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
Testing Methodology
For testing full ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
| ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-2700K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD4H |
| Graphics Card |
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP (tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V) 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 in SLI (full fat testing only) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive 3x HGST DeskStar 3TB 7200-RPM HDD |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Plus 1000W 80 Plus Silver |
Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.
For the "full fat" testbed, the GTX 560 Ti is swapped out for a pair of GTX 580s, and three hard disks are added to fill out the case.
Thank You!
Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z77X-UD4H motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- Thank you to HGST for providing us with the trio of hard drives.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
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Ubercake - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
Looks a little smaller than my Thermaltake Spedo. I do like it though.Even without water, it's really easy to work in a case this large.
Ubercake - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
It's actually bigger front to back, but not as tall.Ubercake - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
Dimensions are actually bigger all the way around on the 900D. It just doesn't look that way. The spedo has 2 rear 120s. I wish more newer cases had these.truprecht - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
That's not a computer case, that's furniture.nleksan - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
I have been water cooling for a long time, and I have owned a lot of "water cooling cases", some of which were good, a few of which are truly great, but the majority of which are frankly terrible for one reason or another. This is a very niche market and it is one that demands perfection at such a price point as the 900D is attempting to compete, but the sad fact is that most people are going to buy this case simply because it has the (frankly worthless) Corsair name attached to it.I have two fully liquid cooled builds right now, the first is in a Switch 810, without doubt the most capable water cooling case anywhere near it's price range, with as much radiator space, if not more, than the nearly 2.5x pricier 800D.
The other build is at the opposite end of the price spectrum, sitting in a custom made fully equipped Case Labs TH10 (XL Pedestal, 120mm Extension up top, etc) with 4x 560 + 1x 420 + 2x 360 radiators all cooling the system. It makes the monolithic 800D look like a SFF case in comparison, and the build quality is simply so far ahead as to be indescribable.
Which brings me to the point... Case Labs now offers the SM5 and SM8 cases at the same or lower prices than the 900D, but with nearly limitless customizability, build quality that is unrivaled, and small touches absent on anything from the company that Corsair has become.
I simply don't see why this case would sell, it's as much a dinosaur as it's circa 2008 brother...
Biggestinsect - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
Confounds me how most tech sites get all revved up about this case but seem to be unaware of any of CaseLabs' offerings. Corsair and especially higher end stuff from Lian Li and Silverstone have nothing near the build quality at any price point.cjs150 - Friday, April 19, 2013 - link
I love my TJ07 but totally agree about the build quality. Holes not perfectly aligned, lack of cable management etc. Case labs looks a lot better (also like mountain mods) on biold qualityhyperdoggy - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Oh wow, the window is flushed with the side panel, that is awesome! normally case windows looks like someone broke the window on the side panel and they ghetto attach some acrylic on till they can afford to fix it, fine for a sub $100 case, big no no on a $200+ case.isorashi - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
+1: Fluke referenceZoeAnderson24 - Monday, April 22, 2013 - link
uptil I looked at the draft of $4237, I have faith that...my... father in law woz like they say actualey receiving money in there spare time from their laptop.. there dads buddy haz done this for only about ten months and just repayed the loans on there home and got a new Jaguar XJ. go to, All29.comCHECK IT OUT