Cooler Master Elite 360 Case Review :: Exterior

Horizontal front

Horizontal rear

Horizontal Right

Horizontal Left

Starting at the drive bays, the case has two 5.25" drive bays in a sideways orientation that works when the case is horizontal or vertical. Below the 5.25" drive bays is a 3.5" drive bay for the floppy drive or Zip drive if you need it. This arrangement makes sense for the mid-tower ATX size as most people will have a maximum of two optical drives in this spot for burning and viewing DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs.

Vertical front

Vertical IO

Cooler Master logo

Power Reset buttons

The top of the case has the Power and Reset buttons, with the HDD activity light and System activity light here as well. This positioning is kind of weird until you think of the positioning of the buttons when the case is horizontal. In that position the buttons are on the right side of the case, making it normal. The IO consists of two USB 2.0 ports, the Microphone and Speaker jacks. There is also a cut-out area for the Firewire port but that is optional.

Side panel

The Top of the case has a position for a 120mm fan. Note that this would cool the system when it is in horizontal position. The rear of the case has the plug for the Power Supply, 7 openings for the PCI Express slots on the motherboard. There are also two grill mounts for 80mm fans if you want them. There are two areas for mounting feet. As the case is designed to be either horizontal or vertical the feet of the case can be placed in the normal bottom or on the left hand side of the case if it is horizontal.