11.12.2016

This is a fantastic little case. it is well-built, robust and fits together perfectly. You cannot quite build your computer without needing a screwdriver, but you won't need it often with this case. The stock fans are quiet (provided your motherboard can speed-control 3-pin fans) and the small size means the air easily gets where it's needed without needing to worry about keeping cables out of the way. The graphics card pulls air in through its own vent - and my card seems to eject it that way as well (one fan in, the other fan out) so the case fans don't need to cool the GPU. Sure, if you want to do extreme overclocking or if you have a high ambient temperature you may well look at water-cooling,but I'm running an i5 6600K at 4.3 GHz using a Noctua U9S cooler and it only gets above 70 degrees briefly before the fans kick in, and mostly sits in the low-to-mid 60s during stress testing with the three fans running at half speed almost silently. 4.3 GHz is fast enough for me. I can control all three fans separately but you wouldn't miss much by connecting the two case fans together to run off the same motherboard fan header. In fact I see little point in replacing the stock fans unless you want 4-pin PWM control, and increasing the size of the front fan or adding 80 mm rears seems unnecessary.A few words about dimensions. This is a large mini-ITX case sold on the basis of being able to fit in full-sized components, but there is full-sized and FULL-SIZED. You cannot get everything that's made into a Corsair 250D!CPU Cooler.The official spec is max height 95 mm. This is rubbish. It is about 143 mm to the plastic window which covers almost all the motherboard area, but if your cooler reaches right to the front or back of the motherboard you will have about 5 mm less as the edges of the window hang lower. To be safe don't choose anything higher than 135 mm. Area is a little harder to define as this depends on where the CPU is on your motherboard and what else you intend to fit, particularly an optical drive. I have an optical drive 170 mm long (though its advertised as 165), and I have over 30 mm clearance between it and the Noctua U9S on an ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard. There's 163 mm between the back of my optical drive and inside lip of the case backplate. In all honesty, if you are looking for a good air cooler for this case it's very hard to see beyond the Noctua U9S.Graphics Card:Here we're into trickier territory. The spec says 290 mm long, which is correct as the distance between the top lips on the front and back plates. However graphics card manufacturers don't always include the mounting bracket in their overall lengths - my own card is 300 mm long overall but is listed by the manufacturer as 285 mm. It fits - just - but I need to remove the front fan to be able to angle the card enough to get it in through the top. You could possibly go very slightly longer - I have seen 305 mm mentioned - but this depends on the other dimensions and how the edges are bevelled.Width may be more of a problem with today's monster graphics cards. My own card is 133 mm, measured from the outer edge of the motherboard connector (which is how the manufacturer measures it - the I/O shield sticks out beyond this by 15 mm). This is the absolute maximum width and I wouldn't advise trying to fit anything bigger than 130 mm because of the power connector. In my machine the wires are badly crushed by the optical drive bracket, but if this weren't fitted they'd catch on the lid, possibly incurring more damage. It works, but it isn't pretty.Thickness. Only a fool would try to fit a 2.5 slot card into a mini-ITX case but, just for the record, 57 mm thick (including backplate - without a backplate the maximum thickness might be 55 mm) presses tight up against the inside of the side plate with no room for the filter. 2 slot cards are unlikely to be anything close to this thickness so you should be fine.Optical drive:You'll need to be a little careful with length if you want to fit a tall CPU cooler, and this depends on your motherboard layout, but anything up to 180 mm long is probably fine. Rather more of a problem - and the only fault I can find with the design of this case - is the optical drive retaining clip. If you have a large graphics card with backplate, then this will foul the retaining clip. It's not too much of a problem and judicious use of a screwdriver is enough to push the bottom of the clip enough to fit or release an optical drive. Unfortunately Corsair haven't provided any option for not using this clip, as there are no screw holes in the opposite side of the optical drive bracket..

28.10.2019

My self-build i7 desktop's Antec case was exhibiting signs of old-age (I have been running this system since 2010). Disintegration of the power and reset switches, bits of cracked plastic, thoughts of replacing the motherboard/CPU etc in the near future motivated a search for a new case.I wanted a full ATX Tower - to provide space for any conceivable major, future, upgrade, better ventilation then the old case provided, a design that would accommodate lots of 3.5" and 2.5" drives (I have lots!), and better front panel USB support - preferably with USB 3.0 . Other requirements were for - a reasonable price ~£150 max,

11.10.2017

I've had this case for some time now and thought I'd give it that time until reviewing it.I will break the review down to the following elements:Build quality, tidiness, airflow, volume, temperatures and features.Build quality: Definitely a weak spot this. It's pretty flimsy steel and while it looks nice, it doesn't feel it. The metal construction is quite cheap feeling, very light, and you won't particularly appreciate its infrastructure at all. The HD bay is especially dreadful and I had to use blu tac to dampen its vibration against the chassis. Not great.Tidiness: Excellent. It gives lots of space to keep things well spaced, cables neatly going behind the motherboard,

27.11.2014

This is a very nice case. Perfect for a desktop build where you're not after the biggest and baddest hardware. I won't tell you what can fit in. The specs will do that. I will however say that all the cable ties, the dust filters and fan mounts are very handy. I have 2 side and one front intake. It There are plenty of holes for passive expulsion of hot air but, with all the air getting in there, it's just not that hot!In terms of GPU, I know you can fit an MSI GTX 970 with a few millimetres to spare at the top. The Asus STRIX version of the same card will not fit, unfortunately. Most triple fan solutions will probably be a little too long but I have seen the odd build with one in there, at a push.

28.4.2020

Every few years when I build a new PC, the cases just seem to get better and better. This is certainly the best so far.Everything in this case is modular. It's sort of tool-free but you'll still need a screwdriver to undo and tighten the thumbscrews and rearrange or replace fans.Every surface seems to have holes put in to allow air to enter or escape. The two fans at the front have a great little filter (that easily pops off) where they suck air in and blow it over the HDD racks. The PSU at the bottom has holes in the chassis to suck air up. There are covers over the additional bottom hole sets which house the HDD cages, but you can remove these and put fans in there.

23.10.2014

Having had this 250D a few months now I remain really pleased with it.The quality is really very good. Buttons and ports all working fine still. Side, top and back panels fit perfectly and the filters do a good job of trapping dust. Comes with plenty of screws and cable ties so no need to buy extra bits to finish your build. Keeps nice and cool according to AXTU: using a ASRock Z77E-ITX Motherboard, Intel 3570k, Geforce GTX 650, Corsair 430w PSU and 2x HDDs.I had no problems building in it. As other reviewers have mentioned it is not the smallest of mini-ITX cases, but that is fine by me as appearance and ease of use were more important to me than saving a little space. Personally I do like the look of it,

23.5.2020

What a sight to behold when it's all built and functional. It's really spacious and easy to find your way around. Both side panels swing open, and can also be removed by unscrewing a screw in the hinge. It's quite heavy, but I don't see that as a bad thing since I don't move my PC much, only for cleaning every month. It comes with a Commander Pro, RGB hub, and 3 LL120's, which is a great deal considering the fans alone are upwards of £60.I had one small issue. I bought a H150i to go with this case. I installed the radiator at the front of the case, making use of the 3 LL120 RGB fans included with the case. It was fairly straight forward, however when the time came to route the wires on the other side of the case,

10.4.2018

I've had this case for a month or so now for a new build. It's Good value for the money, loads of room and easy to build in with plenty of cable routes and fan attachment sites, I chose this case for the airflow, the relatively low cost and the simple aesthetic and good view of the internals.My only gripes would be;-The front USB ports seem a little shallow and some of the USB connector is left exposed (this hasn't caused any issues).-There's a slightly raised corner where the front face piece meets the side panel which is quite obvious if you run your finger over it.-The top mesh filter has quite generous holes in it which allows dust into the case (I've not had to clean it),

31.3.2014

After considering cases from value/budget to enthusiast level I settled on the 650d for my first custom build. I consider this case to be an investment. As I intend to upgrade my pc from time to time I wanted a case I would be happy to have around for a long time and that would be a pleasure to build in rather than a hindrance. Of all the cases I looked it this case has everything I could want and more and is in my opinion one of the most aesthetically pleasing cases out there. The clean lines, simple front facia, aluminium surround and side window are nice little touches. I had also considered the Fractal Design R4 Pearl Black and the Corsair 750d but I prefered the front panel on the 650d to the one on the others.

3.3.2014

Ok, my title is a bit confusing, but honestly the 350D is bigger than I envisaged. This is for my spare gaming rig so the PC already existed in a Silverstone SG09 case which is compact but very tight inside (but a great case). However I wanted something a bit more elegant, with a window and better cooler and the 350D fit the bill.The swap from SG09 to 350D was easy! I only needed the screwdriver to fix the mobo inside, everything else is tool-less. Cable management is a breeze; my PSU is not modular but has enough cables for a SLI configuration, but I was able to tuck all the cabling behind without any issues. There are plenty of holes for cable ties; quite frankly in all my 20 years of building systems,

14.7.2016

Absolutely perfect, and surprisingly easy to move around.It sits comfortably on top of of my desk, not taking up much room at all.If you plan on putting something rather large (Disc Player) In the slot at the top, you will find you have significantly less room.Great if you are looking for a small and space. Usually when looking for an ITX case you are severely limited by space. While this case is small, there is great utilisation possibilities of space. It surprisingly fits my rather large GPU and an same brand [As the case] CPU cooler (H100I).It does seem this case is only designed for these CPU coolers, but I would assume any dual 120mm fan setup would still fit (however it may be more tight).Some tips for making the most of the space:1.

8.4.2014

Generally I'm happy with the case, but it's let down by a few minor points:1. the case is not screw-less; it's not too bad, the panels come off easily enough, but they're held in place by thumb-screws.2. the front panel has two press-to-release attachments to hold it in place - one of those broke immediately, and I can see that the other isn't going to be very durable; not an issue for me really, I just hold it in place with blu-tack, but annoying3. the 5 1/4" bay is recessed too much - if you actually use one (e.g. for an optical drive) then the drive will be indented relative to the covers and the front panel - it's all black, so it's not too ugly, but it's aesthetically displeasing.4.

25.6.2016

To disclose that I have two other Corsair cases, multiple Corsair PSU's and various other parts from them may bias me slightly. However I have spent years in building, repairing and maintaining PC's for a day job and regard the quality of current Corsair kit to be excellent, and their value to be better than rivals Coolermaster (who have declined slightly in build quality IMHO) and Antec (who build exceptionally robust and reliable kit).The case is very well built, trim on edges both external and internal are very well smoothed which is to be expected of highend/premium cases. Layout inside the chassis is excellent,

16.3.2020

This is a great case i had the 570x and upgraded to this mainly fot the doors that open which makes doing anything inside easy to do being upgrades or just a clean.Yes theres cheaper cases out there but if you look at the cost of a pack of 3 ll120 fans and a commander pro it makes the case a good price in total.Very easy to work in and fit your bits long as you do good cables in the back all should be fine.The glass lifts off with 1 screw to undo so its easy to clean and looks great with the lights.The ll lights mainly put light out not into the case so if you wanted the full rgb led both ways it might be better to upgrade the fans to the newer ql models.All in all i think it is a worthwhile

19.4.2015

Fantastic case. Really well built and well thought out. The front panel is coated in a nice metal finish which looks really good.The case has removable (and washable) dust filters over all the air intake points. As you would expect, it fits Corsair closed loop coolers perfectly. Plenty of space for cable management. The airflow is good, you can fit a huge 20cm fan to the front if necessary and 2x12 cm to the side/to your cooler. The other side is also vented to allow your graphics card to pull air in independently of the front fan.Only criticism, actually it's more a warning is to check your motherboard layout first. Mine has its main 24 pin power input in a stupid place off to the right instead of near the RAM.

Corsair Obsidian 1000D - Reviews

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