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Thread: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

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    Moosing about! CAT-THE-FIFTH's Avatar
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    Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    Coolermaster has introduced another pair of budget cases,the ATX Elite 371 and the mATX Elite 343:

    http://www.techpowerup.com/139197/Co...ming-Case.html

    http://www.techpowerup.com/139198/Co...MATX-Case.html

    Both cases can take a card upto the length of an HD5970.

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    0.5mm thickness ? foil any one ? , i know it is a cheap case but come on .5mm thick . wont take much to damage it beyond repair

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    I like how they only punched 2 holes for the side fans screws, As if it would have cost more to have punched 4 holes

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    Most of the cases below £30 tend to use between 0.5MM and 0.7MM SGCC steel. At least SECC steel is better quality and both the Coolermaster cases weigh under 5KG. The Elite 370 and Elite 430 also use 0.5MM ~ 0.6MM SECC steel too.

    OTH,the Antec NSK4400 I have uses 0.8MM SECC steel but weighs around 8KG.

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    Well at least it's secc steel but 0.5mm that's going to be like sticking you hand in a bucket of razor blades.

    And the 343, width is only 180mm with just 146mm cooler clearance and an 80 or 92mm rear fan.
    That's so pants compared to the old 340 case.

    All told coolermaster still seem to be moving backwards in their cheap cases.

    Umm CAT look at those thickness & weight numbers again, you might notice a correlation
    a 0.6mm steel case is very noticeable lighter than a 0.8mm steel case even with a full pc build inside.
    It's also noticeable weaker, I'll happly stand on the old 0.8mm chieftec cases we've got at work, even the slightly later 0.7mm ones they are solid, I'd not dare to stand on the new 0.6mm cases (or should that be works of origami) I can make the top panel flex by just pushing on it with my hand.
    Granted I can carry the new pc's to the other side of the building with only one arm, need both arms to move the old ones any distance.

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    Quote Originally Posted by Pob255 View Post
    Well at least it's secc steel but 0.5mm that's going to be like sticking you hand in a bucket of razor blades.

    And the 343, width is only 180mm with just 146mm cooler clearance and an 80 or 92mm rear fan.
    That's so pants compared to the old 340 case.

    All told coolermaster still seem to be moving backwards in their cheap cases.

    Umm CAT look at those thickness & weight numbers again, you might notice a correlation
    a 0.6mm steel case is very noticeable lighter than a 0.8mm steel case even with a full pc build inside.
    It's also noticeable weaker, I'll happly stand on the old 0.8mm chieftec cases we've got at work, even the slightly later 0.7mm ones they are solid, I'd not dare to stand on the new 0.6mm cases (or should that be works of origami) I can make the top panel flex by just pushing on it with my hand.
    Granted I can carry the new pc's to the other side of the building with only one arm, need both arms to move the old ones any distance.
    You are all right as it does look like Coolermaster is doing a Corsair of sorts!

    However,the newer cases do have better cable management and are tool free. The ATX cases also have better cooling than the ones they replaced.

    With rising steel prices however you are going to find more and more budget cases using lower quality and cheaper steel.

    The reason I mentioned Antec NSK4400 is heavier since it uses thicker steel and it is one of the smaller ATX cases. It cost me around £25 from Scan in the middle of 2007 but it is £40+ now. Even cases like the Antec 300 have risen in price too from around £35 to nearly £50.

    I like the Elite 340 too as I have mentioned it many times before but it is now EOL. Some of the Inwin mATX cases are supposedly well built but I suspect these too will be replaced with cheaper to build cases eventually. A lot of the mATX Asus and cheaper Casecom cases I have seen look like they use 0.5MM to 0.6MM steel as well.

    It is surprising how many DIY and shop bought pre-builds have these sorts of cases although cost is probably the main factor here.

    Unless you intend to move these cases around a lot they tend to be generally OK as long as they are relatively cheap,ie,under £30.

    Funnily enough the best built mATX case I have seen was for a 5 to 6 year old Medion PC. The case panels were nearly 1MM thick IIRC and it was extremely heavy too.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 28-01-2011 at 12:35 PM.

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    The Xigmatek Asgard uses 0.6MM SGCC steel and the Antec VSK-2000 uses 0.6MM SECC steel.

    I am not sure what thickness steel the Thermaltake V3 and Silverstone PS04B use though.

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    Looks good. Thin steel is no problem if you use ridges to strengthen and roll edges to prevent cuts, and Coolermaster do both well.

    I would easily have considered the 371 instead of my HAF912 had it been out then. (Still like the HAF912 for a number of reasons, but it's much closer).

    If the price is good then the next build for the GF will be using one for sure.

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    I suppose they are not too bad considering they are built to a price. The last cheap case I took delivery of came with a PSU screwed in and where it had been thrown about a bit in transit the weight of the PSU had bent the case quite a bit. Having said that I think the person who bought it had got it for around £25 or less. It was one of them ones that looked like a car on the front.

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    Re: Coolermaster Elite 343 and 371

    That was sort of my point CAT, coolermaster is lowering the quality to keep the price down.
    Things like the 330 and 340 where so good because of the combination of low cost and good quality, but the drop in quality means they are now no better than any other cheap case.
    And personally I'd be willing to pay an extra £10 for a better quality case.

    As too rolled edges, you'll find them in all cheap case even the £12 casecom KB-7760
    Part of that reason is that at 0.5mm thick the steel is too thin and flexable and rolling the edges actually helps strengthen the steel.
    it's the areas where it cannot be rolled, like the punched tab of the drive cages which is where it's nasty, as I discovered when modding the KB-7760 even when sanded smooth the edge of a 0.5mm sheet is still thin enough to cut.

    The difference between 0.6mm and 0.5mm may seem small, but a 0.5mm sheet is noticeably more flexible than 0.6mm

    Put it another way, given the choice between the elite 371 and casecom KM-6788 I'd go with the km-6788 for it's better quality.

    PS CAT have a look at the new Casecom K5 chassis, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239238 it's a refined version of the KM frame
    That's something that looks to be improving with a new version.

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