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
Conclusion: Not Perfect, but Very Close!
When all is said and done, I'm left with an extremely positive impression of the Corsair Graphite Series 600T. I was skeptical at first; the Antec P182 has panels that are insulated to reduce sound, and the construction of the 600T admittedly felt cheaper, with steel and plastic everywhere. In practice, though, the 600T wound up being at least subjectively quieter than my P182 with its four Tri-cool fans.
So, the good stuff: the 600T is, as the headline says, cool and quiet. Getting a system installed in this case and then periodically tweaking it is an absolute breeze. The 600T's internals are spacious, and the largely tool-less design means not having to keep spare screws around or trying to remember where you put the other drive rails. A modular power supply makes installation that much easier, letting you install parts in phases and gradually try to keep everything orderly. The motherboard tray has a cut-out in the back for mounting larger heatsinks that require a backplate, the top of the tower has an impressive four USB 2.0 ports, and the case is even designed to hold a water-cooling system. My P182 felt positively antiquated compared to the 600T.
And the bad stuff: I'd say the pricetag is probably justifiable, but $159 isn't cheap. You get an awesome, easy-to-work-in case with excellent cooling, but $159 is still $159. I was also disappointed to see how easily the right side panel (the one that hides the cable spaghetti) bows. It's good that the panel is flexible enough, but it's unattractive. This is a minor complaint unless the case is going to be at eye level. The fan controller also doesn't seem to do a whole lot, and I can see how people would be irritated by the white LEDs in the fans. You can't disable those lights either.
At the end of the day, the Corsair Graphite Series 600T is a fantastic case and is absolutely worthy of our Bronze Editors' Choice award. Why not better? The bowing side panel is an unsightly blemish on an otherwise attractive case, the white LEDs could be annoying for some, and the fan controller doesn't actually appear to do much. These issues are all pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, though. They're worth putting up with in exchange for the excellent noise and thermal qualities (I actually tested the case with CrossFired 5870s at one point and found the difference in noise and temperatures to be fairly low), and the case is really an absolute joy to work in. $159 may seem a bit steep, but in our opinion, it's worth it. The 600T is a hell of a case.
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philosofa - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
As I have nothing better to do.. ;)- Anandtech is a site that seems to draw its reviewers primarily from, and is geared in large part towards, the US audience.
- England is not a sovereign nation, the country is called the United Kingdom, or Britain. - If you need help locating this nation on a map you could ask your grandparents :P
- Britain officially measures in the metric system, with the exclusion of distances, which are denoted in miles (aka a 'funnny' measurement). There is the odd exception (e.g. heights are still often given in feet colloquially), but if Anandtech were a British site, you'd be finding the measurements in metric.
killerclick - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
They should also have fan diameters in Imperial.Folterknecht - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
I don't have to ask my (grand)parents where to find GB on a map. On 27th of june this year we sent them back to their islands :-)But I remember an event back in the late 1990s - an international spacemission to mars failed, because some idiots were unable to use standart measurements.
As a website that deals with electronics and not corn prices in Iowa, additional specification in metric system for all people interestet isn't to much to ask?!
philosofa - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
I believe as at the 27th of November you're also planning to send other immigrants back to their homelands due to German multiculturalism having "failed, utterly failed"* ? I think you'll find that the match you were referring to was the England team, not GB if we're being pedantic (ok I'm being desperate with the last comment, good game and well won Deutschland, England was utterly outclassed) .The mission failed because the scientists -mixed- imperial and metric measurements, which is also arguably a good case for not ever using both lol. However troll physics aside I have to agree given the presumably large international readership of Anandtech it would be very sensible to at least have metric, I just think it's unfair to get self-righteous about it as it's an American site and we can all look it up easily.
*Chancellor Merkel
vol7ron - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
I don't get why any fan has a manual fan speed this day in age. Do the mobos not have enough inputs?Fan noise should never be a factor when it comes to cooling, you should set a temperature and have the processing units decide what needs to be done in order to keep things at that temperature.
I think if people want fan controls, they should look at case add-ons that fit into pci slots or drive bays.
Naennon - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
i really like the 600Tperfect cable management and it is HUGE! for a midi tower case
the included fancontrol can control 4 fans from 10 to 12V
it's not silent at all.. so i've used some 7V adapter to keep it silent
you can take a look at a 600T used for my rig
http://www.sysprofile.de/id86892
that case provides a lot of cooling options
the front fan can take the phobya 200mm radiator
the top fan can handle a dual 120 radiator in cooperation with 2 x 120 fans or with some modding
you can put that 200mm fan outside the case but within the top cage
and you can use another 200mm radiator
this is a dual 200mm radiator watercooling!!! nearly the same performance as two 360 radiators will do!
finally this case is great and i love it :)
sorry for the crowd-english! :D
Phoenixlight - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
This is certainly not a cool case, if you actually compare it to other cases it sucks at cooling:http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/09/23/...
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
You'd better tell mine that, then, because it's running nice and frosty.Phoenixlight - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Well you can see the results for yourself in the link I posted, if you've replace the stock fans and use LN2 then that's something different.erple2 - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
The problem is that for Dustin's review, he evaluated the results that he saw, not what some other (random) review site may or may not have seen. I have no reason to believe that Dustin is lying, so I stand by Dustin's comments above.I'm sure that you can cobble together a more expensive rig that has better cooling characteristics, with custom fans, and additional pieces. However, at the end of the day, this review was about the stock 600T case. Dustin showed what the temperatures were, plain and simple. It would have been nice to compare the temps directly with the P182 in the review, but other than that, the temperatures all look fine.