Question 1

Does that front panel pop open for access to ODD?

Accepted Answer

Actually, wrong answer myself. I misunderstood your question. You can take it off to install an optical drive, but it's not one of those pop open door that hides the drive.

Question 2

I am looking for a small box that will fit nicely in my living room to act as my PLEX media server. does anyone have any thoughts on how well or not well this case works as a media server?

Accepted Answer

Corey, this case works great for a media server. It fits perfectly on most entertainment stands and is easy to work with. I have a Gigabyte F2A88XN-Wifi motherboard, AMD A10-6800k @ 4.6Ghz, Corsair H55 liquid cooler, Samsung 840 series SSD and a 2TB Western Digital Green. Its relatively quiet and has a bit of room for storage and expandability. Running xbmc in windows and it idles around 35°C, so it has pretty good air flow and with the option to liquid cool as most lower end closed loops work perfectly. I highly recommend this product and believe you will be quite satisfied with the case.

Question 3

Will this case hold a CD Drive?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it has 1 external 5.25" drive bay. There's a mesh cover that can be pulled off and a cd/dvd drive slid into place.

Question 4

Is power supply fron mounted and if so does power cord plug into front?

Accepted Answer

Power supply is rear mounted above the mother board. Power cord plugs in the back.

Question 5

Hi would I be able to disassemble it completely and fit it inside a suitcase? I plan to take this overseas and assemble a PC there with parts. Trying to understand if I can take this apart into pieces that will fit into a luggage.
Thanks.

Accepted Answer

The entire case itself will fit in a large thick suitcase. You could unscrew the cover to put other items inside so you don't waste space.
The case is not designed to be dissembled though.
It is pretty sturdy so I don't think it could get crushed easily.
But you might want to wrap the case in thin bubble wrap so you don't damage it, or damage any clothes in the suitcase from the sharp edges.
You will have a much better time using a modular PSU as well.

Question 6

We are looking for a Mini ITX case with power supply that has a slot for a PCIe in the case  ?

thanks

Accepted Answer

The CM Elite does not ship with a power supply included, but it will fit a full sized atx power supply you see in most desktops.  As far as room for a video card there is plenty of space even for the longer high end gaming GPUs.  The slot for the PCIe is a dual slot graphics card.

Question 7

I know this is a itx case...will it work with a mini atx board ?

Accepted Answer

No the case itself is designed to only use a itx board since the only layout for mobo standoff's are in the itx configuration... And be careful on which heatsink you choose to go with the gelid heatsink I ended up using fits perfectly in the case... And there's really not that much room for cable managmemt in this case...

Question 8

Are there any aftermarket CPU heatsinks or coolers that will fit in this case? If so, which ones would you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Not much room for an after - market cooler. I used  the boxed CPU cooler. I used an Intel i3 4330 with HD4600 graphics & 4 Meg Cache. It uses less watts than a i5 so it runs cooler at a faster speed. Then I turned the power supply upside down to suck the hot air out. I used only the IGP graphics.

Question 9

Can you stack 2 or more of these? I want to build a render farm with at least 2 one on top of the other. And, is there a bottom vent to match the top vent when I stack them?

Accepted Answer

The Elite 130 is a very nice case for a home theater pc (my rig) or small desktop pc.  I don't remember seeing a bottom vent.  Even if there were, it would most likely be blocked by components. This case is small and not designed for the operating environment you are proposing (stacked units).  Rendering is very CPU intensive and you will have lots of heat to contend with - both inside and around the cases.  You might overcome the issue by installing as many case fans as possible in each unit AND ensuring there is lots of air flowing around the units.  An external fan might work.  It will be noisy and ugly, and you will need to ensure the external fan is running.  I'm familiar with dense computing environments - I'm an enterprise server admin.  I can tell you that a render farm is a challenging environment.  You might consider buying cases that are designed for heavier duty - say workstation class towers or better yet rack mount equipment.  Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

Question 10

Will the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P fit in this?  Thanks.

Accepted Answer

After doing a quick search on Newegg's site, the board you have listed is a full ATX board. This case will only accept mini-itx boards. If you are looking to get a new case for this board you will need to shop for one that a full size ATX board will fit in.
Cooler Master makes some excellent cases, just check form factor in the search field before you buy.
Good luck with the build.

Questions & Answers