Corsair Vengeance C70 Case Review: Going for the Gamers
by Dustin Sklavos on May 17, 2012 5:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Introducing the Corsair Vengeance C70
Corsair has had an excellent run as a case designer, showing growth with each new enclosure by adding some features, subtracting other ones, moving things around, and generally continuing to experiment. The Obsidian and Carbide lines in particular have shown healthy progress, but today Corsair launches a fourth line under their popular Vengeance gaming brand: the Vengeance C70.
While the exteriors of the Obsidian and to a lesser extent Carbide cases have all been fairly austere, the Vengeance C70's target is pretty clear: they're going after gamers. Thus far, products in the Vengeance market have generally been of high quality and haven't been particularly ostentatious, but the C70's external design is an unusual step for Corsair. Is the C70 as a whole part of Corsair's continued evolution as a case designer, or is this their first major misstep along the way?
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For the first time since I've started reviewing Corsair's cases, I'll admit I experienced trepidation when I saw the press materials for the C70. Military green? Handles on the top? Industrial-style power and reset buttons? This wasn't the Corsair I knew, the company whose most ostentatious design so far was the Carbide 500R (or, arguably, the well-received Graphite 600T). Sure, the C70 is available in white and gunmetal gray (a personal favorite) as well, and the interior is vintage Corsair, but it still feels to me like an odd bird in their lineup. Before we get to the detailed analysis, we'll start with the regular specs table:
| Corsair Vengeance C70 Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 3x 5.25” |
| Internal | 6x 3.5"/2.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | 2x 120mm intake fans behind drive cages; 2x 120mm fan mounts |
| Rear | 1x 120mm exhaust fan | |
| Top | 2x 120mm/140mm fan mounts | |
| Side | 2x 120mm/140mm fan mounts | |
| Bottom | 2x 120mm/140mm fan mounts | |
| Expansion Slots | 8 | |
| I/O Port | 2x USB 3.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic | |
| Power Supply Size | Standard ATX | |
| Clearances | HSF | 170 mm |
| PSU | 180 mm | |
| GPU | 12.5" / 320mm | |
| Weight | ??? | |
| Dimensions |
19.72" x 9.13" x 20.98" 501mm x 232mm x 533mm |
|
| Special Features |
USB 3.0 connectivity via internal header Toolless side panels Support for up to 11 fans Carrying handles Removable drive cages "Military Green" finish; also comes in "Gunmetal Black" and "Arctic White" |
|
| Price | MSRP $139 | |
On paper and without seeing the case, there's not a whole lot that stands out with the C70. The one area that looks unusual is the sheer number of fan mounts available. While testing the Vengeance C70, the enclosure that remained fresh in my mind was the Corsair Obsidian 550D, their case engineered for silence. In terms of expansion and cooling potential, the 550D isn't actually all that different from the C70; with the C70 you lose a 5.25" external bay but gain three fan mounts, which would be more impressive if the flexible 550D wasn't already capable of supporting eight. That owes to Corsair's positioning the C70 as a potential go-to for watercooling, with two different places to mount 240mm radiators. Indeed, all of their review materials present the C70 with Corsair's own H100 closed loop liquid cooler installed. We didn't have a watercooling kit for review, unfortunately, so we're looking at the C70 primarily as a typical desktop chassis.
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Sabresiberian - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
Me too; appearance wise, I think it looks pretty cool. Otherwise, not so much, but it gets a "+1) from me for appearance.What I really want though is a case that will handle a 10-slot mainboard. Your case can't, it's not in the running for my dollar.
;)
Samus - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
I think its awesome. I painted a case ammo can green for lanparties 15 years ago, I loved that hunk of case and 17" CRT :)All they need to do is team up with LG or Lite-on to make a matching faceplate.
exordis - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
I'd love to know how easy it is to set watercooling up in this case. If that's what they were aiming for it might explain the bad thermals for an air cooled set up.Not that they shouldn't be trying to do both well.
ZekkPacus - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
I really feel like Corsair's cases, similar to most of Antec's higher-end cases, are designed with the idea and suggestion that the end user will install more fans. Most of Corsair's cases are also designed with a fairly obvious radiator mount, too.Would be interesting to see you go back to a few cases (for example, the 500R, this case, and the Antec 1100), add 2 fans per case and a 240mm rad, and see how they do. I can't imagine anyone would spend $100+ on a case just to use the stock fans.
bah12 - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
"I can't imagine anyone would spend $100+ on a case just to use the stock fans."I can't imagine paying $100+ on a case and NOT using stock fans. That is a good bit of money to be spending for bleh cooling. One should not be asked to pay that amount, then turn around and spend more. Either sell it for less and I'll buy my own fans, or perform reasonably in a stock configuration. Just my 2 cents.
ZekkPacus - Saturday, May 19, 2012 - link
Pretty much every case I've ever used, I've added fans to the stock configuration. Mostly extra intakes.ClutchNerd - Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - link
What kind of 1d10t spends a crapton of money on a rig and DOESN'T buy some bada$$ fans to go with it? Thats like buying a McClaren F1 and NOT buying z-grade tires to hug the road... or buying a Cadillac Escalade without the spinners then b1tching that you're caddy doesn't have enough chrome on it. Or buying an 84" tv without the sports package. Think about it...zyxtomatic - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - link
I know this is an old comment, but I had to reply: A McClaren F1 *does* come with extremely high performance tires from the factory. Absolutely no need to upgrade those until they wear out. :)Robert in Calgary - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
This case comes in three colours from the get go, yet I still can't get a White 550D?Rather.....annoying!
ExodusC - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
This actually seems to be a decent case, and since aesthetics were obviously in mind here, I can't stand the fact that they cut side-vent fan mounts/perforations- I personally have stopped running my systems wide side fans as I don't run a dual-GPU setup and with logical fan placement and case design, side fans are unnecessary (and can often times hurt airflow if you're not smart).Just my personal preference- for cases with large windows (see: aesthetics), fan perforations are ugly and can let out noise and let in dust if you're not using them (and if you are, you need dust filters, obviously).