WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:06.480 This video is brought to you by the Corsair Obsidian 350D MicroATX case. 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:09.360 Exceptional expansion and cooling flexibility for compact, high 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.679 performance PCs. Visit Corsair.com/obsidian 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:18.480 to learn more. Welcome to my unboxing and first look at the Corsair 350D. Now, 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:23.359 Corsair initially launched their case line with an Obsidian case. That was an 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. 00:00:26.240 --> 00:00:34.079 They fleshed out the lineup with additional cases in lower-end series 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:37.200 such as carbide or graphite. And 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:39.520 Obsidian has been reserved for their 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:46.079 extremely high-end cases. Now, this is their first microATX case and it is not 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:48.079 losing the performance heritage of their 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 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:55.360 compare it to is actually the 800D. But 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 00:00:59.199 --> 00:01:06.400 that people build small high performance systems. I mean with boards like ASUS's 00:01:04.559 --> 00:01:11.119 Gan series which have been available for a couple generations now, there's really 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:15.439 no reason why you can't put exactly as much cooling and exactly as much 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:19.520 performance on a microATX system as you can on an ATX system. So, once I 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 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 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. 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, 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 00:01:38.960 --> 00:01:45.920 the case. They've also got some general details about the overall specs, 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:50.799 flexible cooling options. comes with one 140mm intake fan, 120 mm exhaust fan. 00:01:48.479 --> 00:01:54.880 There are five mounts total. The front and top mounts are spaced for 240 mm 00:01:53.119 --> 00:01:58.799 radiators for more cooling options. That's what Corsair's done well is 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:03.920 they've really integrated liquid cooling options well with their cases. Not only 00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:09.759 accommodating for their own products, which are usually sort of pre-filled 00:02:06.320 --> 00:02:11.280 all-in-one units, but also for custom 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:15.599 liquid cooling. I mean, this is something that a lot of manufacturers do 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:20.319 that drives me absolutely crazy is they operate under this assumption that the 00:02:18.160 --> 00:02:27.120 consumer is going to buy only their own products. And it's like, you know, okay, 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:30.400 but what about consumers who aren't interested in all-in-one liquid coolers? 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:35.040 You know, so you look at a lot of different cases and they are completely 00:02:32.239 --> 00:02:39.440 unoptimized for a custom cooling loop. Um, and they call themselves water 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:42.879 cooling ready because they put radiator ready spacing in the top so that you 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 00:02:46.160 --> 00:02:52.879 looking at their most recent cases like the 350D as well as the 900D. So, not 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:56.959 the greatest phone that I've ever seen. Not particularly dense, not particularly 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 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 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:09.360 Corsair did the necessary drop tests, like there are standards for this uh 00:03:07.200 --> 00:03:13.519 crush testing and all that kind of stuff before bringing the 350D to market 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:18.319 because they've been generally pretty good about packaging. Overall, having 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:24.159 worked at an online retailer uh in Canada where shipping can often result 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:27.440 in things dying, very horrible deaths. It didn't happen too much with Corsair 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 00:03:29.519 --> 00:03:37.040 on the side. I like this. I don't necessarily 00:03:33.440 --> 00:03:38.640 always prefer a window that lets you see 00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:42.239 everything like the power supply and drives and all that kind of stuff, but 00:03:40.239 --> 00:03:46.319 what I like about this particular one is it gives it a very clean look because 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 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:56.720 sides and just makes it look very very clean without sort of being over the top 00:03:53.760 --> 00:04:00.959 flashy gamey looking. Uh, on the front you can see this front plate did seem to 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 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 00:04:08.239 --> 00:04:13.280 the front plate here. So, it's a beautiful brushed aluminum finish on the 00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:18.320 metal front plate. Hopefully you guys can see that. Very small uh innocuous 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 00:04:20.880 --> 00:04:26.639 where to press if you want to remove this. And it looks like Oh, it looks 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:31.520 like that comes off. That's lucky. There we go. All right. So, no actual damage 00:04:29.440 --> 00:04:35.360 done to the case, which is wonderful. Uh, we've got a removable fan filter 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 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:46.320 you can do dual 120 mm fans. You can actually see there are alternate 00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:48.639 mounting points here, here, here, and 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 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 00:04:55.440 --> 00:05:01.440 can see the ventilation comes in around the sides here, sides and bottom. So 00:04:59.919 --> 00:05:06.400 there's lots of space there. And then what Corsair's done, just going to do 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:10.960 that, is they've put in a dead space here. 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 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:18.639 these to allow the fans to not be just trying to draw air directly from a 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:22.639 plastic plate that's right in front of them. So instead, they are bringing air 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 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:30.960 and remove the front fan filter. Check this out. So, it can accommodate a 00:05:29.039 --> 00:05:34.160 single 140 mm fan in the middle, which is what Corsair ships it with in the 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 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:43.759 the chassis. However, you have the option with the included mounting holes 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:49.440 here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Anyway, all over the place to 00:05:45.440 --> 00:05:51.440 mount dual 120s or even dual 140 mm fans 00:05:49.440 --> 00:05:54.720 in the front of the case. the the other fans won't necessarily have quite the 00:05:53.039 --> 00:05:58.720 same effectiveness of this one fan. But obviously doubling up the fans, even if 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 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 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:12.400 quarter inch bays, uh headphone, microphone, and reset switches here, 00:06:09.280 --> 00:06:14.080 power switch up here, two USB 3.0 super 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 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:24.800 front. On the top you've got that same flexibility. So, dual 120 mil or dual 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:30.080 140 mm. And check this out. In order to account for the fact that sometimes the 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:31.840 spacing isn't exact on certain um liquid 00:06:30.080 --> 00:06:36.639 coolers or whatever else, they've expanded the holes for one of the 140 mm 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 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:43.759 actually a really nice touch as well. It goes to show you Corsair actually builds 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 00:06:46.960 --> 00:06:52.800 side, there's not a whole lot. Okay, blank side panel. Here we've got a 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:57.600 removable fan filter. That's actually one of the most ruggedly designed 00:06:55.520 --> 00:07:03.120 removable fan filters I've ever seen. Look at this thing. It's like solid. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.400 Usually, they're extremely flimsy. So, let's go ahead and And the rails that it 00:07:04.880 --> 00:07:09.360 sits in are really nice as well. It locks into place. So, you can see 00:07:07.919 --> 00:07:13.440 there's a little bit of resistance to remove that. 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. 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 00:07:20.880 --> 00:07:25.919 over the place. And that's cool. So, check this out. All the pieces in the 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:29.759 bottom. Okay. So, there's rivets here, here, here, here, and here. But it looks 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 00:07:33.520 --> 00:07:39.840 of the case, we find pretty standard. Oh, look at this. Five PCI expansion 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:45.280 slots. So, they've allowed you to install a dual slot card in the bottom 00:07:43.039 --> 00:07:49.120 of your MATX board. So that will effectively give you what you would 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:53.599 normally have on a board with five expansion slots. So you can fill this 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:56.960 one, fill this one, and then you can actually install an additional card in 00:07:55.440 --> 00:08:00.240 between even if you have something like an SLI setup, which is very cool. I've 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:04.960 always felt that's a limitation of the microATX platform is that you can't have 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:08.720 two dual slot graphics cards running an SLR or Crossfire and have a high-end 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:12.639 audio card or something like that. So that's really cool to see as well. 120 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:16.879 mm cooling fan in the back, liquid cooling holes, which of course are 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:22.160 wisely left in because most people won't be using those, as well as standard 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:24.720 power supply mounting. All right, let's 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:29.280 open this bad boy up and find out what makes her tick. 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 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 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:43.839 class case. looking at cases like the 800D and the 650D in terms of the 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 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:52.800 mean, we expect this on a windowed side panel, but quite honestly, when I 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:55.040 wrapped on the other side panel, um, it 00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:59.680 wasn't really all that awe inspiring either. Oh, actually, okay. That's not 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 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 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:12.480 something to consider. All right. So once we get inside, we've got two 3 and 00:09:09.839 --> 00:09:15.760 1/2 in sliding hard drive cages. Now these are usually flimsy, but once you 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:19.120 actually put a drive in them, they stiffen right up and so you can slide 00:09:17.760 --> 00:09:22.959 those back in there. This whole cage comes out. Love the use of screws for 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:28.480 the construction instead of using rivets. So those there's those screws on 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:30.000 the bottom as well as right here. Screws 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:33.839 on the back. This gives you the flexibility. See, one, two, looks like 00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:38.080 just two screws on this side here. This gives you the flexibility to remove the 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 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:45.519 able to mount those radiators in the front of the case itself, which leaves 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 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 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 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:03.440 performance class case. And they've done another wise thing here, which is to 00:10:00.560 --> 00:10:08.240 improve include enough cable routing holes in the bottom. This is huge. So 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:11.760 many case guys have like one hole at the bottom and then like six holes around 00:10:10.160 --> 00:10:14.640 the motherboard tray. It's like, okay, well, how where are all these cables 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 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 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 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:28.399 your board. Um, maybe they want you to use it for routing the front IO or 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 00:10:32.079 --> 00:10:37.120 you're not just routing them around the edge of the motherboard tray here. 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, 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 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. 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 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:02.320 Corsair. See, now I'm putting that now I'm 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:07.760 putting the pressure on him. There we go. Aha. Corsair Neutron GTX. So, this 00:11:05.920 --> 00:11:13.040 is how the installation process works here. You just pop this bad boy in and 00:11:10.640 --> 00:11:17.040 it loads just like that. Look at that. Springloaded, too. So, when you open it 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 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:24.720 is actually better than the one that I saw implemented on I believe it was the 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 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:31.519 out of. Looks like Corsair figured that out and got that fixed with this guy 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 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:39.920 the next question. Oh, yeah. There's some internal cables and stuff that you 00:11:37.920 --> 00:11:43.760 might want to see. Corsair, of course, always with the nice little touches. I 00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:49.120 mean, it's all about spending money in the right places. spend money making 00:11:45.920 --> 00:11:51.519 that OEM use black cables. They don't 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 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 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:04.880 way that people end up with systems that actually look good and look high 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:09.839 performance and look high class. That's why Corsair cases have so many build 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:12.720 logs done in them where it just looks really good because they spend the time 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:16.639 and spend the money on those little finishing touches. Same thing. Even a US 00:12:14.880 --> 00:12:20.720 I'd like to see someone implement a less bulky USB3 connector. But I guess you 00:12:18.880 --> 00:12:24.480 know you can't have everything that you want necessarily. But either way, it's 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 00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:34.480 blue. You can still see it. You can still see it coming out. Um included 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:36.880 little bits here. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:40.800 So you got fan screws. That's good. You got some other more different screws. 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:44.880 You got some uh zip ties and all that kind of stuff. Um, I like this 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:48.320 personally when they include one stationary standoff that doesn't get 00:12:46.880 --> 00:12:51.440 something screwed into it because it gives you a reference point for where to 00:12:50.160 --> 00:12:55.279 position the board as you're putting it into the case. Not everyone does this 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:58.800 and even many brands that do it don't do it consistently. So, there you go. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:02.240 Corsair, if you're watching this, keep doing this. I like this. I appreciate 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 00:13:04.560 --> 00:13:10.639 it toollessly. You can screw screws in and that will actually be more secure 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:14.160 for things like shipping it around. And I think we're pretty much done here. So, 00:13:12.160 --> 00:13:17.600 why do we need this? Um, if you want to build a high performance system, you 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:21.839 know, SLI, Crossfire, whatever else, and you don't want to expend any more space 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 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 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:34.240 heavy, then something like this would be a fantastic choice. And the fact that 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:38.639 it's windowed and liquid cooling ready and all that good stuff is just kind of 00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:41.440 icing on the cake at this point. Thanks for checking out this unboxing and first 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.