The Corsair Carbide 400Q Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on April 29, 2016 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- ATX
- E-ATX
- Carbide
Conclusion
With the Carbide 400Q, Corsair wanted to create a compact and elegant case that also offers good thermal performance and very low noise levels, all for a reasonable price tag. These are just too many eggs for one basket and a single design cannot possibly excel on all five of those areas. It is the balance between them that matters and we feel that Corsair did a fine job balancing their design to the best possible extent.
The Carbide 400Q is one of the most compact cases currently available that can support an Extended ATX motherboard, as well as top tier graphics cards and liquid cooling systems. It cannot support many drives but these are more than enough for the majority of home and office users, most of which own a maximum of two or three drives. There is no support for external drives, forcing users who want to work with optical media to go for an external device. This can be a problem for professionals, especially for those that need to receive or share digital material with their customers. Most home users and gamers will not mind, as the bulk of digital material is being transferred online nowadays.
In terms of quality, the Carbide 400Q is very good overall. The mechanical strength of the steel chassis is excellent. It is next to impossible to bent or twist the chassis, even if a lot of force is applied. The paint job is excellent, highly resistant to fingerprints and scratching. Our only concern lies with the plastic frame of the faceplate. The plastics are thick and of very good quality, but it is very tightly attached to the metallic frame of the case, requiring a lot of force to remove it.
With the stock configuration in mind, the balance between thermal performance and acoustics is towards the latter, but the Carbide 400Q still offers thermal performance comparable to that of most ATX tower cases and can easily support a relatively powerful system. If the user wants to, the Carbide 400Q can support even systems with triple graphics cards and liquid cooling, but that would require the removal of the top panel cover and the installation of more and more powerful fans. This would defeat the purpose of buying the Carbide 400Q in the first place, as the end result would probably be a cramped, noisy setup.
In conclusion, the Carbide 400Q is finely balanced between thermal performance, size and acoustics. It currently retails at it MSRP price of $99, which is reasonable for such a case but, in our opinion, if it could have been a little lower it would be more competitive in a crowded market. Nevertheless, the Carbide 400Q can be a very good choice for a typical gaming PC, allowing for relatively low noise levels and good thermal performance using the stock configuration with the case fan thermally controlled by the motherboard.
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close - Saturday, April 30, 2016 - link
Well, "bent" and "extend" are correct, just not in that sentence. So only a proof reader would spot it, not a spell checker. And the author's name suggests he may not be a native speaker so you can expect some mistakes. As long as the technical details are correct I can get over spelling errors, photos that weren't shot RAW, and other BS like this coming from people that have nothing better to do.jdavenport608 - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link
I come here for the expert and professional reviews. I would expect the expert to be able to sound the part. Basic spelling and grammar mistakes make me wonder about other parts of the review. Plus it breaks up the smooth flow of the article to stumble across these types of mistakes.I have been wondering about the editorial staff of some sites I read for awhile now. Sadly, Anandtech is not the only site with this problem.
As for being free. I have no ad blockers running. Plenty of ads here.
The_Assimilator - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link
^ This guy gets it. Simple spelling and grammar mistakes reveal a lack of professionalism.MatthewsWal - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link
<irony>Yeah because two simple spelling mistakes that a spellchecker cannot catch is what makes a review unprofessional.</irony> Have you ever bothered checking the background of the writer? Other than that he is not even American and he still writes better than most I've seen, I still prefer reading a piece written by someone with a phd than "reviews" written by people of questionable education and expertise.The_Assimilator - Saturday, April 30, 2016 - link
Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "an editor".JoeyJoJo123 - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link
You mean a b itchy response to Corsair advertising, right? Tech journalists who run a website with paid employees don't review stuff for free, you know. They make articles so that they can continue to have a job.svan1971 - Saturday, April 30, 2016 - link
economymatthew - Amen.Black Obsidian - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link
I picked up this case's sibling, the 400C (full-frame side window, no acoustic dampening, dust filter replacing top panel) and then stuffed a 5820K, Corsair H110i GT, and MSI 980Ti into it. With Corsair AF120/140 Quiet fans in the top and rear running at 100% it's still virtually silent at idle, and normal gaming load conditions. Airflow is a bit weak, but this isn't a case for extreme overclockers anyway.I had the same difficulty with the front panel, solved by bending the plastic tabs inward a bit so the force required to remove the panel is now only "quite a lot" rather than "Hulk Smash!". Also, as much as I like the aesthetics of the PSU/HDD/wiring shroud at the bottom, it was quite a pain to put back into place after the motherboard was installed.
Overall a very reasonable case for $110CAD, but I don't expect it to have the kind of longevity my Corsair 650D and Antec P180 enjoyed.
nagi603 - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link
Good to hear of an owner... and speak of the devil, I still have a P180 in active service. :)Black Obsidian - Friday, April 29, 2016 - link
My original P180 lasted a long time, but my back still hurts just thinking about it.