Corsair Obsidian 350D Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on April 25, 2013 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- MicroATX
Noise and Thermal Testing
If the noise and thermal testing bordered on being academic for the Fractal Design Define Mini, it's even more out of place with the Corsair Obsidian 350D. The Define Mini lends itself well to liquid cooling, but the 350D was outright designed for it, and that substantially reduces the importance of air cooling performance. As a result, our conventional testing isn't just beneath the 350D's pay grade, it's not even at the same place of business.
With all that said, though, there are still a few things to learn here. Remember that the 350D starts at $99, making it an affordable enough starting point for the end user who just wants a classy, easy-to-build chassis.
Ambient temperature during testing was around 22C.
Thermally the Obsidian 350D puts in a fairly healthy performance. Competitive without being spectacular, it mostly suffers from being an offshoot of the basic ATX case design. Air cooling thermals have never been Corsair's strong suit, but they've always been workable, and the 350D continues that trend.
Because the 350D is able to keep thermals reasonably low, noise stays low as well. The vanilla testbed is nowhere near stressful enough to really work the 350D.
When you add even a modest dedicated graphics card, Corsair starts playing that old familiar song. The plastic "cage" used for the SSD doesn't seem to be particularly detrimental to its temperatures, but even the direct airflow from the front fan onto the GTS 450 Eco isn't really adequate. CPU thermals remain solid, though.
Idle noise continues to be a non-issue. Load noise isn't terrible, but it's not very impressive, either. While Fractal Design's case has a lot of acoustic padding and is built with heavy steel to help insulate noise, the 350D has no such allowances, and noise becomes entirely dependent on the efficiency of the cooling system.
Adding a more robust video card only reinforces what we've already learned. CPU cooling performance is above average, but GPU cooling performance continues to be middling. These cards are using open air coolers that will tax the case's cooling system, and the middling stock cooling (one 140mm intake and one 120mm exhaust in their typical ATX locations) doesn't do the 350D any favors.
Noise levels are reasonable. The cooler on our GTX 560 Ti can be pretty rough on any enclosure (and is outright hostile when the 560 is overclocked), but at least the 350D isn't getting overwhelmed.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
65 Comments
View All Comments
HisDivineOrder - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
What you are looking for is called a NUC. Intel makes them. Gigabyte makes them. Soon, I suspect all the OEM's will make them. I imagine Corsair or Lian-Li will make a case for one and then the whole thing will explode into a new form factor.lmcd - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
Lian-Li already seems to, I think. A couple itx cases of theirs designed for specific mobos n'stuff.just4U - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
lol..I was just on the fractal design mini review looking for the name of this case so I could look at leaked photos. As I was browsing down the photo list I caught the anand header with a R.. Was like wait a min.. there's no reveiew up yet. Than refreshed anand and sure enough.. :D
This case is what I want and if you throw in a HX or AX Corsair PSU cable management is going to look so damn good.. (rubbing hands together in glee!)
rwei - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Nice bowl!rhx123 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Do they have an option for a blank side panel? I'm not a fan of windows really.Rolphus - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Yup, as per the first page of the article - the non-windowed version is even $10 cheaper.rhx123 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Bah - didn't see that in the specs table - thanks.thebeastie - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
My ultimate case would only have ONE 5.25 slot, rest 3.5 bays/2.5 bays to lower total height.And stuff extra long depth as long as it fits a standard single GPU length card. Would be quite a nice small case, considering NOTHiNG like that exists I bet it would sell well.
randomlinh - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
This. It could possibly be done if you move the power supply to the front, and flip the motherboard. But thermal issues might come into play. It would certainly be interesting to see. Alternatively, can we see some new tech in the power supply market to shrink the standard?plcn - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
have you seen the silverstone sugo? might be right up your alley. not as affordable as this and the fractal mini, but definitely shorter with full length GPU compatibility.i own the fractal mini and definitely agree it wasn't entirely builder friendly, but the improved looks (i dont like seeing drive bays - who still uses those anyway?) and slightly less noise made it worth it for me. if i had to build a bunch of these though, looks like this corsair is a great way to go!