-pin models with 4-pin molex adapters included. The larger fan is very quiet, producing only 20 dBA@1m at full speed while the smaller model is much louder, producing 28 dBA@1m, despite being on the far side of our standard microphone position. The quality of the noise is also disparate; the 80 mm fan droned and buzzed noticeably, generating tonal peaks through a wide frequency range while the 120 mm fan had a very smooth, broadband profile.
|
Stock Fan Noise Level
|
||||
|
Fan
|
SPL @1m
|
|||
|
12V
|
9V
|
7V
|
5V
|
|
|
Front
|
20 dBA
|
15~16 dBA
|
12~13 dBA
|
<11 dBA
|
|
Side
|
28~29 dBA
|
23~24 dBA
|
17 dBA
|
12~13 dBA
|
|
Measuring mic positioned 1m at diagonal angle left/front
of case. |
||||
Given the differences in noise outputs, we highly recommend controlling the fan separately or controlling the side fan only as the front fan is fairly quiet at full speed.
Test Results: Intel HD 3000 IGP
|
System Measurements
|
|||||
|
System State
|
Idle
|
CPU + GPU Load
|
|||
|
CPU Fan
|
6V
|
9V
|
9V
|
9V
|
12V
|
|
Front Fan
|
Off
|
9V
|
12V
|
9V
|
9V
|
|
Side Fan
|
Off
|
7V
|
7V
|
9V
|
7V
|
|
CPU Temp
|
38°C
|
88°C
|
88°C
|
86°C
|
87°C
|
|
PCH Temp
|
34°C
|
59°C
|
59°C
|
59°C
|
59°C
|
|
HD Temp
|
37°C
|
33°C
|
34°C
|
35°C
|
34°C
|
|
System Power (AC)
|
34W
|
153W
|
153W
|
152W
|
152W
|
|
SPL@1m
|
17~18 dBA
|
24~25 dBA
|
25 dBA
|
27 dBA
|
28~29 dBA
|
|
Ambient temperature: 21°C.
|
|||||
Sitting idle, the test system was easy to cool with the CPU, PCH and hard drive temperature staying under 40°C with the CPU fan running at only 6V and both system fans inactive. The noise produced was completely innocuous and measured a low 17~18 dBA@1m. Load testing was wrought with problems. We tried to do without the noisy side fan but even with both the CPU and front fan at full speed, the CPU exceeded 92°C, causing it to throttle down intermittently. After testing various fan speed combinations, we settled on the CPU and front fan at 9V and the side fan at 7V.
Even in this fan speed configuration, the CPU temperature was very high but there was little we could do while maintaining a reasonable noise level. Increasing the front fan or CPU fan speed further did almost nothing. Increasing the side fan speed helped the CPU cool down but only by 2°C and this reduction was accompanied by a 2~3 dB bump in noise level.
 |
Our best performance:noise fan speed configuration was not too bad, resulting in a fairly smooth sounding system. The tonality of the side fan, which was terribly annoying in our baseline testing, was more or less covered up by the other components in our system. Still, a noise level of 24~25 dBA@1m for a system running only on integrated graphics is quite poor. While the case certainly has airflow problems, it’s clear that the Noctua NH-L9i needs a lot of help to deal with the heat output of a Core i5-2500K.
Test Results: ASUS Radeon HD 6850
|
System Measurements
|
|||||
|
System State
|
Idle
|
CPU + GPU Load
|
|||
|
CPU Fan
|
9V
|
9V
|
12V
|
12V
|
9V
|
|
Front Fan
|
9V
|
12V
|
9V
|
9V
|
9V
|
|
Side Fan
|
7V
|
7V
|
7V
|
9V
|
12V
|
|
CPU Temp
|
40°C
|
FAIL
|
FAIL
|
89°C
|
91°C
|
|
PCH Temp
|
37°C
|
68°C
|
66°C
|
65°C
|
68°C
|
|
HD Temp
|
34°C
|
45°C
|
46°C
|
47°C
|
46°C
|
|
GPU Temp
|
40°C
|
90°C
|
90°C
|
90°C
|
90°C
|
|
GPU Fan*
|
1620 RPM
|
2710 RPM
|
2710 RPM
|
2700 RPM
|
2710 RPM
|
|
System Power (AC)
|
63W
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
281W
|
281W
|
|
SPL@1m
|
24~25 dBA
|
25 dBA
|
31 dBA
|
32 dBA
|
33~34 dBA
|
|
*GPU fan speed set manually to achieve a GPU temperature of ~90°C
Ambient temperature: 21°C. |
|||||
To our surprise, adding an HD 6850 to our test system had no measurable effect on the noise level when idle. The 6850’s minimum fan speed was completely drowned out by the rest of the system. On load, a GPU fan speed of ~2700 RPM was required to keep the temperature at a steady 90°C, regardless of how we manipulated the rest of the fans in the system. Fan speed increases were necessary however, as the presence of a moderately powerful discrete graphics card created more challenging thermal conditions for the CPU.
The fan speeds used on our IGP test system, resulted in CPU throttling. Pushing the front fan to 12V was completely ineffective, while raising the CPU fan to maximum speed slowed the throttling frequency but it didn’t eliminate it completely. A boost to both CPU and side fan speed was required to get the system fully stable. In the end, the lowest SPL we managed to coax out of the system was 32 dBA@1m. The PCH and hard drive temperature were also substantially higher than on our IGP test system.
 |
The HD 6850 fan gave the system a rougher acoustic profile but we wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as unpleasant. The noise extra noise was distributed over a wide frequency and wasn’t particularly tonal except for a spike at about 370 Hz on load. The load noise of 32 dBA@1m was quite high however; we use a system configuration with a similar power draw for testing microATX towers and a typical result is ~25 dBA@1m. This is the type of price you pay for going with a much smaller chassis.
Comparison vs. SilverStone Sugo SG07:
 Our SilverStone SG07 test system layout (2010). |
Of the cases we’ve examined in the past, the Sugo SG07 comes closest to the Elite 120 Advanced in size. It was tested using components with a similar total power draw, though the parts are dated by today’s standards, a low power Core 2 Quad processor and an HD 4870. The SG07 was also equipped with only a single massive down-blowing intake fan and the components included a larger CPU cooler, the Scythe Samurai ZZ — the power supply being positioned at the front of the case freed up plenty of room above the CPU socket.
|
System Measurements vs. SilverStone Sugo SG07
(Core 2 Q8200S + Scythe Samurai ZZ + Radeon HD 4870) |
||||
|
Case
|
CM Elite 120 Advanced
|
SilverStone Sugo SG07
|
||
|
System State
|
Idle
|
Load
|
Idle
|
Load
|
|
CPU Temp
|
40°C
|
89°C
|
34°C
|
37°C
|
|
GPU Temp
|
40°C
|
90°C
|
74°C
|
84°C
|
|
GPU Fan
|
1620 RPM
|
2700 RPM*
|
960 RPM
|
2080 RPM
|
|
System Power (AC)
|
63W
|
281W
|
115W
|
270W
|
|
SPL@1m
|
24~25 dBA
|
32 dBA
|
21~22 dBA
|
35 dBA
|
|
*GPU fan speed set manually to achieve a GPU temperature of ~90°C
Ambient temperature: 21°C. |
||||
On load, both cases had difficulty keeping their respective GPUs cool without producing an inordinate level of noise, but the difference in CPU cooling was staggering. The less demanding processor deserves some credit for the difference but the much taller heatsink and superior airflow obviously had a lot to do with it. Working with roughly the same dimensions, the SG07’s unique layout makes all the difference, though it does limit drive support (the SG07 can house only a slim 5.25 inch optical drive and single 3.5 inch or dual 2.5 inch hard/solid-state drives).
AUDIO RECORDINGS
These recordings were made with a high resolution, lab quality, digital recording
system inside SPCR’s own 11 dBA ambient anechoic chamber, then converted to
LAME 128kbps encoded MP3s. We’ve listened long and hard to ensure there is no
audible degradation from the original WAV files to these MP3s. They represent
a quick snapshot of what we heard during the review.
Each recording starts with ambient noise, then 10 second segments of product
at various states. For the most realistic results,
set the volume so that the starting ambient level is just barely audible, then
don’t change the volume setting again while comparing all the sound files.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s apparent that Cooler Master designed the Elite 120 Advanced to be as affordable and compact as possible while offering enough space for housing a fairly powerful mini-ITX system. While it is a rather small case, it’s overly large for a basic Atom or Fusion based media PC, considering the power requirements these types of machines require. A full-sized ATX power supply, reasonable CPU heatsink clearance, and support for long graphics cards are all requirements for a LAN gaming box. The Elite 120 Advanced offers all this, plus accommodations for cable management which is something always overlooked in budget mini-ITX cases. The build quality is solid also when you consider its US$45 street price — for value, it’s pretty much unbeatable.
If you’re not constrained by cost, the SilverStone Sugo SG07 has similar dimensions but a much smarter design. You do lose support for extra hard drives and a full-sized optical drive as well as power supply choice (a 600W unit is included with the case) but it might be worth it for the superior cooling — the Elite 120 Advanced is completely outclassed in this regard. The Elite’s 120 mm intake fan is handicapped by the tiny slit at the bottom of the front bezel that passes for an intake vent, and the side fan is undersized and has lousy acoustics. They would’ve done well to shift the motherboard tray position toward the left side of the case or simply make the whole chassis a little wider so a proper 120 mm fan could be placed there instead. As it stands, the stock fan combination doesn’t even come close to matching the prowess of the SG07’s strategically placed single 180 mm ceiling fan.
The poor airflow scheme was at least partially blame for our inability to keep our Core i5-2500K CPU from throttling while attempting to achieve a reasonable noise level. The other culprit was the petite cooler we utilized, the Noctua NH-L9i, which was selected due to compatibility concerns. The Elite 120 Advanced would have probably performed much better with a superior heatsink; a good sized CPU cooler is critical for a quiet SFF gaming machine. The underlying issue is that most so-called "low profile" heatsinks extend over the PCI-E slot on the majority of mini-ITX boards for LGA1155, the most popular platform for these types of systems. To avoid this problem, we advise selecting a motherboard with ample clearance between the CPU socket and PCI-E slot such as the ASUS P8Z77-I series, EVGA 111-IB-E692-KR, and Foxconn H67S and H61S.
Our thanks to Cooler Master for the Elite 120 Advanced case sample.
* * *
Articles of Related Interest
SilverStone Precision PS07: Budget MicroATX Tower
Lian Li PC-Q18: The Perfect Mini Server Case?
Streacom FC5 OD Fanless HTPC Case
Fractal Design Define Mini MicroATX Tower
Viako Mini Letter ML-80 H61 Sandy Bridge Barebones PC
SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E: MicroATX Evolved
* * *
