Corsair Obsidian 350D Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on April 25, 2013 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- MicroATX
In and Around the Corsair Obsidian 350D
It wasn't that long ago at all that I reviewed Fractal Design's Define Mini; part of that was due to a personal interest in the enclosure, and part of it was due to Corsair's impending launch of the Obsidian 350D. What struck me about the 350D when I unboxed it, though, was how much lighter it was. The Define Mini is designed for silence first, so acoustic padding and thicker steel panels and construction take their toll on its weight and overall mass, but the 350D is so light it feels like it's just this side of flimsy. I will say this: the 350D is a looker.
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Corsair's styling with the Obsidian series carries over from the 900D to the fun size 350D, and it's all class. The fascia of the 350D is a combination of brushed aluminum and plastic, all black, and very attractive. There are just two 5.25" bays (thankfully), and Corsair's engineers hide the front ventilation around an extruded panel. That means no unsightly fans or grills, but a healthy amount of airflow. That panel also flips forward, allowing you to remove and clean the filter. Above the 5.25" bays is the power button, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, the audio jacks, and a recessed reset button. On either side of the power button are white LEDs.
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Depending on which version of the 350D you get, the left side panel may be either almost entirely an acrylic window or a completely solid panel like the right side one. The window itself is absolutely huge; again, no stylization apart from just being big enough to show you the entire interior of the case. If users are going to ask to see inside the case, why not let them see the whole thing? As for the rest of the 350D's exterior, the top sports the pair of 120mm/140mm fan mounts with an ever so slightly unsightly grill while the back is almost business as usual. Corsair did make one extremely smart choice: five expansion slots instead of four allows for boards like Gigabyte's micro-ATX lineup to be used in dual-GPU configurations.
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I knew it was going to be an easy review when I removed the thumbscrews from the side panels and they hinged open. It's the kind of thing that reminds me of why I like working with Corsair cases as much as I do; while the 900D was difficult to work with by virtue of its sheer mass, the 350D exhibits all the earmarks of Corsair's attention to ease of use. That means hinged panels, a mounting stud in the center of the motherboard tray, built-in motherboard standoffs, and smartly arranged cable routing holes.
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Where the interior of the 350D gets really interesting to me is the fact that all of the drive bays are toolless. Corsair created a custom, stackable plastic cage specifically for 2.5" drives and while it looks a little chintzy, it works beautifully. Also pay attention to the cable routing holes near the power supply bay; instead of one large opening, Corsair actually bisects the opening, allowing you to organize which leads go where. If you're using a modular power supply, leads from the top row of connectors can neatly go through the top opening, while leads from the bottom row of connectors can route through the bottom. It's not a major feature and it's not going to headline anything, but it speaks of an attention to detail.
It's unprofessional to fawn over a product, but the more time I spent manipulating the 350D for photography, the more interested I became in actually testing it. There are plenty of good micro-ATX cases out there, and each serves its own purpose, but the 350D is the first one I've seen that really aggressively courts the liquid cooling enthusiast. Better still, it's coming from Corsair, which means that usability is going to be a non-issue. I like how the 350D looks, and I like how it comes apart and back together. This is a smart design, and while superficially similar to standard ATX, it's nuanced in all the right ways.
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ghm3 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
I do, I got a 5.25" drive cage to stuff 6 SSDs into my Silverstone TJ08-E.CrimsonFury - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
There are a few options if you are after a smaller mATX tower.Lian-Li do a very small matx tower. 1x optical bay, 7x HDD bays PSU is mounted over the motherboard (does limit tower heatsinks, but fits many mid sized heatsinks)
The Silverstone TJ 08-E is another option, it does still have 2x optical bays, but it mounts the PSU up top instead of leaving radiator space, so its quite a bit shorter in height and depth than than the Corsair 350D. Has a 180mm intake and 120mm exhaust (they also do a variant with 2x120mm intake, but I forget the the model name). Still has room for 1x radiator up front is you sacrifice some of the HDD bays.
Gunbuster - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Does it come with a phantom tea cup like in the main photo?just4U - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Did you guys notice? Even Dustin's wiring looked a little better. Damn Corsair is GOOD! (lol im kidding Dustin GREAT REVIEW!) I think your Bronze award was a little conservative, did you do that because you thought you might have gotten a little biased?Rolphus - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
This looks like a lovely case, but I'd have preferred to see it hit with a lot more thermal load in testing. I have a Silverstone TJ-08 with an i5-2500K (at 4GHz), and 2 GTX 580s in SLI. The case (just about) keeps up with that level of load, but I'd be interested in how well the Corsair does with something similar.scook9 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Great review! I have been very excited to see more about this case since the 900D came out. What you really need to do is compare this to the Antec Mini P180. I know it is discontinued but it was easily THE mATX case to build a system in back in its day (my server is still in mine as I grew to full ATX and a 700D). I do not even have a need for this case but want to just get one because hahamkygod - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
This is what is considered a Micro ATX case now? Good lord. It's actually a bit taller and wider than my Antec P150 full ATX case. Is the size increase the price you pay for having a case that supports water cooling? If that's the case, I want to see Corsair make some cases that aren't designed with watercooling in mind.antef - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
As I mentioned in the Fractal Design Define Mini review, I completely agree that cases like this should barely be considered "micro"-anything. They could be a lot smaller, and I feel like manufacturers are just afraid to because they think people want bigger everything. Then why even make a MicroATX case? Check out the SilverStone Precision PS07, it's only 14.7" tall, 15.75" deep, and 11.46 lbs. Can hold any size video card, 2 drives without the cage, a ton more with the cage, and plenty of spots for 120mm fans. I don't know why they need to make them any bigger.Jumpman23 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Does the optical bay include a face plate? It breaks the smoothness of the front view without a face plate to sit flush with the front cover.MadMan007 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
I like this case, the layout and design decisions seem well-thought out and the front is attractive. It still includes 2 5.25" bays for those of us who use optical drives, for those who don't they allow for a radiator or 3.5" drives.The one shortcoming imo is the limited number of 3.5" bays. The 2.5" bay stack is a neat feature, but since it's completely removable using that space for 3.5" bays (which can obviously hold 2.5" drives as well) would give more options. It would make things very tight near the frint edge of a mATX board but it would still fit. With the low idle power draw of modern systems, using a main PC as file storage and serving makes more sense than it used to. If Corsair came out with an optional 3.5" rack to go where those 2.5" bays are the case would be even more flexible - add one, get 2 more 3.5" bays without blocking the intake fan, add 2 (for 4 drives) for maximum storage.