Corsair Obsidian 450D PC Case
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,710 words · ~8 min read
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with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 730 series SSD is an
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amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts let me open this
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video by saying I've got an email thread that's about a mile long with George
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from Corsair about this case and I do have a number of complaints about it but
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his response of well what else can you
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get at this price that's this easy to build in and has these features is
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pretty fair the 450d if you don't feel like skipping to the end to hear the
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conclusion delivers great features at a great price with great air flow and in
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my opinion very good looks which isn't to say that I'm going to completely let
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him off the hook the packing material is not the best hard foam I've ever seen
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but it's not really a concern unless you're having someone else build your
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system for you and then ship it to you all right so once it's out of the box
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this is a bit of an unusual look for an obsidian instead of going for a very
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plain look with simple straight lines Corsair has in my mind done a great job
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of delivering solid cooling performance and still having it look pretty clean
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out of the box with the included af140 L fans it still maintains a professional
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front bezel look but because the front design with its removable fan filter is
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so open throwing some Led fans in there would be a super easy way to give your
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system some gamer bling I think it's a great balance speaking of great balance
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the top fan filter is pretty much brilliant their flexible mesh and magnet
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solution to dust filtration is inexpensive aesthetically pleasing and
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convenient the bottom fan filter ain't half bad either it's much easier to
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remove and replace without being able to see it because it uses a rigid plastic
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frame and a few magnets around the edges to make it very easy to position now I
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guess I glossed over the front iio when I was talking about the front there's nothing too special here two USB 3 ports
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a headphone and microphone Jack a recessed reset switch and a large power
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switch the power and drive activity LEDs are built into the power button the side
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window is great too a nice large side panel window looks great on these
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smaller cases as long as Cable Management inside is good and the 450d
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is almost as good as other obsidian cases in terms of cable routing options
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finally at the back we find seven PCI slots some water cooling tubing holes
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that corser has given up even pretending that people use note that they don't
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even bother including rubber grommets for them anymore and included 120 mm
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series or AF series fan I griped at
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George about not putting in8 PCI slots when it really looks like there was room
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for an additional one and his response here was also pretty fair and that's
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that no one should be putting four graphics cards in Quad SLI in a mid
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Tower there's just not enough room to cool them adequately unless you do a
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side intake like on the Vengeance C70 all right George Fair Point opening up
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the case is done with four thumb screws at the back there are no real complaints
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here but I'd love to see Corsair implement the self- retaining side panel
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screws that NZXT has put on the h440 it
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doesn't cost much and is a great hassle saer for the user now that the case is
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open the layout will look pretty familiar to anyone who has seen its
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little matx brother the 350d by comparison the 450d excepts a full-size
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ATX motherboard and corsar has basically just added a 3 and 1/2 in/ 2 and 1/2 in
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Drive Bay sled to utilize the extra height and moved the super handy
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spring-loaded SSD mounts to the back of the motherboard tray a great move since
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it frees up space in the front for either a 240 or 280 mm radiator speaking
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of Radiators the case can handle RADS in up to four spots without any
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modification an exceptional feet for a case this size by my super precise
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eyeball measurements it looks like you could do a 280 or 360 in the top a 120
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in the back two 240s in the front and at
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the bottom all at the same time unreal
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speaking of radiator support for a case that is so well liquid cooling optimized
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I feel like the top panel was a bit of a missed opportunity the way that Corsair
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allows the grommets to be easily repositioned so you can mount a dual 120
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mm radiator in a variety of places is great for improving compatibility but I
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would have liked to see the holes offset to the side away from the motherboard to
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improve compatibility with thicker radiators and the uh top 8 Pin and four
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pin connectors on motherboards the recently released h105 actually doesn't
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fit in this case with this motherboard and this incompatibility was entirely
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avoidable I understand that the centered holes do look a lot better but the
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magnetic mesh would have hidden offset holes so guys let me know in the
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comments if you prefer the look of the 450d with the mesh or if you prefer the
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look of the 450d without the mesh so that'll give me a good idea of whether
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the offset holes would have been okay because if you're going to run it without the mesh you're not going to
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want those offset holes it looks really weird um cable management is a good
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point for this case there is ample room in the back for the 24 pin and other
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bulky connectors and the included cables for the front panel actually come
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pre-managed with nice little you know zip ties tied in place so you pretty
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much don't have to move them um but note
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that I said cable management is a good point for this case and not a great one
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this is one of two things that made the case feel a little more like a carbide
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or a graphite than an obsidian to me the back of the motherboard tray has only
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four Cable Management loops on it and when they're basically free to add I'd
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like to see a lot more in addition to that there's no way to cleanly Route the
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front panel audio without crossing over at least a few inches of motherboard
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down here at the bottom most cases have a little spot in the bottom left for
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that connector and this feels like a bit of an oversight the last thing that's
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missing is any room in the top aside from the hole for the 8 pin connector to
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Route smaller stuff like CPU fan cables
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usually we see a couple gaps up here to facilitate this but instead we're stuck
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going between the motherboard and motherboard tray or just routing them
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across the board the second thing that felt un obsidian was the 3 and 1/2 in
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Drive cage it's toolless which is great and while I appreciate the flexibility
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of being able to hang the cage from the top of the 5 and 1/4 in Bays or sit it
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at the bottom it just feels a little bit flimsier than the rest of the case in
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contrast Sharp with the motherboard tray which is very
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rigid in spite of the large CPU cutout a second cage would also have been a nice
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touch since they're using a modular design that allows you to Simply slide
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in another one to double your hard drive expansion but if you're targeting a
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price point then I guess it makes more sense to sell that as an upgrade option
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rather than charge everyone for a feature that only a handful of people
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are actually going to use um it should be noted that leaving it out also helps
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this case achieve fantastic air flow over the GPU area without the use of
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ugly side panel fans so I see why they did it this way one thing that stood out
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to me was that Corsair includes hilariously few screws in the Box
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basically some fan screws motherboard screws and 2 and 1/2 in Drive screws
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pretty much everything else is tooless and while this is another thing that's
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probably only a concern for system integrator shipping systems around in
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the 450d I would have liked to see Corsair include some hard drive screws
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so I have the option to secure things a little bit better if I want to with
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those few complaints out of the way the conclusion for the 450d is actually
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pretty positive if you consider its cooling flexibility looks and price
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you're going to have a hard time finding a better looking bang for your buck and
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speaking of paying for sex my wife actually built the test rig you're
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looking at with me looking over her shoulder so for all my complaints about
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little Cable Management details and inexperience Builder can still end up
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with a damn fine looking system guys like and share this video if you liked
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