Cooler Master RC-130-KKN1 Elite 130 - Mini-ITX Computer Case with Mesh Front Panel and Water Cooling Support

I go to school across the country from where I live and needed to move my current hardware in a mid sized case into a smaller case. (See my review of the Corsair 300R here on Amazon, great mid tower case). After doing hundreds of hours of research and passing up a great deal on the Bitfenix prodigy, I decided to get this case for a few reasons:1. Front panel USB3 (x2)2. Amazing options for many drives of different kinds (I currently have 2 SSD and 2 HDD in mine)3. Full size ATX power supply form factor4. Full size graphics card room5. Truly small compared to the Prodigy6. Simple, yet strong, look. Doesn't look like a plastic toy like many other Cooler Master products. (in my opinion, of course)Initial impressions:Out of the box, the case looks great. The paint is even, the inside is black, the cables are black, the grating on the top and front look very professional and stylish. The documents that come with the case are in many different languages, but are very easy to understand using the pictures. The front panel is not a massive pain to remove like many other cases I have owned. One thing that I love about this case is that it has many places to tie cables. When building, I took the time to really think through zip-tying cable groups to keep the clutter to a minimum.The case also came with a bag of various screws, quick detach mounts for SSD and HDDs, a bag of SSD screws, and two black SATA cables (one with an angled connector and one without). I'm sure I'm missing something here, so do a little bit of research or throw me a question to find out if this case has what you need.The build:- Motherboard: Gigabyte H77N-WIFI (so far so good, I'll write a review eventually)- Corsair H60 water cooler (great so far, fits very well in this smaller case)- SSD x2- HDD x2- Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce (large and heavy, 11.2" long, 5" tall, 1.5" wide)- Seasonic 560KM PSUAs you can see, this is a lot of things to power. I found it moderately easy to keep cables neat and organized, but it took a bit of head scratching and zip-tying to keep the spaghetti to a minimum. There are cable-tying points along both of the bottoms on each side of the case, so keeping the front-panel cables tied and out of the way was very simple. The hardest part was probably just making enough room to jam the PSU over all of the SATA cables, water pump lines, etc. when I finished installing everything. Don't be demoralized if you have to take a few pieces out in order to slot something in, everything will fit and it will fit well.Pros:- Full size gaming PC in a mini-itx sized case- Room for massive amounts of storage media (slightly less if you need to use the 5.25" slot)- Very easy to take apart to fit your hands inside- Quick detach for storage media- Very quiet stock fans that move plenty of air (each comes with a 4-pin power extension for direct PSU power)- Great price- Sturdy, trustworthy structureCons:- Takes extra time to think through compared to larger casesThanks for reading

Before I get started, I should note I run a pretty high end custom watercooled system inside this Elite 130, so I guess I'll list what I'm packing in this mini monster:Conventional PartsCPU - Intel I5 3570kMotherboard - MSI Z77IA-E53Graphics Card - MSI Twinfrozer Radeon 7950 (7970 Reference PCB)Power Supply - Silverstone Strider 550 WattHard Drive - Western Digital Cavalier Green 1TBSSD - Samsung 840 Pro 128GBUnconventional PartsRadiators - 2x Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Single 120mmPumps - 2x Swiftech MCP35XResevoir - Koolance RP-401X2CPU Block - Koolance CPU-380IGraphics Card Block - Heatkiller GPU-X³ 79X0Fans - 3x Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-45 2150RPM (GT's are best fans out there, no joke. Also the AP-45's are a little toughto find now but AP-15's are just as great and abundant.)With that outta the way...Coming off of the Elite 120, I had very high expectations for this case, and it did not disappoint. Again, coming off the Elite 120, doing a side by side comparison between the 2 cases I found them to be the exact same dimensions even though the product numbers say different. From the numbers, the elite 130 should almost be 1 inch shorter in length which its not. The only difference in size may be the front panel by a couple of millimeters. Speaking of the front panel, it has been changed to a full mesh front which is thee biggest change from the Elite 120, and what a huge improvement it is. My GT's are breathing much more comfortably and are moving monstrous amount of air now thanks to the full mesh front. Also from doing measurements, it looks like that front panels between the 120 and 130 are NOT interchangeable.Some people say that this case is a little to big to be a Mini ITX case, and why this may hold some truth, going any smaller of a case would keep one from installing full length graphics cards. That said, there so much room to work with in this case that u can fit everything one would want into it. And yes, I was able to fit all the stuff listed in this case. And that's 2x 45mm radiators with 3x 25mm fans fitted to them. However the side drive bracket did have to come out for the HDD to fit in its place. HOWEVER, (and this is a big however, notice the caps), the side drive bracket does fit with a watercooling setup and has enough room left on either side to mount an SSD, so if your rocking just SSD's or have external drives, this bracket still maintains functionality in watercooled setups. When selecting the radiators it should be noted that you should pay attention to radiator thickness and graphics card length when the rad inlets are on the graphics card side as they may intersect.The airflow of the case is fantastic when coupled with a Power supply with fan down, which creates a wind tunnel effect where the front fans pull air straight in and the psu pulls in out back. If your going the aircooling route, it should be noted that u have a 65mm clearance for a heatsink. The stock heatsinks that comes with most processors will fit. The Cooler Master GeminII M4 - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heat Pipes (RR-GMM4-16PK-R2) is a great choice for an aftermarket cooler, and as far as I've seen in pictures, will fit even with a graphics card installed.So in conclusion, this case has a ton of different options to which you could build it, whether it be a light and small office computer, a quiet and appealing HTPC, or a full bore, no holds bar, cancer curing, old people punching, etc etc, monstrous gaming Lan Box. I will say however that if your going with multiple drives (3+), I would still recommend the Elite 120 for its optimize drive cage, and if your looking to go any smaller, say bye to that graphics card you have sitting in your wish list.I also uploaded some pics of my build to amazon so u can get an idea of what this little monster can do, as well as a couple measurement for reference.