Corsair Obsidian 350D Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on April 25, 2013 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- MicroATX
Assembling the Corsair Obsidian 350D
I'm going to point out that the Corsair Obsidian 350D arrived in my hot little hands less than 24 hours before this review went up. Midnight oil was burned, a housecat was shamefully ignored, a Blue Moon was consumed, and had this enclosure come from any other vendor this review might not be up right now. This will be the 75th case I've reviewed, and I've gotten pretty quick at putting these bad boys together, but that depends heavily on the case itself not having any unusual quirks or hiccups. While the 350D's instruction manual isn't particularly instructional, assembly turned out to be as painless as I've come to expect.
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This is the easiest time I've had installing an I/O shield for the motherboard, and then the motherboard itself was tremendously easy to install simply because Corsair included an alignment stud in the center of the motherboard tray. In the case of the mini-ITX board being used for testing, that meant popping that stud into the top right corner of the board, lining it up with the I/O shield, and then just screwing it in. The case's cables and headers are all long enough to easily connect to the motherboard without leaving too much excess.
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Installing the drives was just as painless. The shields for the 5.25" drive bays pop out by squeezing two wedges inside the bay, and the toolless mechanism used to secure the optical drive does its job well. What I appreciated was attention finally being paid to making 2.5" drive installation toolless. I've seen strides from other vendors towards making this more common, and while the 2.5" plastic segmented drive cage Corsair uses looks a little clunky, it works extremely well. 2.5" drives are inserted from behind the motherboard tray and a plastic wedge holds them in place. It's a surprisingly secure design. 3.5" drives use the same old plastic trays Corsair's been using for a while and if anything, these probably need a minor update. They get the job done, but they're at least a little flimsy.
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I could go on about how easy it was to install the power supply and graphics card and wire everything, but the reality is that everything went swimmingly. The pair of routing holes for the power supply cables worked as well as I'd expected, and Corsair has ultimately made a case somehow even easier to build a system in. I might gripe a little about the slightly cramped quarters behind the motherboard tray, but the hinged side panel goes a long way towards alleviating any frustration that might cause. Honestly, the only hiccup I ran into was that the front intake fan uses a 3-pin connector but the testbed motherboard can't support it, and Corsair didn't include any allowances for that. I wound up having to use a molex adapter, and I do think it would've been prudent of Corsair to include one. Some boards only include headers for a CPU fan and a system fan.
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Worth noting is that the space above the motherboard tray is copious, but if you opt to install a 280mm radiator, it will intrude upon the top 5.25" drive bay. This is unfortunately a sacrifice made in allowing for this compatibility in a case as small as the 350D is. The 350D is about two inches taller than the competing Fractal Design Define Mini (owing to the fifth expansion slot and the radiator headroom), but it's also two inches shallower, and it offers amenities the Define Mini lacks.
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Grok42 - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - link
USB card readers are cheap and way more flexible and usable unless you somehow don't have USB ports close. The only USB device I own is a trackball and a DVD drive that lives in the closet. Despite having almost no need for USB, I have 16 USB ports within 12" of my hands when I'm typing. I can't imagine you don't have at least one. If you don't want an actual USB reader you can get USB converters which are the size of quarters that will convert a card to a USB stick. One of these options should work easily for you.okron1k - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
i'm curious what you mean by hinged panels? i'm picturing the doors opening similar to the cosmos 2, but that doesn't seem to be the case.mmenart - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
It's pretty heinous that TJ08B-E test results went away with the new test bed. I'd love to see these cases put head-to-head in thermals and noise. Anyone feel like donating to Anandtech?bmaltz - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - link
nice soup bowl...Grok42 - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - link
This is one of the better looking cases I've seen recently. I really like how the feet are done and how there is a large gap all the way around the case in the front view that creates a bold shadow line. Really top notch industrial design.I'm also really excited to see *any* case acknowledge the rising role 2.5" drives will have in the future. At some point the 2.5" magnetic drives will break free of their "laptop drive" stigma and all our drives can be the same 2.5" form factor. Sure you will always be able to get more storage in a 3.5" format at a lower cost per GB but the same was true of 5.25" and double height 3.5" drives and those are all gone. If all the drives where 2.5" and there was an open rail system for drives cases could be so much better.
If they really wanted to push forward they would have dropped all the 5.25" bays. Most computers sold don't include any optical drives anymore. Why are the smallest cases still including bays for 2 of them? I'm not saying no one has a need, but there are a lot who want a case with none and no one is acknowledging this fact and proving products for it. I certainly think the overall sales numbers for this case would have been improved by removing one of the 5.25" bays and having 2 additional internal 3.5" bays.
karasaj - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - link
I might be too late to comment, but please review the Arc Midi R2!Alvar - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
The Obsidian Series 650D is manufactured with strong, stamped steel parts for increased rigidity, and coated in a black textured paint. The front panel features a beautiful black brushed aluminum faceplate to bring a subtle elegance to your next build... more details :- http://tinyurl.com/c5czh4bBoloMKXXVIII - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
I think Dustin and the 350D need to get a room. ;-)CloudFire - Friday, May 3, 2013 - link
I'm still waiting on a mini-itx case from Corsair, this is an excellent offering nontheless but I'm wishing for a case layout similar to the Bitfenix Prodigy (with Corsair quality/style/finish) where the motherboard is laid out flat instead of on its side, that way there is no pressure/sag from gravity on heavy graphic cards.shadess - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/6917?cPage=6&a...