Corsair Obsidian 650D: Transmuting Graphite to Obsidian
by Dustin Sklavos on July 29, 2011 1:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Conclusion: Everything But Performance
I'm not particularly happy with the results of Corsair's Obsidian 650D. I love everything else about the case: I love how it looks, I love how easy it is to assemble, I love how feature rich it is, and I love how clean the installations are by virtue of Corsair's smart internal layout. The 650D is a great looking case and makes a convincing argument for spending up over the 600T (although I do still like the curved accents of the 600T's design.)
Unfortunately, negative air pressure cooling is yesterday's news in the world of case engineering. There's only one other negative pressure design we've tested: Antec's Sonata IV. But the Sonata IV has a very clear and clean thermal design: a single intake on the side allows air to be pulled into the case by the processor cooler and then exhausted through the back 120mm fan. It's not a great design, almost entirely because it's incredibly loud under load, but the way the case channels air is simple, obvious, and direct.
The Obsidian 650D, in comparison, seems almost schizophrenic. Air is brought in through the front 200mm intake, and then hopefully routed up and split through the rear 120mm exhaust and the top 200mm exhaust. Tower coolers in the standard orientation like the one on our testbed are seeing air flow through them oddly, and some of that air is likely just going straight out of the top before it even touches the cooler's fins. What's worse is that Corsair's design offers you virtually no way to improve the cooling: you can change out the 200mm exhaust at the top for two 120mm or 140mm fans, but it doesn't change the fact that you're exhausting more air than you're bringing in.
Really what we need to see are more designs that channel air straight through the tower cooler on the processor. I'm not personally a fan of exhaust vents in the tops of enclosures; something about them just seems counterintuitive and I'd prefer to see air more directed like in the Antec Sonata IV (but without the noise). Everything else about Corsair's case is fantastic, but the thermal design needs to go back to the drawing board.
Unfortunately, that also brings us to the pricetag. With a $199 MSRP (though currently available online for as low as $165 if you know where to look), the 650D just doesn't offer enough performance to recommend it over other enclosures. SilverStone's RV03 can be a royal pain to put together, but it's a stronger performer for less money. Even the BitFenix Shinobi (with the proper fans added and installed) might be a better choice if you're looking for performance out of a mid-tower, and it costs half as much.
There's an awful lot to like about the Corsair Obsidian 650D, which is why it's such a shame it can't produce thermal performance in line with other cases in its class. I've read the 600T is an excellent case for top-mounted water-cooling, so it stands to recommend the 650D for the same purpose. If you've tried that and had a good experience with it, by all means, please sound off in our comments. But for regular users with air-coolers, there are better deals to be had.
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mscrivo - Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - link
you're crazy if you can't hear the noise. I just bought one of these cases, and 2 days in, its driving me nuts. Its more than audible, especially compared to my old P180B.ooostephen - Saturday, January 14, 2012 - link
same here. i tossed some 'vent filters' used for air conditioners, in the front, and that made a noticeable diff. it also helps keep the dust out.DanNeely - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Even if the cooling worked well, this would be a killer for me. It looks ugly, and most mobos are coming with a header now for an internal connection making the kludge obsolete.LtHawkins - Saturday, July 30, 2011 - link
I just built a system and got around this by connecting the USB3 expansion panel that came with my motherboard to the mobo header, then connected the 650D USB3 connector to that, but I'm keeping it all internal - I tucked the panel into one of the external drive bays that I'm not using. Won't work for everyone, but if you have a spare drive bay, theres no reason to have wires come poking out the back of the case.Locklear - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Seem to remember Corsair stating that they would release a substitute frontpanel which has usb3 internal header connections instead of the current one. This one will be available on their web-shop. No idea about the timeframe though.darckhart - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
free replacement? or paid? i hate how some charge you for something that it should have come with in the first place. (i'm looking at you evga and your high flow brackets for the 580s)Locklear - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
As far as i remember it's not a free replacement, as it's not a defect. The case (and all other cases with usb3 front ports i know of) was designed like this because internal usb3 headers on motherboards were not that common when it was designed, so they opted for a "universal" solution instead.There are ways to work around the problem with things like this http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/products/accesso...
But I agree.. It's not the ideal solution.
Goty - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Solution for negative pressure: simply turn the exhaust fan in the top of the case around. I built a PC for my father in this case and it works just fine.Wieland - Saturday, July 30, 2011 - link
That will get rid of the negative pressure, but it will introduce other airflow problems, inefficiencies.That intake will be right next to the only exhaust so a lot of the air it blows in will go straight back out of the case. This cold air will take up some of the capacity of the exhaust fan and make it less efficient.
The top fan is oriented almost directly opposed to the airflow coming from the front of the case, and the opposing airflows will probably create some dead zones. If you have a big tunneled heatpipe cooler oriented front-to-back (like my Kingston XT-1264), it will push air around and away from it.
With that big open vent on the top and positive air pressure there's bound to be some recycled hot air. The fan filter they removed will now be an absolute necessity to keep out dust.
EJ257 - Thursday, August 11, 2011 - link
I have the HAF932 with a similar fan setup. I really think the big fan on top is a great idea because the heat likes to collect near the top of the case. I turned the back fan around so its acting as an intake too and I haven't had issues with it. So now the airflow is front/back intake, top exhaust.