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
Assembling the Corsair Vengeance C70
I've gone on record repeatedly as saying the only way Corsair cases could be easier to assemble would be if Corsair included an engineer with them to just do the whole thing for you, so imagine my surprise when assembling the C70 turned out to be a hair more fraught than I'm used to experiencing from them. It's still worlds easier than many competing brands, but there were a couple of hitches.
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Maybe it was just my review unit, or maybe it was just my rotten luck, but I found installing the motherboard to be unusually difficult despite the fact that Corsair includes both a mounting post (for the center screw hole of the motherboard) and pre-installed mounts in the tray. The problem is that the mounts used are actually in unbelievably tightly (the top six are permanently affixed to the tray), and the screw holes for them don't seem to have been machined quite wide enough. That, or the green paint used for the finish is abnormally thick, but either way I wound up having such a hard time moving the mounts that I just left the side of the board "dangling." I also had one of the screws I was using actually break inside a mount. I can see all of this being much easier for someone else, and if you use a standard ATX motherboard you won't even have to bother with moving the mounts.
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Installing our optical drive in a 5.25" bay was a little different, too. The bay shields are in very securely, and to remove one I wound up having to actually remove the front fascia of the case. Once I did so, though, the optical drive went in with just a bit of force (which is common), and the toolless mechanism (along with general tension of the drive cage) actually holds the drive in very securely without a need for screws.
Everything else went pretty swimmingly after those two, though. The drive trays continue to be very easy to work with, snapping neatly onto 3.5" drives while 2.5" drives screw into the bottoms of the trays. Expansion cards go in just as easily, with thumbscrews holding the expansion bay shields in place. And of course, the power supply went in without a hitch.
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Corsair has almost perfectly evolved cable management in the C70. There's a healthy amount of clearance above the motherboard (owing to the space needed for a 240mm radiator and fans) that makes connecting the AUX 12V line a breeze. Meanwhile, routing cables behind the motherboard tray just got even simpler, as the channels in the tray help direct the cables while the included clamps allow you to essentially lock everything down. Cabling was ultimately unbelievably simple, and every other vendor should be taking note here: this is how it's done.
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Despite hiccups with the motherboard (and to a much lesser extent the 5.25" bay), Corsair continues to set the standard for ease of assembly and service, and I can't wait to see these advances appear in future designs of theirs.
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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).