Cooler Master Elite 310 Review

Testing:

Now it’s time to find out how well the Cooler Master Elite 310 performs under the extreme heat that the latest hardware can put out. To test the Elite 310, temperatures will be recorded of the CPU, GPU, chipset, hard drives, and the overall system temperature during load and idle phases. Load will be simulated by Prime95 small FFTs and HD tune for 1 hour with maximum temperatures recorded by RealTemp, and the GPU load will be the maximum value recorded by Rivatuner after five loops of 3DMark06’s Canyon Flight test. Fan configuration is front and side (bottom position) 120mm intakes and a rear exhaust. The data collected from the other cases will have the same fan configuration and top exhaust if applicable.

Testing Setup:

• Processor: Intel i7 920
• Motherboard: MSI Eclipse SLI
• Memory: Mushkin HP3 12800 7-7-7-20
• Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 320MB
• Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
• Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: Lite-on DVD-RW
• Case: Chieftec BL-01B
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
• Ambient Temperature: 25° Celsius

Comparison Cases:

• Inwin Metal Suit GD
• Cooler Master Gladiator 600

These results where right where I expected them, with a little surprise on the hard drive temperature, where it outperformed both comparison cases. I didn't expect this due to the appearance of the front bezel; there isn't any perforations in the plastic and only a little bit of perforation between the blue accent and the plastic area, as noted in the Closer Look pages. I didn't expect a lot of air to flow through the small surface area of the opening for the front 120mm intake. The higher chipset temperatures are most likely due to the lower position of the side panel fan, which didn't push enough air over the chipset heatsink.