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
Installation and Cable Routing
I love my Antec P182, but working in that case proved to be a very special kind of hell. If you have a graphics card as long as the Radeon HD 5870 or longer, you pretty much have to remove the top drive cage, which means you're stuck using the bottom cage, which orients the drives in the worst way possible. I have small hands and it was still a nightmare to cable up and install drives. God help me when I have to replace a drive.
The 600T, on the other hand, was freakishly easy to get everything set up in. It helps to have a power supply with modular cabling (and if you're considering spending $160 on a case, you may want to go ahead and step that up too) because it allows you to do the installation in steps.
My first step was installing the motherboard. I already had the heatsink (a Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283) mounted to the board, and popping the I/O shield and then motherboard in proved reasonably easy. Corsair provides enough space above the motherboard proper to route cables, but you can also install a liquid cooling system with dual 120mm fans on the radiator if you are so inclined. Suffice it to say, getting the 8-pin auxiliary power cable routed behind the board and plugged in was about as easy as I could ask.
From there, everything else was just as simple. Pop out two drive panels and slide the optical drives in, and they snap and lock into place. Installing the hard drives was also easy, although if you have a 2.5" SSD like I did you'll have to futz around with trying to pop one of the pins out of the drive tray to get it installed. Installing the SSD was probably the most confused I got during the entire operation; Corsair doesn't include very useful instructions with the case and while most of it is self-explanatory, documentation that's a little more thorough wouldn't hurt.
Where I did run into trouble was in routing cables. While they do route to the back of the tray very nicely and easily, that whole region is going to turn into spaghetti in short order. Corsair includes zip ties, but they aren't reusable like the ties in the back of the P182's tray are. As usual the most egregious offender is the main power cable from the power supply. Unfortunately, while the side panels are flexible and designed to bow a little bit to give you some breathing room, this means that they bow out at the bottom corners when cables are cramped in the back. I imagine a cleaner cabling job could probably be done to alleviate this, but nonetheless just a touch more space in the back really wouldn't have hurt this case.
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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.