Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (RC-431P) Mid Tower Case
Jan 30th, 2012 | By JaredInside the Elite 431 Plus is all black and you will find the bag of accessories tied up in the 3.5″ bays.
There are three tool free locking mechanisms included for the 3.5″ bays; simply turn to unlock and remove and the opposite for installation. It’s simple and keeps the drives secure, that’s the way I like it. The two open 5.25″ bays also have a tool free retention device that works with a lever instead. As it’s labeled, slide the lever forward to unlock and back to lock.
I am not a fan of non-reusable PCI expansion slot covers, but with a budget case this is not surprising to see. Once you remove them they are trash and unless you have some spare covers that will fit it will always be open if there isn’t a device installed.
Inside looking along the top are the two 120mm fan mounts. There is a screen over both that is removable, however you would have to remove the installed fans in order to take the filter out for cleaning.
On the back of the X-dock is the module to connect power via a 4-pin molex and a SATA data cable.
With the right side panel removed the large CPU backplane cutout is clearly visible and is a good size that should accommodate most scenarios. There is no room left behind the motherboard tray however for cable routing so any cable management will have to go alongside the drive bays and the middle of the case. There are small notches up this side of the drive cages for zip tying your various cables out of the way.
Now that the tour is over, let’s get some hardware inside.