Corsair Obsidian 550D: Starting to Specialize
by Dustin Sklavos on March 29, 2012 3:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Conclusion: Built for Silence
Despite being the first case tested under our new methodology, there's still a lot to process with the Corsair Obsidian 550D, both in terms of its design and in the data that results from it. By explicitly engineering their enclosure for silent running, Corsair has taken a major first step in producing a specialized design as opposed to a more fundamental ATX case like the 550D's predecessors. There's still a lot of experimentation going on here, and the case is designed with flexibility in mind, but the insulating foam should be a dead giveaway that the 550D was designed for silence first and foremost.
In terms of thermal performance, it's tough to make a direct comparison to Corsair's other cases. The conclusion I tentatively arrive at is that despite gunning for a design that's quieter than most, acoustics were never really the major problem with the cases Corsair sells at and above the 550D's price point. It's fantastic that they've developed an enclosure like this, something with real dampening properties, but I still want to see them handle the problem that's consistently hounded their designs: thermals. The 550D doesn't perform poorly, but I feel like the thermal performance is still underwhelming.
This is a very difficult balancing act many enclosure designers go through and I don't envy them, but it again serves to highlight a phenomenon I've experienced with some regularity since I started testing cases: south of $150, you can get some gradient of silent running and thermal performance, but not both. It's only when you spend up that you can get both—as with the Thermaltake Level 10 GT, the Cooler Master Cosmos II, and the SilverStone FT02. Not coincidentally, all of those cases also happen to be gigantic full-tower designs. While Corsair lists an MSRP of $159 for the 550D, NewEgg's $140 price point is more appropriate.
Aesthetically, I think the 550D is an attractive case with a lot of slick ideas, but I also feel like there are large parts of it just waiting to develop issues with vibration in the future. The top grate of the Graphite 600T can produce vibration over time, and I get the nagging feeling that the push-button release for the side panels is going to wind up causing more problems than it solves in the long term. Unfortunately this is also speculation based off of an anecdotal experience with one enclosure; it's entirely possible that none of these parts will develop issues with rattling in the future.
Corsair continues to set the standard in ease of use and assembly, and the Obsidian 550D is ultimately a very worthy entrant into the enclosure market. People who are fine spending $40 on a case and calling it a day are unlikely to be swayed by the 550D, but users looking to optimize and invest may find that the 550D's combination of features and customizability is exactly what they're looking for. I have a hard time coming up with any useful suggestions or solutions for the issues I have with the 550D and I'm not ready to risk armchair engineering something that's clearly at least a little experimental. That said, while the Corsair Obsidian 550D isn't the grand slam I was hoping for, it's still compelling and certainly worthy of consideration.
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zcat - Thursday, March 29, 2012 - link
It's not just you.There is no good reason anymore, imo, for full-size ATX systems, unless you really *need* all those extra bays for internal HDDs as a file server, and/or you need more than the 4 expansion slots that microATX offers (maximum) in a space_heater/gaming_rig for something like 2x double-wide video cards + audio + h/w raid + "futureproof-something".
If you search newegg, you'll find that there's almost as many microATX motherboards for sale as there are ATX at very similar prices, and many of the microATX cases even approach the size of full ATX.
In fact, the vast majority of people, even hardcore gamers, could opt for miniITX (vs microATX), as long as they choose one of the few cases that can fit a single full-height & full-length & double-width video cards (like the Sugo's or a few of Lian Li's). Room enough for 2 8GB sticks of ram, an SSD, and HDD, but no insane CPU coolers.
Risforrocket - Thursday, March 29, 2012 - link
Can you give me one reason that is relevant to me why I should use a small case for my computer?I think of my computer as a workstation, it has to do everything. And it does. Yes, it has a RAID card and 4 drives in RAID. Yes, it has a full sized ATX deluxe motherboard. Is that ok with you? I also don't believe in water cooling so I like plenty of room for the air to flow around and I like plenty of full sized low speed fans.
Some day I might build a mini computer to use for... well, something. Maybe as a music/video player. Until then I guess I'll just keep on building my big beautiful workstation computers for no good reason and put things in there that I don't really need.
zcat - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
So YOU are utilizing the extra space -- good for you -- but most people don't.Good reasons to go smaller when you can -- which is most of the time -- is to save on wasted space, materials, and energy. It's called being efficient for the increasingly common case.
JarredWalton - Thursday, March 29, 2012 - link
My experience is that mATX with a high-end graphics card (e.g. GTX 580 or HD 7970 or similar) is going to either run hot, run loud, or both. Mini-ITX is almost impossible to get a reasonably quiet system with a high-end GPU. Meanwhile, if you look at our previous tests of full-towers, there's a reason many of them are quieter and run cooler than mid-towers, never mind mATX.So unlike those who "see no use for full ATX anymore", I'm the exact opposite: unless space is at a premium, I see no use for mATX. I have three desks, and they all have a spot for a mid-tower. If I had an mATX case instead of my current case, all I'd end up with is a foot of empty space above the box.
In case you're wondering, my current main desktops are using a SilverStone Raven (dual 5870 GPUs), an older Lian Li PC7 (single GTX 580 -- this case was not good for dual GPUs), an old Gateway FX530 with a single slot GPU for the display and a dual-slot GPU for GPGPU work (5670 and 5850 currently installed), and the last is some weird Ultra case that was designed to be high-end but really isn't... but it still works well enough for my wife's PC.
zcat - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
If highest-end SLI + RAID5 are in your vocab, then, sure, you probably want full ATX, else microATX usually strikes the best balance, especially if you choose your case wisely (for silence & air flow).My perspective is that of 'good enough' systems (~80th percentile performance) where you save on money, energy, and space by default; not on building the 98% BEST gamer/workstation systems.
7Enigma - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
I'm in complete agreement with you Jarred as well. I think a lot of people like the wow factor of cramming a bunch of components into a shoe box. I'm not one of them. I, like you, would have no use for the extra bit of space a smaller enclosure/mobo would provide (actually it'd be MORE annoying as I'd have to bend down farther to turn on), not to mention the increased difficulty during the build/upgrade as components are closer together, and the increased heat issue of having power-hungry parts adjacent to each other.If you're a mobile gamer or living in a dorm room where every inch counts I get it. But for a large percentage of people I just don't see the attractiveness of a smaller form factor.
kenyee - Thursday, March 29, 2012 - link
If you're comparing a case on noise/cooling, it'd be really useful to compare it to other cases in this price range like most other sites do.There was mention that the design copied some of the techniques from Fractal Design's cases, but no comparison on performance. I'd have loved to have seen a comparison with the Fractal Define R3 which I think is a direct competitor with possibly less plastic. Newegg's comments also mentioned a lot of damaged cases during shipping so I'm surprised you didn't talk about the packing since you talked about aesthetics ;-)
kyuu - Thursday, March 29, 2012 - link
Please read the article. The reason there are no cases for comparison is stated on the very first page: they revised their testbed and methodology and, therefore, results from previously reviewed cases are not directly comparable.ExarKun333 - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
Then AT needs to do a 'silent case' or 'performance case' or the like shootout to get some numbers. The new methodology makes great sense, but what is a review with nothing to compare it to?ggathagan - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
So you would have them wait until they've tested 3 or 4 cases and *then* put out the results? No thanks.It's a new test bed and new methodology. They have to start somewhere.