Corsair Graphite Series 600T: Cool and Quiet
by Dustin Sklavos on November 26, 2010 2:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- 600T
Inside the 600T
When you pop those side panels off of Corsair's 600T, you find an extremely well thought out internal design that's almost entirely tool-less and extremely spacious.
The motherboard tray is the only part where you can't get away from needing a screwdriver: you're still going to have to screw in the board, but the standoffs come built into the tray, and there's a large cutout for heatsinks that need to be secured on the back of the motherboard. That said, I still found popping the I/O shield and motherboard into the case to be far easier than any other case I've used. Surrounding the motherboard tray are a series of rubber-lined holes used for routing cables behind the tray, and these work fantastically: they keep cables in place, and frankly they just look better than the usual routing holes.
Expansion slot covers are ventilated and secured internally with thumbscrews; I've seen other tool-less implementations that have been more complicated and I have to be honest, this seems like one of those places where you're just better off using screws and individual slot covers. You'll probably want to use your standard Philips head screwdriver to secure these screws, but you can do without in a pinch. Again, there's an eighth slot here that makes doing a multi-GPU setup easier, since you can still use a bottom PCIe slot for a dual-slot GPU. Alternatively, you could use the extra slot for additional USB ports or whatever your particular motherboard might include.
Popping in a power supply is remarkably simple; my 750HX snapped into place securely enough that you could probably get away with not screwing it in on the back of the case. There are adjustable grips on the inside of the case that help hold the PSU in place regardless of size.
When you get to the drive bays, you start to really see some of the more innovative design choices Corsair made with the 600T. The panels covering the 5.25" drive bays don't require any force to pop out; you squeeze the sides inside the case and they come out easily. From there, just push the drive into the bay and a lever-based system locks it into place. Push the lever down and you can eject the drive again. It feels a little bit loose but has proven to be secure enough in practice. You can also screw the drive in on the opposite side, but it's not really necessary.
Below the 5.25" bays are the two internal drive cages that support three drives apiece. These are also completely tool-less. The drive trays snap in and out of the cages easily, and have pins in place on the sides. To install a drive, you just remove a tray, insert the pins into the side of the drive, then flex the other side to snap in the other pair of pins. One of the nicer features about these trays is that they're all designed to accommodate 2.5" drives, too, though this requires you to use screws to mount the drive to the tray. To do it, pop out one of the pins and then screw the drive into place in the tray: no adapters required. The trays are also designed to point the ports on the drives to the back of the case, behind the motherboard tray, for easy cable routing.
Here's where we get really slick: of the two drive cages, the top one can actually be removed and then replaced adjacent to the bottom one. It's a very cool idea for cases that are going to need to support extra-long video cards, although I have to be honest here...I'm not really sure they even make video cards long enough to require you to do that. My stock Radeon HD 5870 still has a heck of a lot of elbow room and I can say with certainty that the 5970 would too.
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philosofa - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
Of my the two front USB 2.0 ports on my TJ11 I have one permanently fitted with the 2.4GHz transceiver for my secondary mouse, the other is generally occupied by my gaming USB soundcard/headset (less clumsy than a rear panel connector). I also use have an apple cable permanently plugged into one of the two side USB ports on my 2443BW monitor.Most people wouldn't use five SUB ports, but it could be of use to a few, so given the plethora of USB headers on modern motherboards it makes sense to make use of them and put a decent number there.
Whilst I do still think that Corsair have done well to actually include USB 3.0, and think a single USB 3.0 port will suffice for a while, I do agree that it would be ideal to have more than one; I *think* that a single header supports two USB 3.0 ports by default, so I agree with you that there would be no real reason not to have a second one there along with a pair of USB 2.0 ports (or even four as they're cheap, there's space and a lot of people won't have any USB 3.0 headers at all yet).
@ The_Assimilator - agreed but bearing in mind that the majority of P67 boards seem to have USB 3.0 headers, with Bulldozer's boards presumably following suit and that the case is going to be out a while and Lightpeak not yet being available, it makes a lot of sense to support USB 3.0. I know I'll be looking for at least one front panel connector in my next case.
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
You mention the P182/P183. Many people love this case, and clearly the 600T is targetted against the P18x cases. If you came from that case, you should at least include sound comparison? Temp comparison?Jedi2155 - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
I feel this is targeted more towards the Cooler Master Cosmos / Cosmos S series than the P180/182. It should be a comparison towards that chassisWestHej - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
This case was also reviewed by bit-tech but oddly they barely make any mention of its noise characteristics only noting that it "suppresses more of the noise of your PC" due to not having a side mountable fan. In fact they rate the 600T far below Anandtech's rating due to "mediocre" cooling.Since this review does mention the impressive noise characteristics and the P182/3 it would indeed be very nice if a comparison to those cases are made as well as other noise-reducing cases. For me I'd love Anandtech to review the Fractal Design Define R3 case as it scored very highly at bit-tech. I wonder what other cases are in the review pipeline at Anandtech.
mtoma - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
We all see the trend in computer case design: bottom-mounted power supply and top-mounted connections (USB, audio, eSATA, etc). I agree with the former trend, but I do not with the latter. Dustin said that most users keep their cases on the floor, and therefore it is better that the connections and the start button are on top of the case.My question is: WHY on Earth would somebody keep their expensive, beautiful and long-lasting computer case on the floor? To collect dust? To collect field-mice? To collect leg-pounding? To collect fingers from the small children? To collect pounding from the vacuum-cleaner? I don't get it. And don't tell me that crap that you do not have the room on top of your desk. Buy one! It's much cheaper than 159 USD...
From that perspective, Antec P183 it's a classic one, and a good one. It also has better internal layout than P182. And, regerding it's horrible default fans, who cares? Always you can mount a nice Nexus fan, or Noctua, or Enermax.
Regards,
jabber - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
\If you keep your house clean and dusted then dust isnt such a problem. When I customer gives me their PC to serv ice I can tell the state of their home by how dusty the inside of their PC is.A little dust - Clean tify home.
Major dust - Hell Hole.
Works every time.
Plus you just look where the vacuum cleaner goes when hoovering. Not hard, do it yourself instead of your mum if you are worried.
As for the mice etc. then you have problems matey.
The floor is a perfect place for leviathan PCs. The floor is what you make it.
mtoma - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
True, a clean house alleviates some problems. And true, a big case it's not fitting if you have 2 or more monitors on top. And, if the case is about 60 cm in height, it is easier to keept it on the floor. I agree.But, the rest of the problems remain: young kids, pounding feet. And, maybe I'm touchy, but if the PC case is on the floor, I feel that it is almost hidden from sight, an almost it's fading into the obscurity like the other 30 USD cases. Maybe I have a hard time putting on the floor 159 USD. It does'nt feel right, somehow.
And, if the PC case is silent, it would not bother nobody on top of the desk..
Anway, this Corsair seems e gamer case, silent, modern, efficient. Because I am not a gamer and I enjoy more silence in a computer, this case it's not for me (I would like some HDD silicone pads/screws).
Regards,
killerclick - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Sounds like some overactive little bastards have to die. Or chop off one of their legs, they can't kick anything when they're hopping on one leg.killerclick - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
I keep my case on the floor because that's where it's supposed to be. I can't have the case on my desk when I have two screens, keyboard, mouse, cellphone, cordless phone, satellite speakers, joystick, coffee, remote for the AC, remote for the TV and a clear view to the said TV.And a new desk is cheap but a larger desk would require a larger space which would require a larger apartment. All that to have the pleasuse of a featureless gray metal box obstructing my view.
Folterknecht - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
A good review as most on this site, but I had to look somewhere else to find the "right" dimensions ot this case. I know this is an english/american website and you people have "funny" units of measurement but it can't be to hard to include the international standart - meter (mm fits better for reviewing cases):Dimensions
20" (H) x 23.3" (L) x 10.4" (W) - (507mm x 592mm x 265mm)
(from corsairs product page)