| Corsair Obsidian 650D Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | ||||||||
| Written by Austin Downing | ||||||||
| Tuesday, 31 May 2011 | ||||||||
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Detailed Exterior FeaturesThe Obsidian 650D has some tricks up its sleeve that help take care of users parts without being in the way or seeming like a last minute idea.
The front panel is behind a spring loaded cover and contains two USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, an IEEE 1394 port, and front panel HD Audio ports. Also included is a slightly recessed reset switch. Even here the attention to detail is apparent, with the interior plastic matching exactly the color of the brushed aluminum.
Sadly, one place where the Obsidian 650D falls on its face is the way in which the connections for the front panel USB 3.0 is setup. Rather than using a USB 3.0 header for connections, Corsair opted to use the older style of running the front panel connections all the way to the back to be plugged into open USB 3.0 port. More preferable would have been to use a USB 3.0 header and provided users with a conversion kit to use if their motherboard did not support internal headers. Thankfully, Corsair provided a way to neatly run these cables all the way through the case and out the back without them getting in the way.
The Obsidian 650D has hidden away a external drive bay under the top of the 650D. It is able to use both 2.5" and 3.5" drives, providing users with up to SATA 6.0Gbps speeds, and if AHCI enabled, hot swap capabilities to users. One small annoyance is that the door used to cover this feature can be quite hard to close, and as my roomates looked at it they were afraid that it would be broken as they attempted to close it.
Due to the Obsidian 650D being raised off the ground by almost a inch, removing the PSU filter is quite easy. The filter is well made and looks like it can survive a trip through a dishwasher if it were ever needed. Yet again this little thing will help keep a users components running cooler, and which in turn will increase their longevity.
The Obsidian 650D has a easily removed filter for the front 200mm fan. Much like the front panel to remove this filter all a user would need to do is push on the top to unlock the filter. From there users can easily clean their filter to help their system retain optimum cooling peformance.
With a little more than 3/4" of space between the motherboard and the rear of the case the Obsidian 650D provides room for all of a users cables to routed through the back of the case and back out the front.
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Comments
Still you do not want opening in the side of a case that will let that pressure out and will lead to a less effective cooling situation.
I can't say that I am fond of the top external drive bay. It seems like something that not everyone would be interested in, and just adds to the cost. I like the front I/O panel, its nice that you can close it, and it is nice that it is on the front instead of the top or side.
Can you install the hard drives backwards to allow the cables to go behind the motherboard? Sorry if you addressed this, I didn't see if you mentioned it or not.
Overall, I think it is nice, but it really would need to drop a bit in price before I would become seriously interested in it.
The 3.5" drive cages can be completely removed, or one drive cage can be mounted directly in front of the PSU so the space behind the front 200mm fan is completely empty.
im totally fine with running a USB hub to my desk from a built in port on the back.
The only advantage the 600T has is the space on the top. I was able to mod the 600T so I could fit an H100 rad up top with four fans in push/pull, something you couldn't do on the 650D without putting a set of fans outside the case. I like the looks of the 650D better though. Corsair has done a great job with their mid tower cases.