Corsair Carbide 300R Case Review: Corsair For the Masses
by Dustin Sklavos on June 29, 2012 2:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Corsair
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- ATX
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
So far the Corsair Carbide 300R has been putting in a pretty strong showing, offering competitive performance with other cases in its price class (and even some well above). Our overclocking test is a beating, though; the ASUS DirectCU II cooler on our GeForce GTX 560 Ti can produce a heck of a racket if it's not getting enough air, enough to easily stress the acoustics on any case.
Thermals are still excellent. Overclockers on a budget (remember when that was the whole point of overclocking) are definitely going to want to shortlist the 300R.
CPU fan speed is quite good, and again the GPU fan speed is competitive. Unfortunately when we get to acoustics, we'll see the Carbide 300R's one major performance flaw.
At idle the 300R is quiet enough, but under load it is definitely noisy. The majority of that is noise from the graphics card cooler, which flies right through the ventilation next to the card. Antec's Eleven Hundred has a thermal design that seems to do a slightly better job of keeping the graphics card cool and as a result the fan doesn't hit that threshold where it starts to produce uncomfortable amounts of noise.
The takeaway here is that while the Carbide 300R is a solid performer with reasonably quiet fans, it doesn't have any allowances made towards acoustics. If you're planning on using it for your build, plan the other components around it accordingly.
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lbruce - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
Got one of these a few days ago. It's worth what you're paying for it, but it's not worth more.The USB 3.0 connectors do not look rugged, it will be painful to see them break. The side panels are unbraced sheet metal just like any cheaper case, they may need sound deadening sheets to quiet and strengthen them. In every other way though, it's a nice case.
losttsol - Monday, July 2, 2012 - link
Your review is fairly late coming, but you did it justice I think. I've owned this case since it came out 5 months ago. Only cons I can give it are 1. they should have gone ahead and punched out the water cooling holes on the back. The steel back there is very thin and its easy to damage the case punching the holes out...and 2. just a few more millimeters of cable routing space behind the motherboard would have done a world of good. For the price, this case gives you a lot of options and the ability to put 6 x 140mm fans in it. You can buy the cable routing hole grommets from their site if you want that option. The Obsidian grommets fit it. Having that large open cavity below the 5.25" bays requires some creative cable routing if you want a clean look, but it can be done. The USB 3.0 cable is black thankfully, not blue like so many other case makers feel the need to do. I immediately switched out the included Corsair fans, so I can't comment as to their performance. The expansion ports aren't tool-less, but at least they give you thumb screws for them. I was coming from a Lian-Li PC-P50 and I actually like this 300R better. It has a great use of space for it's dimensions.TOMM3KE - Monday, December 17, 2012 - link
I know you say the form factor supports mini-ITX, but Corsair won't guarantee me it when I contacted them. I have an ASUS P8Z77-I DELUXE mini ITX motherboard and want to be sure it fits the Corsair Carbide 300R. If not I was thinking about using the Fractal Design Core 3000.l_a_g - Thursday, July 10, 2014 - link
Did the hyper 212 evo fit with the case closed?