Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus Computer Case Review @ APH Networks

As a reviewer of PC components, I would like to first start this introduction off with a bit of insight. PC components tend to fall into three different categories: Budget components, performance components, and I-have-too-much-money-to-spend components. You follow? Let me rephrase. Budget components are produced by manufacturers with the goal of providing the best performance-per-dollar. Performance components are released into the market comparably around the same price, but geared towards providing pure performance, innovation, and refinement. Last, but definitely not the least, is the I-have-too-much-money-to-spend kind of products. These products are those targeted at consumers that really have no budget in mind, but are just looking for the best of the best with simply have too much money to spend; hence the name I gave it. Today, however, I seem to be in a bit of a dilemma. Cooler Master has given us a fresh chassis, the Elite 431 Plus, and it seems to be a hybrid of a budget and a performance case. Looking at the price of around $50 at the time of review, it is definitely priced as a budget case. But on paper, this baby screams performance. LED intake fan? Hot swap HDD X-dock eSATA bay? Internal USB 3.0? Black painted interior? The perfect acrylic windowed side panel (No joke!)? The feature list on this case continues to amaze me. But there must be a catch, right? Well, I guess you'll have to read on to find out.