Corsair Obsidian 250D Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on January 21, 2014 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- Mini ITX
- Case
Corsair Obsidian 250D Exterior
Externally, the Obsidian 250D can be easily described as the cubic variation of the Obsidian 350D, the micro ATX case that Corsair introduced last April. The Obsidian 250D is 16 cm shorter and 9 cm less deep as its larger micro ATX brother, yet it is about 7 cm wider. As a result, even though the case is shorter and not as deep, the volume of the case is reduced by about 30% (≈0.028 cubic meters against the ≈0.042 cubic meters of the Obsidian 350D). Although Corsair has not officially disclosed the weight of the Obsidian 250D, the sample that we received tipped the scales at about 5 kg, which is about half the weight of an average simple ATX tower case.
Corsair went with a modern, post-minimalistic design with the Obsidian 250D. It is a case of clean lines and basic geometric shapes, with an addition of a top panel window and a brushed aluminum fascia with the company logo imprinted on it. The frame of the case and the side/top panels are made out of 1 mm SECC steel, while the front panel is made out of 2 mm thick plastic. The front panel also forms the two front feet of the Obsidian 250D, while the rear plastic feet are each attached to the metallic chassis. Considering the size of the case, the feet are quite tall, elevating the metallic frame of the Obsidian 250D about 2 cm above the surface. The aluminum front covers are no more than thin sheets of metal attached to the plastic frame beneath them and have been added for aesthetic purposes only.
Two USB 3.0 ports and two 3.5" audio jacks (headphones, microphone) can be found at the top right side of the aluminum fascia. The top right side is also home to a tiny circular reset button and the power on button, a ≈4 cm long stripe with the two case LED lights (power and HDD activity) integrated inside it. In between the buttons and the front I/O ports, there is a single 5.25" bay for an optical device.
The rest of the aluminum fascia actually is a large door, which can be opened by applying pressure to both of the top corners simultaneously. Once opened, the door will lean forward by about 45 degrees, giving direct access to the intake fan filter behind it, making cleaning of the front filter a trivial procedure.
Both side panels of the Obsidian 250D have large openings with integrated fan filters. Cleaning these fan filters will unfortunately not be as easy as the front filter, as the panels will have to be removed in order to access them. Both openings are about 280 mm wide by 140 mm high, with the right side panel opening right next the exhaust fan(s) or liquid cooler radiator and the left side panel opening right next to the intake of the GFX card fans. This design allows a powerful GFX card to draw cool air directly from the exterior of the case, which will definitely improve its thermal performance; however, it can also backfire if the user is far too negligent, as the filter could gather so many particles that it may become entirely clogged, leaving almost no space for the GFX card cooler to draw air from. This does not mean that the filters of the case require cleaning too frequently; depending on the environment, the filters may require cleaning anywhere between some weeks and up to several months.
The rear side of the Obsidian 250D is rather interesting, because it not only illustrates the internal design of the case but also gives access to the installation of disk drives and the PSU. The Obsidian 250D is split into two compartments; the bottom half is home to the HDD cage and the PSU partition, while the top half is meant to hold the main system, with the motherboard placed horizontally. Obviously, the orientation of the motherboard is why the window has been installed on the top panel of the case as well.
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Death666Angel - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
"it can also backfire if the user is far too negligent"You can say that about every case. I've seen enough people coming to forums saying that their 1 year old PC suddenly freezes or has terrible performance or is super loud. Some time late we find out the CPU and/or GPU throttle and it is mostly the case of the the coolers being clogged by dust and debris. In my opinion, it is far easier to see and remove dust from filters than it is from the coolers themselves. So I'd still give this one a better grade than most other cases (note: many Silverstone ones have positive air pressure with filter designs which helps this a lot!).
E.Fyll - Thursday, January 23, 2014 - link
That's true. However, the clearance between the side panel filter and the graphics card fans is but a few mm in this case. Other cases could end up with clogged filters and yet, even if the air could not easily enter/exit the case, there would be room for air circulation. If the side panel filter of the Corsair 250D gets clogged however, I fear that the card will "suffocate", there is just not enough clearance for it to continue sucking air from the side of the card.Hrel - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
Still prefer the Fractal Design Node 304faster - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
Dimensions 350 mm ×277 mm ×290 mm(D × W × H)I could go convert this to inches, but it would be nice if the author did it for me.
Slomo4shO - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
Welcome E! Thank you for the review. I would like to see a write up on the Cooler master Elite 110 as well in the near future :)bobbozzo - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
Try a CPL (polarized, rotatable, filter), and rotate it until the glare (mostly) disappears.And/or move lights around.
Bob
bobbozzo - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
Hi,I'm all for a consistent thermal load for repeatability, etc., but I worry that the noise levels will be misleading.
e.g. imagine 2 cases with similar fans in similar locations and similar airflow (direction, position, and CFM)...
with no component fans, they might sound about the same, but if case A has extensive noise dampening internally, and case B has none, then in the real-world, the components in case A would be harder to hear, resulting in a quieter system.
Perhaps your testing should be expanded to include some noise sources to simulate CPU and VidCard coolers (and maybe liquid cooling pumps).
The PSU fan is another possible source of noise; some cases (e.g. FD Node 304) now have the PSU mounted in the middle, so a noisy PSU might be quieter in such a case.
Thanks!
E.Fyll - Thursday, January 23, 2014 - link
Good thinking bobbozzo,Indeed, a case which has sound insulation will most likely result to lower noise levels than a case which has not (even though that is not always the case). However, I fear that currently I can only assess the noise level of the stock case and still end up with comparable results. You see, the sound pressure level, the position of the sound source, its frequency and several other factors are in play here. You could even use two configurations which generate similar acoustic pressure and yet end up with different results for each of them. Even if I do use some equipment to simulate the sound of a system, the results can vary depending on the configuration of the sound sources. For example, the liquid cooling pump of kit A could be reading less dB(A) than that of kit B during an unobstructed test, yet the sound wave could be at far higher frequency (the annoying whine that some kits make is such a wave) and the results would end up being significantly different if they were installed inside a case, depending on the case's size (echo), materials (rebound), the position of the pump and the insulation. Also, results can vary if there is difference between the sources of sound. For example, if the rest of the system remains the same and just a single fan becomes louder, it does not mean that the test results will just change scale, different cases will react differently.
However, I do consider it a very good idea and I will see what I can do about it. At the very least, I could perform a test with some additional noise sources, just as a basic reference.
Thank you for the advice. :)
just4U - Thursday, January 23, 2014 - link
Dustin not doing cases anymore? :( Hope he's still with Anandtech. Anyway, great first review there E. Would be nice if you could snag a modular PSU with ribbon cables for these case reviews. Their easy to work with and show what many of us might do in one of the builds.. Corsair should send you one! Or CoolerMaster.. It's free advertising for them after all :DJohnMD1022 - Thursday, January 23, 2014 - link
How about posting dimensions and weight in English as well as metric?I shouldn't need a calculator to read the review.