Corsair Obsidian 900D Case Review: Think Big, That's Only HALF as Large
by Dustin Sklavos on April 16, 2013 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- Water Cooling
- ATX
- XL-ATX
Noise and Thermal Testing
As I mentioned in the introduction, doing our standard noise and thermal testing on the Corsair Obsidian 900D is primarily an academic affair. When you're dealing with a liquid cooling system, optimal airflow design becomes slightly less important. This isn't an air cooling case the way, say, a SilverStone FT02 might be.
Ambient temperature was 21C during testing.
In its stock configuration, the 900D is closer to the middle of the road. This isn't a tremendous surprise; the stock fans are about as basic as a $349 case is going to get.
Because the 900D doesn't include a fan controller, the fans included push the case's bare minimum noise level to 33.6dB.
Overclocking the system should produce fairly similar results.
Again, the 900D produces...acceptable results as an air cooling case.
Noise continues to be an issue due both to the lack of a fan controller and the lack of any acoustic padding in the enclosure itself. While we're not judging the 900D on the terms it's meant to be judged by here, I do think omitting noise dampening material may have been a poor decision on Corsair's part.
Up until this point drive thermals have been fairly poor, but please note that even under the worst circumstances we're still talking about being 10-15C below spec for these drives at least. They're still running cool, it's just not the aggressive over-cooling a lot of enthusiast cases do.
That said, stock air cooling continues to be fairly underwhelming. This is one place where the competing Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra does have an edge: it includes a stock air cooling design that's pretty aggressive and effective.
Despite the lack of a fan controller, under our most stressful test the 900D is able to run quieter than any of the other cases we've reviewed since adding the "full fat" testbed.
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dylan522p - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
The 900D has probably the most space on the side pannel for cable management I have seen in a case. The 900D also supports a stupid amount of rad support.garadante - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
Remember, the 800D is three and a half years old. I don't think closed loop dual fan radiators were even available, let alone 4-way SLI/crossfire being as comparatively mainstream as it is nowadays.santiagoanders - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
Why no comparison to the Cosmos II? Similar layouts and price.praktik - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
Actually I think biggest competition for this would be the silverstone TJ11 - offers a 4x140 rad option in bottom if you take out the cages... also goes for 200 more.......and yes I am a deliriously happy owner of a TJ11, my case for a decade - will go liquid cooling in a few years but right now just happy to have the air cooling equivalent of an FT02 to tide me over..
Sabresiberian - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
What do you mean "Why no comparison?"The article isn't lacking anything just because it didn't include data about your favorite case.
santiagoanders - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Because hardware articles always benchmark against the other products in the same market segment. WTF are you talking about?scook9 - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
I like this case. Not enough to replace the 700D I got for $100 (including side window panel) but I like it. Having water cooled in the 700D I appreciate the changes. The 700D/800D really only has 2 good places for a radiator - a 360mm up top and a 120/140mm on the back. While this is a lot of cooling capacity (both can be double thick rads) the 900D obviously blows this out of the water and takes it to a whole other level.More exciting and likely to penetrate the market is the 350D that is coming out that is pretty much a mATX design using the same design ideas but being around $120. I hope that AT can do a review when that comes out and compare it to the all time favorite mATX case - the Antec Mini P180
noeldillabough - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
While this case rocks, it still doesn't hold a candle to my current favorite case, the TJ11. One of the problems with watercooling is that the board doesn't get any cooling and this case with its 2 giant (quiet) fans handles it with ease. Add to that a full size rad/pump/power supply fits in the bottom and I'm sold!Water cooling seems to be on its way out but cases like these make me think its only getting started!
OVerLoRDI - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
This case truly is for the water cooling enthusiasts. (I am one of them). If this had been around last summer I would have snatched it without a second thought.It makes me regret my Caselabs M8 purchase.
Biggestinsect - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
Never regret a CaseLabs purchase.