Corsair Graphite Series 600T: Cool and Quiet
by Dustin Sklavos on November 26, 2010 2:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- 600T
The 600T Externally
A jaunt around the externals of the Corsair Graphite Series 600T reveals something a little more curvaceous than we've come to expect from modern enclosures. Outside of the Cooler Master Cosmos the 600T seems to take at least one or two design cues from (as good a place as any), most cases tend to have sharp angles and very few curves. The 600T on the other hand features rounded edges around most of the design. By the same token, while most cases tend to be shades of black or silver, the 600T employs a gunmetal coloring that suits it well.
We'll start from the front and work our way around. The 600T features four external 5.25" bays but surprisingly no 3.5"; it's safe to assume Corsair figures you can always adapt a front panel card reader (or your ancient floppy drive) to fit in a 5.25" bay. The entire front of the case is ventilated, and the panel in front of the massive 200mm intake fan pops off, allowing you to clean the grate and dust out of the fan. That 200mm fan (and its brother in the top of the case) is the source of some consternation in other reviews: it's quiet, but it doesn't seem to move that much air, and I know some reviewers found the bright white LED lighting a little obnoxious. That's definitely going to be a matter of taste.
When we crawl up the front to the top of the case, we see one of the major progressions in modern cases: the I/O, power, and reset buttons are at the top front of the 600T. It's a smart move since most of us tend to keep our cases on the floor these days. Corsair offers a healthy selection of I/O here: a generous four USB 2.0 ports, microphone and headphone jacks, a 6-pin Firewire port, and something of a rarity right now: a USB 3.0 port. That USB 3.0 port doesn't use the USB 3.0 header that's been showing up on some recent motherboards, though; it's powered by an extension cable that routs to the back of the case and plugs into the motherboard's I/O cluster. This isn't the most elegant solution in the world, but it gets the job done and it's flexible enough that you can always just plug it into a rear USB 2.0 port if your board doesn't support 3.0 and get a fifth front port. If I had one complaint about the I/O cluster, though, it's the inclusion of Firewire but not eSATA. I use both but if I had to make a choice for the average user, I'd err on the side of eSATA.
Parked in the middle of all these ports is the 600T's integrated fan controller. If you've read any other reviews of the 600T, allow me to reiterate what they said: this thing just doesn't seem to do that much. If you plug in all of the fans in the case (the controller is actually completely independent of the case fans and you can choose to avoid using it entirely), you will find that the difference between the lowest and highest settings is like night and later that night. You'll only hear the difference in a quiet room, and as you'll see later, the highest setting doesn't appreciably improve cooling performance.
Speaking of which, the top of the case has a second removable grate covering the second 200mm fan, this one an exhaust. Again, this grate is easy to remove but also fairly secure.
The rear of the case reveals the exhaust fan, a more standard 120mm affair, along with two important distinctions. First, Corsair outfits the case with eight expansion slots instead of seven. It's a small but noteworthy inclusion that makes the case well-suited to multi-GPU systems. Second is the increasingly common bottom-mounted power supply. The power supply's cooling is essentially completely cut off from the rest of the system, and there's a vent in the bottom of the case (with a removable filter) for the power supply's fan. This isn't a problem either; the case is built on a raised base that keeps all but the shaggiest of carpeting from clogging up the vent.
Finally on the sides we have one of my favorite features of the 600T: as you'll find when we check out the internals, the 600T is a largely tool-less affair, and the side panels are very secure but use latches that pop them right off. It's a nice change of pace from having to slide the side panel back on and then secure it, even with thumbscrews, to the back. These panels make getting into and out of the 600T an absolute breeze.
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darckhart - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
haven't read all the words yet, but thanks very very much for the pictures. good angles. i am always checking for the few things that annoy me and i was able to see clearly in your installation. thanks!marc1000 - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Dustin, could you PLEASE do one more test if you still have the case? Invert the top 200mm fan to make it an INTAKE fan (or the rear 120mm, or both) and check the load temps again. When I inverted all fans in my case, the temps dropped by a fair amount. I know each case is different, but if you could make this test and post the result here in the comments I would be very thankfull. (maybe if it makes any difference you could even change the case recomendation to silver).JarredWalton - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
I assume you mean to make all of the fans intake and go the positive pressure route? Because "inverting all the fans" wouldn't really make sense. We should have more case reviews coming from Dustin, and we're working to come up with additional useful tests so if you have any other suggestions/requests please let us know. :-)glad2meetu - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
I think many of us will be interested in a review of the new after market cpu coolers for LGA-1155 around the Jan 9 - Jan 31 time frame. Some minimal details of the new motherboards are starting to come out. On the same note, it would be interesting to see if some of the low airflow problems with several cases is mitigated when an after market cpu cooler is used within thttp://www.anandtech.com/show/4028/corsair-graphit... case.marc1000 - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
yes, Jarred, what I meant is make all of the fans intake. my current case is a micro-atx that only had exaust fans, and the only way I could improve the temps was turning all fans intake. the only exaust ones are the psu fan, and the gpu fan - it's a 5770 with the first "batmobile" cooler, it seems loud as hell in such a small case :(anyway, this "positive pressure" test is fairly simple to do. I hope you guys can include it in following reviews. (and I hope you read this comment!)
best regards,
marc1000 - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
sorry for the typos, I'm writing from my phone ;)Solidstate89 - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
First off, I love that you're starting to do case reviews. I usually come to Anandtech first and foremost when I'm considering a tech purchase in hopes that you guys did a review of said product.I'd love for you guys to consider doing a review of the Fortress FT02. One of the more innovative cases on the market from what I've seen.
sonicology - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
I would like to second this.Anandtech has been my first choice for reviews for nigh on 8 years now, great job with the site guys.
Also, any chance of reviewing the aforementioned Fortress FT02 case? I will shortly be in the market for a new case and this one his definitely caught my attention.
kevith - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
I really like this case when I see it, the design appeals to my taste, both color and the rounded edges. And the price of a good cabinet has never bothered me much, the case is the housing of all our precious - and pricey - hardware. And - like it seems to be the case with Dustin and his old Antec - you can almost grow a long-lasting, love-like relationship with your case. And when it comes to love, there is no price...And if the case really is Cool & Quiet, I think I´m falling a little in love already.
But - as so often - this is where my problems start. Like Phoenixlight wrote, I too would have liked to see some comparisons. It´s almost as if this belongs to an in-depth review of a case. Since all installations are different, you have to have something constant to relate to: A build that´s always the same- until upgraded - that stands in the same room under pretty much the same conditions all the time.
And when you follow the link to the review from bit-tech, it truly shows exact the opposite of Dustins conclusion: The 600T does indeed suck at cooling.
Now, Anand is my main source for hardware reviews, but the two others I do take seriously as well, are Tom´s Hardware and... Bittech. (Since I live in Dennmark EU, prices and products sometimes are more equivalent at Bittech to what I can buy here.)
So now I don´t know hat to think. Are my new love like I want her, wellrounded, quite and still cool? Or is she a hotrunning babe, from whom I´l never get nothing but the Blues?
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Personally I'd go for it.bit-tech's review is solid but it's at odds with my experience and with Tech Report's review of the same case (I used to work at TR and can vouch for their reviews). I was able to put Crossfired 5870's in this case without an appreciable increase in temperatures or noise.