1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:06,480
This video is brought to you by the Corsair Obsidian 350D MicroATX case.

2
00:00:04,799 --> 00:00:09,360
Exceptional expansion and cooling flexibility for compact, high

3
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,679
performance PCs. Visit Corsair.com/obsidian

4
00:00:11,120 --> 00:00:18,480
to learn more. Welcome to my unboxing and first look at the Corsair 350D. Now,

5
00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:23,359
Corsair initially launched their case line with an Obsidian case. That was an

6
00:00:21,119 --> 00:00:28,080
ATX case, a very large one I might add, the 800D. And then they followed it up.

7
00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:34,079
They fleshed out the lineup with additional cases in lower-end series

8
00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:37,200
such as carbide or graphite. And

9
00:00:34,079 --> 00:00:39,520
Obsidian has been reserved for their

10
00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:46,079
extremely high-end cases. Now, this is their first microATX case and it is not

11
00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:48,079
losing the performance heritage of their

12
00:00:46,079 --> 00:00:53,120
any of their sort of launch cases, which I guess the only one that I can really

13
00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:55,360
compare it to is actually the 800D. But

14
00:00:53,120 --> 00:01:01,760
let's not worry too much about that. The point is this is meant to change the way

15
00:00:59,199 --> 00:01:06,400
that people build small high performance systems. I mean with boards like ASUS's

16
00:01:04,559 --> 00:01:11,119
Gan series which have been available for a couple generations now, there's really

17
00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:15,439
no reason why you can't put exactly as much cooling and exactly as much

18
00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:19,520
performance on a microATX system as you can on an ATX system. So, once I

19
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,759
actually figure out how to get the box open here. See, you can see my thumb is

20
00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:28,159
ah jammed in there trying to get the Ah, there we go. So, we'll be back in just a

21
00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:30,960
moment. Now, the case itself comes in a hard foam, but more on that in a moment.

22
00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:35,600
Let's see what Corsair has to say for themselves on the box. They've got a QR code here, photos, videos, product tour,

23
00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:41,920
and more. But don't worry about that. You're watching a video about the product right now. Blown up version of

24
00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:45,920
the case. They've also got some general details about the overall specs,

25
00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:50,799
flexible cooling options. comes with one 140mm intake fan, 120 mm exhaust fan.

26
00:01:48,479 --> 00:01:54,880
There are five mounts total. The front and top mounts are spaced for 240 mm

27
00:01:53,119 --> 00:01:58,799
radiators for more cooling options. That's what Corsair's done well is

28
00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:03,920
they've really integrated liquid cooling options well with their cases. Not only

29
00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:09,759
accommodating for their own products, which are usually sort of pre-filled

30
00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:11,280
all-in-one units, but also for custom

31
00:02:09,759 --> 00:02:15,599
liquid cooling. I mean, this is something that a lot of manufacturers do

32
00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:20,319
that drives me absolutely crazy is they operate under this assumption that the

33
00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:27,120
consumer is going to buy only their own products. And it's like, you know, okay,

34
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:30,400
but what about consumers who aren't interested in all-in-one liquid coolers?

35
00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:35,040
You know, so you look at a lot of different cases and they are completely

36
00:02:32,239 --> 00:02:39,440
unoptimized for a custom cooling loop. Um, and they call themselves water

37
00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:42,879
cooling ready because they put radiator ready spacing in the top so that you

38
00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:48,160
could mount an all-in-one. So anyway, that's just my little rant there. Corsair doesn't do this, particularly

39
00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:52,879
looking at their most recent cases like the 350D as well as the 900D. So, not

40
00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:56,959
the greatest phone that I've ever seen. Not particularly dense, not particularly

41
00:02:55,040 --> 00:03:00,480
strong. It is a smaller case and this is a factor. You don't need to protect it

42
00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:05,519
as much in shipping when it's smaller and doesn't weigh as much. So, I'm sure

43
00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:09,360
Corsair did the necessary drop tests, like there are standards for this uh

44
00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:13,519
crush testing and all that kind of stuff before bringing the 350D to market

45
00:03:12,159 --> 00:03:18,319
because they've been generally pretty good about packaging. Overall, having

46
00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:24,159
worked at an online retailer uh in Canada where shipping can often result

47
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,440
in things dying, very horrible deaths. It didn't happen too much with Corsair

48
00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:31,920
stuff. So, let's start with the outside of the case. We've got a nice big window

49
00:03:29,519 --> 00:03:37,040
on the side. I like this. I don't necessarily

50
00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:38,640
always prefer a window that lets you see

51
00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:42,239
everything like the power supply and drives and all that kind of stuff, but

52
00:03:40,239 --> 00:03:46,319
what I like about this particular one is it gives it a very clean look because

53
00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:51,519
the size of the window isn't overly huge. Um, but it's sort of even on all

54
00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:56,720
sides and just makes it look very very clean without sort of being over the top

55
00:03:53,760 --> 00:04:00,959
flashy gamey looking. Uh, on the front you can see this front plate did seem to

56
00:03:58,959 --> 00:04:06,400
Oh, that came loose, didn't it? That's a shame. Okay, so let's go ahead and

57
00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:10,080
speaking of shipping in Canada being a bit of a nightmare, let's have a look at

58
00:04:08,239 --> 00:04:13,280
the front plate here. So, it's a beautiful brushed aluminum finish on the

59
00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:18,320
metal front plate. Hopefully you guys can see that. Very small uh innocuous

60
00:04:16,479 --> 00:04:22,400
Corsair logo on the bottom. They've got two little dots here so that you'll know

61
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:26,639
where to press if you want to remove this. And it looks like Oh, it looks

62
00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:31,520
like that comes off. That's lucky. There we go. All right. So, no actual damage

63
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:35,360
done to the case, which is wonderful. Uh, we've got a removable fan filter

64
00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:41,440
here in the front. So, in the front, you can either mount a single 140 mm fan or

65
00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:46,320
you can do dual 120 mm fans. You can actually see there are alternate

66
00:04:43,280 --> 00:04:48,639
mounting points here, here, here, and

67
00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:54,160
here. Okay, I get it now. So, I'm going to put this on. I hate touching these

68
00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:57,040
because it's going to stain. Ah. Uh, so I'm going to put this back on. So you

69
00:04:55,440 --> 00:05:01,440
can see the ventilation comes in around the sides here, sides and bottom. So

70
00:04:59,919 --> 00:05:06,400
there's lots of space there. And then what Corsair's done, just going to do

71
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:10,960
that, is they've put in a dead space here.

72
00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:15,360
Okay. Okay, there we go. They've put in a dead space here that's blocked off by

73
00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:18,639
these to allow the fans to not be just trying to draw air directly from a

74
00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:22,639
plastic plate that's right in front of them. So instead, they are bringing air

75
00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:27,120
in around from the sides where there's that dead space and then they can pull in from there. So, okay, we'll go ahead

76
00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:30,960
and remove the front fan filter. Check this out. So, it can accommodate a

77
00:05:29,039 --> 00:05:34,160
single 140 mm fan in the middle, which is what Corsair ships it with in the

78
00:05:33,039 --> 00:05:39,280
area where there's the least restriction. So, if you look through that fan, it goes right directly into

79
00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:43,759
the chassis. However, you have the option with the included mounting holes

80
00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:49,440
here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Anyway, all over the place to

81
00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:51,440
mount dual 120s or even dual 140 mm fans

82
00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:54,720
in the front of the case. the the other fans won't necessarily have quite the

83
00:05:53,039 --> 00:05:58,720
same effectiveness of this one fan. But obviously doubling up the fans, even if

84
00:05:57,199 --> 00:06:03,120
efficiency is reduced a little bit, is still going to give you more overall cooling performance. So that's a very

85
00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:06,800
cool approach to take there. On the top of the case, oh right, so two five and a

86
00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:12,400
quarter inch bays, uh headphone, microphone, and reset switches here,

87
00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:14,080
power switch up here, two USB 3.0 super

88
00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:18,160
speeds, and then yeah, two 5 and 1/4 in bay. So there that takes care of the

89
00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:24,800
front. On the top you've got that same flexibility. So, dual 120 mil or dual

90
00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:30,080
140 mm. And check this out. In order to account for the fact that sometimes the

91
00:06:26,639 --> 00:06:31,840
spacing isn't exact on certain um liquid

92
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:36,639
coolers or whatever else, they've expanded the holes for one of the 140 mm

93
00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:39,759
mounts. So, you can change the spacing a little bit if you want. That's uh that's

94
00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:43,759
actually a really nice touch as well. It goes to show you Corsair actually builds

95
00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:49,199
system in their systems in their cases before they release them to market, which I can't say for everyone. On this

96
00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:52,800
side, there's not a whole lot. Okay, blank side panel. Here we've got a

97
00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:57,600
removable fan filter. That's actually one of the most ruggedly designed

98
00:06:55,520 --> 00:07:03,120
removable fan filters I've ever seen. Look at this thing. It's like solid.

99
00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:06,400
Usually, they're extremely flimsy. So, let's go ahead and And the rails that it

100
00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:09,360
sits in are really nice as well. It locks into place. So, you can see

101
00:07:07,919 --> 00:07:13,440
there's a little bit of resistance to remove that.

102
00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:18,800
And then it has like these huge plastic rails that sits on. That's kind of nice.

103
00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:22,639
Uh the feet are covered in little rubber feet so that it doesn't slide around all

104
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:25,919
over the place. And that's cool. So, check this out. All the pieces in the

105
00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:29,759
bottom. Okay. So, there's rivets here, here, here, here, and here. But it looks

106
00:07:28,319 --> 00:07:35,599
like the drive cages are going to be mounted by screws. So, we should be able to remove those no problem. At the back

107
00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:39,840
of the case, we find pretty standard. Oh, look at this. Five PCI expansion

108
00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:45,280
slots. So, they've allowed you to install a dual slot card in the bottom

109
00:07:43,039 --> 00:07:49,120
of your MATX board. So that will effectively give you what you would

110
00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:53,599
normally have on a board with five expansion slots. So you can fill this

111
00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:56,960
one, fill this one, and then you can actually install an additional card in

112
00:07:55,440 --> 00:08:00,240
between even if you have something like an SLI setup, which is very cool. I've

113
00:07:58,879 --> 00:08:04,960
always felt that's a limitation of the microATX platform is that you can't have

114
00:08:02,879 --> 00:08:08,720
two dual slot graphics cards running an SLR or Crossfire and have a high-end

115
00:08:07,199 --> 00:08:12,639
audio card or something like that. So that's really cool to see as well. 120

116
00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:16,879
mm cooling fan in the back, liquid cooling holes, which of course are

117
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:22,160
wisely left in because most people won't be using those, as well as standard

118
00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:24,720
power supply mounting. All right, let's

119
00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:29,280
open this bad boy up and find out what makes her tick.

120
00:08:27,199 --> 00:08:35,200
Thumb screws on the back make it easy to remove the back panel. Overall, um, I'd

121
00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:39,120
say it's not quite at the same level as I would have expected from an Obsidian

122
00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:43,839
class case. looking at cases like the 800D and the 650D in terms of the

123
00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:47,920
construction. So, there's a little bit of flex here. Um, as you guys can see, I

124
00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:52,800
mean, we expect this on a windowed side panel, but quite honestly, when I

125
00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:55,040
wrapped on the other side panel, um, it

126
00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:59,680
wasn't really all that awe inspiring either. Oh, actually, okay. That's not

127
00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:02,640
as bad as I thought. Okay. Well, there you go. Either way, I mean, it's not

128
00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:07,519
built like an 800D, but it's also not priced like an 800D, so there's sort of

129
00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:12,480
something to consider. All right. So once we get inside, we've got two 3 and

130
00:09:09,839 --> 00:09:15,760
1/2 in sliding hard drive cages. Now these are usually flimsy, but once you

131
00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:19,120
actually put a drive in them, they stiffen right up and so you can slide

132
00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:22,959
those back in there. This whole cage comes out. Love the use of screws for

133
00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:28,480
the construction instead of using rivets. So those there's those screws on

134
00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:30,000
the bottom as well as right here. Screws

135
00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:33,839
on the back. This gives you the flexibility. See, one, two, looks like

136
00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:38,080
just two screws on this side here. This gives you the flexibility to remove the

137
00:09:35,519 --> 00:09:41,519
whole thing, including these 2 and 1/2 in mounts. That's how you're going to be

138
00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:45,519
able to mount those radiators in the front of the case itself, which leaves

139
00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:48,959
you just with five and a/4 in bays. Up here in the bottom, they've of course

140
00:09:47,519 --> 00:09:54,160
got support for nice long power supplies. I mean, Corsair builds an awful lot of power supplies, so they're

141
00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:58,800
going to want you to be able to use anything from their range and something that they're going to brand as a

142
00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:03,440
performance class case. And they've done another wise thing here, which is to

143
00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:08,240
improve include enough cable routing holes in the bottom. This is huge. So

144
00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:11,760
many case guys have like one hole at the bottom and then like six holes around

145
00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:14,640
the motherboard tray. It's like, okay, well, how where are all these cables

146
00:10:13,279 --> 00:10:18,320
going to come from if I wasn't able to put them through here? So, there's two

147
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:22,000
big ones down here. There's one up here for your eight pin or your four pin. One

148
00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:25,680
up here for whatever you might need to run to the very top right hand edge of

149
00:10:23,519 --> 00:10:28,399
your board. Um, maybe they want you to use it for routing the front IO or

150
00:10:27,519 --> 00:10:33,519
something like that behind the motherboard tray. And then ones here for your 24 pin or whatever else, assuming

151
00:10:32,079 --> 00:10:37,120
you're not just routing them around the edge of the motherboard tray here.

152
00:10:35,519 --> 00:10:42,560
Motherboard tray itself feels quite solid considering that there's an extremely large cutout for the CPU. So,

153
00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:48,720
no matter where your CPU socket is positioned, you shouldn't have too much difficulty with that. And I just want to

154
00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:52,800
have a look at Oh, check that out. So, that's how this comes out. There you go.

155
00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:58,959
There's your 2 and 12 in drive mount. So, these are awesome. Hey, Slick, can you throw me an SSD? Uh, preferably

156
00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:02,320
Corsair. See, now I'm putting that now I'm

157
00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:07,760
putting the pressure on him. There we go. Aha. Corsair Neutron GTX. So, this

158
00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:13,040
is how the installation process works here. You just pop this bad boy in and

159
00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:17,040
it loads just like that. Look at that. Springloaded, too. So, when you open it

160
00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:20,480
up, it pops it out for you. So, you don't have to do any of the work. This

161
00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:24,720
is actually better than the one that I saw implemented on I believe it was the

162
00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:28,560
300R. That one was a little bit stiff and a little bit hard to get the drives

163
00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:31,519
out of. Looks like Corsair figured that out and got that fixed with this guy

164
00:11:30,399 --> 00:11:36,240
right here. So, there you go. Now there's tons of space there. So, what's the point of all this, I guess, would be

165
00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:39,920
the next question. Oh, yeah. There's some internal cables and stuff that you

166
00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:43,760
might want to see. Corsair, of course, always with the nice little touches. I

167
00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:49,120
mean, it's all about spending money in the right places. spend money making

168
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:51,519
that OEM use black cables. They don't

169
00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:56,079
like it because, you know, it's harder to QC, but make them do it. And then

170
00:11:54,640 --> 00:12:01,600
maybe the side panels a little bit thinner or whatever else. Don't worry too much about that because this is the

171
00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:04,880
way that people end up with systems that actually look good and look high

172
00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:09,839
performance and look high class. That's why Corsair cases have so many build

173
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,720
logs done in them where it just looks really good because they spend the time

174
00:12:11,519 --> 00:12:16,639
and spend the money on those little finishing touches. Same thing. Even a US

175
00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:20,720
I'd like to see someone implement a less bulky USB3 connector. But I guess you

176
00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:24,480
know you can't have everything that you want necessarily. But either way, it's

177
00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:28,079
all black. Even the connector here at the end. I've seen a lot of them that are black except this little bit is

178
00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:34,480
blue. You can still see it. You can still see it coming out. Um included

179
00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:36,880
little bits here.

180
00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:40,800
So you got fan screws. That's good. You got some other more different screws.

181
00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:44,880
You got some uh zip ties and all that kind of stuff. Um, I like this

182
00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:48,320
personally when they include one stationary standoff that doesn't get

183
00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:51,440
something screwed into it because it gives you a reference point for where to

184
00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:55,279
position the board as you're putting it into the case. Not everyone does this

185
00:12:53,279 --> 00:12:58,800
and even many brands that do it don't do it consistently. So, there you go.

186
00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:02,240
Corsair, if you're watching this, keep doing this. I like this. I appreciate

187
00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:07,040
this. There's a toolless 5 and a/4 in bay, but as usual, you don't have to use

188
00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:10,639
it toollessly. You can screw screws in and that will actually be more secure

189
00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:14,160
for things like shipping it around. And I think we're pretty much done here. So,

190
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:17,600
why do we need this? Um, if you want to build a high performance system, you

191
00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:21,839
know, SLI, Crossfire, whatever else, and you don't want to expend any more space

192
00:13:20,399 --> 00:13:25,760
than you absolutely need to, if you want something that could be portable, say, for example, if you're a video

193
00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:30,240
production house, and you want to be able to move around a rendering workstation with you that's not that

194
00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:34,240
heavy, then something like this would be a fantastic choice. And the fact that

195
00:13:32,560 --> 00:13:38,639
it's windowed and liquid cooling ready and all that good stuff is just kind of

196
00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:41,440
icing on the cake at this point. Thanks for checking out this unboxing and first

197
00:13:40,079 --> 00:13:46,720
look online as tech tips. Don't forget to subscribe for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.