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  • Bazooo - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    Great Justin. I can't believe you were already working on it when I wrote to you last week. Thanks a lot!
  • nleksan - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    I have been waiting for a review of this case since the day it was announced. In fact, I've been holding off buying a customized CL TH10 specifically because I just love the innovative design of this new case!
    Honestly, I think this is perfect for users like myself who have outgrown their Switch 810 or similar case, but don't have the need for 4 or more 560 rads just yet. Price is right, and I see this very possibly (and rightfully) taking a lot of attention away from the (recycled/boring/overpriced/low-quality) Corsair 900D.

    Too bad about the res mount, but that's what modding is for!
  • f0d - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    900D low quality? thats the first time i have ever heard that, its much higher quality than any other case i have ever seen

    its a fantanstic case - a little expensive maybe but it looks AWESOME and worth every cent i payed for it
  • f0d - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    while i like the CL cases also they are WAY too expensive in australia, i think the CHEAPEST one shipped is $800 (nobody sells them here - have to import your own) which is twice the price of a 900D
  • Insanity133 - Friday, November 29, 2013 - link

    Same here in New Zealand.
  • KurtToni - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link

    Love my job, since I've been bringing in $82h… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online. (Home more information)
    http://goo.gl/mtEmF6
  • JohnVonWar - Saturday, May 28, 2016 - link

    In comparison to a CL(CaseLabs) case, yes—any case made by Corsair is much, much lower quality. Caselabs makes very good, very customizable cases. Generally they require some additional aftermarket parts to truly shine, but the construction is unparalleled by nearly anyone except Thermaltake, who literally copied CaseLabs' designs...and maybe Inwin and a couple of others, but generally with a little more bang for buck. Very high buck though...they're expensive as hell.
  • hero1 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    You sir are just like me and I am going to grab this case as soon as it reaches Canadian shores and shove my system into it, that will be IB-E when it comes out with GTX 780 in SLI
  • Pyrokinetic - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    I love a large case, and while I like the Corsair 800D, I was not completely sold on it. This case though, is fabulous. Not too huge (Corsair 900D) and has a classic look with just a touch of style. Build quality looks great. I think I have finally found a case to replace my modded Cooler Master Stacker 810.
  • techxx - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    Be nice to see more mini-ITX case reviews. Full ATX accounts for less than 5% of the tech enthusiast community now.
  • Alan G - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    +1 on the mini-ITX request; I'm starting on my third build with this size board because that's what my friends want. I'm not prepared to spend over $200 for a case like this one as it's truly overkill IMO. Even though the from panel is closed off, what does anyone need with 5 5.25" drive bays? For my photographer friends I don't even put card readers in these days because USB 3.0 readers are cheap and if a pin ever gets bent (and this does happen) they get a new one for $30 and the case doesn't have to be opened and things pulled apart and installed.

    I think there are just too many good alternatives to this case for less money.
  • BillyONeal - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    There need to be more mini-ITX cases worth reviewing for that :)
  • Grok42 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    The truth hurts. While there are some good mITX cases that haven't been reviewed, they aren't recent cases. I can understand not wanting to review a 2-year old design but I would still appreciate it.
  • zero2dash - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    "Full ATX accounts for less than 5% of the tech enthusiast community now."

    I'd love to see the proof to back up that statement.

    You can buy plenty of enthusiast mATX/ATX boards for nearly any price point; meanwhile, if you want an enthusiast ITX board, you're going to pay out the nose for it. You're also left with only a few decent cases that do a good enough job at cooling.

    ITX works if you have minimal requirements on storage and are only running a single GPU.
  • f0d - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    where is the proof of "Full ATX accounts for less than 5% of the tech enthusiast community now." i know that personally i have only built 1 mini-itx vs about 15 full atx pc's in the last 3 years for friends/family
    and that person is now getting me to build an ivy bridge-e full atx system when they come out
  • noeldillabough - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    Which board do you plan to use? I use a raid controller and a discrete sound card so features on board don't really matter to me but I want a stable board with good overclocking potential.
  • Grok42 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    My last build was mITX and I can't see every building anything larger than mATX going forward. The mITX case I chose holds 10 drives. You would be amazed how much space is saved by not having any 5.25" bays.

    All that said, I'm too would be surprised that only 5% of the market is full ATX case purely based on the quantity of cases available. I guess if we're at an inflection point where everyone is moving away from full ATX it's possible that only 5% bought full ATX in the past month of YTD?
  • Barbarossa - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link

    George from Corsair here. Full towers sell in larger numbers than Mini ITX. Look at all the ~$150+ cases that are selling now: NZXT Phantoms, Cooler Master Storm Troopers/Strykers, etc. Full towers are more popular than ever.

    Mini ITX is growing in popularity but among the "enthusiast" crowd, full towers have increased dramatically in market share in the last couple of years.

    Mid Tower ATX is still 70-80% of the total market, with Mini ITX and Full Tower ATX growing and chipping away at the edges. The bell curve is flattening but it's still there.
  • f0d - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    too much plastic and not enough room
    i prefer my 900D - im so happy with that case i cant imagine ever needing another case again
  • HisDivineOrder - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    Then the 950D hits and you suddenly awaken one day with the very real ability to imagine it.

    Take the Obsidian 900D and then make it a huge cube instead. Ba-bam. You can name your new monolith, "The Borg" and add custom Borg cube sound effects when it starts.

    Resistance is futile.
  • f0d - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    pre order placed
  • Abot13 - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link

    meh, just go to caselabs, resistance there is futile for sure, untill you realise that that kind of beauty costs.... still cheaper then a girlfriend though ;) (and depreciates less quickly too)
  • Barbarossa - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link

    Haha, Obsidian 1080D.
  • JamesWoods - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    Frankly, this case is not at all worth the cost when you can get a case to house your PC and do just fine for $40. Fools and their money are soon parted.
  • zero2dash - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    Having owned several high dollar cases (including a LL PC-V1000BW Plus II and a SS FT02), it's all in what you prioritize.

    That being said - at this point, I'd rather stick with <$100 cases (ideally <$75) and spend the extra money on more RAM, a better GPU, or a bigger SSD, which is precisely what I've been doing the last few years.
  • noeldillabough - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    Buying an expensive case will last you a long time, compare that to say your sli videocards that are crap in a couple of years. The worst possible investment is computer hardware; doesn't stop me from wanting the latest!
  • Ilias78 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    40$ with horrible cable management, acoustics, airflow and ergonomics.

    Sure bro, whatever you say.
  • JamesWoods - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link

    llias78 - Horrible? Apparently you haven't been shopping in awhile. There are $40 cases now that have fantastic cable management. Maybe you just suck at building PCs. Cable management isn't some big mystery. Personally, I prefer to spend the extra cash on quiet fans and still have some extra left over from what I save.

    noeldillabough - You don't sell your entire system...I find it's much better to do so. Remember the switch up from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0? It's easiest to just sell the entire system and build a new one than have to buy USB 3.0 PCI cards, or USB 3.0 connection boxes for your bay drives.
  • waldojim42 - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link

    While cheap cases do work, and I still own some that are 10+ years old, I actually don't like working with them the way I do my more expensive cases. The Antec 1200 for example, has enough room that I can move things wherever I need them. So when I am running 4 video cards, I can move all my hard drives to the top of the case, and open up the air flow down below them. Something a $40 case simply won't allow.

    Also worth consideration, is the filtering. I live in a dusty environment (Texas), and am constantly cleaning my filters. Better filters than dead/overheating components in the case!
  • rpg1966 - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link

    Surely you can plot the temperature and noise levels on a single chart (temp on X, noise on Y, for example), to make the numbers understandable at a glance?
  • Pooter - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    I understand that there's some validity to test the case out of the box in factory configuration... but do you not have watercooling equipment to test these obvious cases that are aimed at watercooling enthusiasts? Same goes for the 900d review. All the options that make this case exciting is simply glossed over if you're going to not play with all the fan/radiator/reservoir options.
  • f0d - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    exactly.!

    if i diddnt have custom watercooling and a ton of hdd's and sli graphics cards there would be hundreds of other cases to choose from
    these enthusiast cases really need to be tested with pumps radiators reservoirs and push/pull fans with multiple graphics cards and 8 or so hard drives
  • C.C. - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link

    I have long hated this about Anandtech's otherwise great reviews..This case was made FOR WATERCOOLING. There is no other way to say it. You can install 5 different radiators if you choose, depending on your needs. Yet you guys can't afford to take 10 minutes to at least toss in a freaking H100/H220 for the cpu at least? Seriously, stop slacking on this watercooling cases and test them the way they were meant to tested!
  • lwatcdr - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    I am so sick of black. Yes Black goes with everything but why not Red, Blue, Green, Orange, and Yellow cases? At this point I would even praise White, grey, and gunmetal.
  • JamesWoods - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link

    They sell this thing called paint...and you call yourself an enthusiast. Where's the enthusiasm in DIY?
  • waldojim42 - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link

    Can you not paint?
    I have painted more than one at this point, it really isn't all that hard. And you get exactly what you want!
  • Ilias78 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    I just found my new case. Thanks Dustin.
  • adriangb - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    I like how the fan controller works. I've always thought it cool to split a MB PWM into multiple fans. It would also be nice to 'digitalize' it, i.e read just the load and then set a specific RPM for what the MB demands, some MB don't have very good PWM.
  • InfiniteImp - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link

    Excellent review - thanks for this. Since I plan on a liquid cooling setup, looks like the case's one shortcoming (CPU temps) should not affect me. Can't wait to see this in Canada. This will be a worth replacement for my old faithful HAF X. Now I just need to find someone who plans to stock it!
  • toyotabedzrock - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link

    Can someone tell me why case designers have not run premade custom flat wires for every fan slot and drive slot by now? For that matter most motherboards have almost identical placement of their power connectors and the gpu power plugs are all around the same area as well.

    There is no excuse for the mess. We have had the atx standard for a decade.
  • glugglug - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link

    Serious or trolling?

    Because most people don't use all the drive bays?
    Because motherboard SATA/fan connector placement is not part of the standard?
    Because these aren't even in the same quantity on each board?

    Because when ATX came out, closer to 2 decades ago, there was not such thing as SATA yet? should the cases have PATA and MFM cables built in as well?

    It would be nice if they provided something close to this for the audio/reset/power connector block though. I know some motherboards might have a slightly different layout for this, but there really should at least be a standardized clip for holding those connectors in a needed arrangement so they can be slid on the motherboard all at once easily.
  • Insanity133 - Friday, November 29, 2013 - link

    Can't wait for this case to become available in New Zealand, or at least on Amazon.

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