Corsair Obsidian 750D Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on September 24, 2013 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- ATX
- Case
If it weren't for the weight, assembling a system in the Corsair Obsidian 750D would almost be like a vacation. Corsair's trademark at this point is ease of use, and that continues with the 750D.
The side panels are both hinged and held in place with two thumbscrews. From there, installing the I/O shield and motherboard is easy; Corsair has extruded all of the motherboard mounting points from the tray itself, and added a guide peg in the center. There's also plenty of space surrounding the motherboard, making it easy to route cabling.
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With all of the different drive form factors having toolless installation, you can imagine how easy that was to handle as well. The 3.5" drive trays are typical of Corsair, but they snap in nicely and securely (as opposed to the NZXT trays which have a hard time staying in place). NZXT handily beats Corsair's toolless retention mechanism for the 5.25" drive bays, though; Corsair's isn't bad, but NZXT's is incredibly secure. You'll probably want to screw in the drive on the opposite side just to be safe.
Corsair has been pursuing toolless mounting solutions for 2.5" drives pretty aggressively; they use modular, interlocking drive caddies for the Carbide Air 540, and those work well. With the 750D they have an even more novel approach, with a series of caddies that bridge the motherboard tray and front of the case. This system is also a pretty effective one, but if you're using a 7mm drive it's going to be a little loose. I'm not sure what they can really do about this. Create tiny drive cages and tiny drive trays that snap in on the sides? The arrangement of the 2.5" caddies behind the motherboard tray in the 750D is slick, but their alignment complicates cabling somewhat.
The power supply and expansion cards went in easily and smoothly, and cabling for the most part was a non-issue. Corsair's creative 2.5" drive solution does cause some minor problems, though. You can see where the bottom drive caddie would be that the cables from the 3.5" drives bunch up, and that's ignoring how the front fan cables have to route through one of the other caddies. The fan cables aren't a major issue, but the leads for the 3.5" drives are a problem waiting to happen. Kudos to Corsair for coming up with an innovative arrangement for the 2.5" drives, hopefully they can work out some of the kinks in a future revision.
For how hideous my cabling job is, Corsair designs continue to lend themselves well to very clean interior builds. As a teenager I was huge on the idea of having a windowed case, then through most of my twenties I was interested in having a more modest machine. As I've gotten older (and broken thirty) and case designs have gotten more elegant, I've started to see the appeal in having a slightly more showy build. The 750D's window is welcome; it's able to handle our full fat testbed with aplomb, and makes even my crappy wiring look decent.
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b3nzint - Tuesday, September 24, 2013 - link
Does it has a gpu holder mechanism? and I need 4 bay 5.25". But overall not bad.hemi79 - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
This looks like a great case! I had the C70 and just felt the need for more space so I looked into to the Obsidian models, but the 650D model didn't convince me due to the 200mm fans. This seems like the perfect case for my case. I went with the NZXT Switch in Matte Black and while I had all the space I dreamed of, I have to say the quality of the build and material did not compare to the Corsair C70. I almost regretted it, but I made peace with my decision instead of paying return shipping. lolUltraWide - Saturday, September 28, 2013 - link
One thing you can't tell from the pictures and review is how flimsy this case is. The overall quality is very low, more in line with the Carbide series. The design and layout is excellent, but the metal is just too thin and the case frame/structure bends easily. I am returning mine and going with the NZXT H630.Cainethanatos - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Oh really, is it that bad ? I am aswell looking at the 750D or the H630 . Dustin, compared to the H630, the build quality better oir worse (or the same(ish) ). Otherwise I might need to flip a coin :)lorribot - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link
Hands up anyone who would use all 10 HD drive bays? What about all three 5.25 bays?I do sometimes feel it is a case of "because we can, we will" when it comes to the number drive bays in cases. I imagine most people are likely to need no more than two, one 2.5 and one 3.5, some may need to use a 5.25 for fan controls or even a blue ray but to be honest I can't remember the last time I put a DVD into a computer.
It would be a brave case manufacture that dropped completely or only provided ony a single 5.25 bay (or low profile one) and only 2 or 3 2.5/3.5 multi use bays in anything other than an ITX case
But whatever the case size I would expect improved air flow without all the extra bits of metal spoiling things. It might even reduce prices a bit and simplify installations and provide more layout options internally.
This case like many others reviewed is safe, uninspiring and of little merit. Apart from the odd case that nudges at the boundaries there is nothing really happening in case design, it is ripe for some real design people to step in and provide some real inspiration and flair, sadly it seems that only Apple, albeit freed from the constraints of standard motherboard layouts, is up for the challenge.
limaxophobiac - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link
"Noise levels prove to be a victory for Corsair, but they're still struggling to beat NZXT's Phantom 630, which runs both quieter and cooler."This isn't true at all, look at the test, at Overclocked Load and Full Fat the CPU in the NZXT Phantom 630 is 8-10 degrees hotter, this is HUGE in the 750D favour.
limaxophobiac - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link
Nevermind I was looking at the H630 not the Phantom. The Phantom is indeed cooler.The_Goods - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
I love the heck out of my 800D. It's a gorgeous space to build a veritable waterpark of cooling.When I don't love it, is when I have to pick up the 70lbs of PC manlove.
These new ones are going to make for some happy hooligans.
sdmf74 - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
dude you have your SSD plugged in to your optical drive WTFAntonio Cortina - Monday, October 20, 2014 - link
I have this box for a week now and I've seen the HDD LED does not work :(Not know the Corsair RMA policy but they should change the box completely.
I've already put a complaint in the store but they doubt that the supplier's change me for another.
All Obsidian boxes I've had in the European area had a defect.
I hope Corsair fix this or lose a lot of customers