Corsair Carbide Series 330R Quiet Case Review

Continuing the expansion of its chassis range, Corsair has added a low-noise option to its Carbide series. Can the Corsair Carbide 330R quiet case prove that it can compete in a tough market? Using thick noise-insulating foam padding on many of its interior surfaces, it is easy to see that Corsair was serious about aiming to design a quiet case. Two fans, one 120mm and one 140mm, provide cooling duties, but aim to do so in a low-noise manner. With room for the largest graphics cards on the market and dual-length watercooling radiators, can the Corsair Carbide 330R quiet case prove its worth against tough competition from the likes of Fractal, Nanoxia, and NZXT? Specifications: Motherboard support: E-ATX, ATX, MICRO-ATX, Mini-ITX. Expansion slots: 7. Included fans: 1x 120mm (rear), 1x 140mm (front). Fan mounts: 2x 120/140 mm (front), 1x 120mm (rear), 2x 120/140 mm (roof). 5.25" drive bays: 3. Internal drive bays: 4x 2.5/3.5". Dimensions: 495mm (H) x 210mm (W) x 484mm (L). The Corsair 330R ships in the company's typical packaging. A plain brown box is home to the case image and name. More detailed specifications, outlined in many languages, are present on the box's rear side. A simple folded leaflet outlines the 330R's design features via a blown-up graphical drawing. On the rear of the leaflet Corsair outlines the screw quantities and their appropriate purposes. Bundled accessories include the necessary mounting hardware and four black zip ties. As has been the overwhelming trend with Corsair's recent cases, no PSU screws are supplied. Given that the cost increase for including four power supply screws is non-existent, they should be part of the bundle to limit problems for certain users. Corsair gives the 330R a subtle and elegant style to accompany its low-noise performance intentions. The left side panel is made entirely of steel. A brushed-aluminium appearance is given to the 330R's plastic front panel. The same understated design is used on the Corsair 330R case's right side panel. Two thumbscrews hold each steel sheet securely in position. Corsair wisely recesses the seven expansion slots and motherboard IO area, but the rear 120mm fan mount is also recessed and may cause CPU cooler interference. Opening the front panel door about its left-sided pivot reveals three 5.25" drive bays. A simple, and easy to remove, filter prevents the entry of dust via the front fan route and also sports a hexagonal pattern. A full-length strip of foam padding dampens noise-causing vibrations exiting 5.25" optical drives or front-mounted fans. Two USB 3.0 ports, 3.5mm audio jacks, and power and reset buttons (with an in-built HDD activity LED) form the front panel IO. A tightly-secured flap on the case's top section sits above a pair of 120/140 mm fan mounts and prevents dust falling into the chassis. Removing the top panel (with a fair amount of force) reveals two squares of 3.5mm-thick noise insulating foam. The foam sits directly above the roof fan mounts and should be able to eliminate their vibrations at source. If enhanced cooling is preferred, the roof panel can be removed without affecting the fans' functionality. Doing so opens up the possibility of large amounts of dust and dirt falling into the case, but exhausting airflow isn't impeded. Four rubber-tipped feet minimise the number of vibrations transferred to solid (and henceforth loud) flooring materials, such as wood or tile. Corsair uses a secure magnetic attachment method for holding the 330R's dust filter below the power supply fan vent. Each side panel is lined with a large segment of 3.5mm-thick foam to absorb noise-causing vibrations. The panels feel sturdy and do not flex considerably when a torsion (twisting) load is placed upon them. The Corsair Carbide 330R's interior is around the 'standard' size for a mid-tower ATX chassis. Four cut-outs increase the tidiness of routing cables to the busy areas around the motherboard and power supply. An additional cut-out is also found in its ideal position to serve the 8-pin CPU power cable. Corsair chooses not to fit the cable management cut-outs with rubber grommets. This is likely a cost-reducing decision as it would make very little sense otherwise. An all-black interior gives the 330R a high-quality aura, despite not being a requirement by this solid panel chassis. Up to four 3.5" or 2.5" storage drives can be mounted in a dedicated bay. The plastic trays are a good step-up in quality from the flimsy design that Corsair has enforced in the past. Watercooling users cannot get rid of the drive cage with ease; it doesn't feature a removable design that is found on many watercooling-oriented cases. Three 5.25" bays are secured by Corsair's tried-and-tested tool-less mechanism. Despite Corsair's discreet attempts to catalyse the death of optical drives, the 330R's users can install up to three of the devices. Alternatively, a fan controller can be installed in the bays to moderate system noise output. A power supply up to 310mm-long can be installed in the 330R, giving it the potential to hold some of the market's best units, such as Seasonic's 1kW Platinum-1000. Two well-sized cable management holes located in close proximity to the power supply area provide plenty of room to route the departing leads. A clear oversight, given the 330R's low-noise intentions, is the lack of rubber tips on the case's power supply feet. Corsair uses bare metal 'humps' to lift a PSU off the chassis' bottom panel; placing rubber tips on the feet's summits would have helped to dampen vibrations and had a negligible effect on price. Seven PCI expansion slots use vented covers and thumbscrews for tool-less installation. A 120mm, 3-pin fan located in the rear mount sits far inside the chassis and could cause interference problems when using dual-tower coolers, AIO watercooling units, or even large VRM heatsinks. Thankfully, there is plenty of room above and below the 120mm fan mount to ensure that tubes departing AIO watercooling units aren't blocked. A pair of 120 or 140mm fans can be mounted in the 330R chassis' roof section. Cylindrical pieces of rubber located on each mounting hole help to absorb vibrations. With just over 50mm of clearance above a motherboard's upper edge, a watercooling unit, such as Corsair's H100i, can be installed in the 330R's roof without causing major interference concerns. Corsair's design also ensures that a thick radiator will not interfere with the 5.25" bay. Cable management clearance behind the motherboard tray is around 21mm, which is barely acceptable for most mid-tower cases in this market segment. An extra 5mm of clearance is provided adjacent to the power supply and can be used to store unemployed cables. Clearance extends to 26mm behind the drive bays, although these areas typically necessitate additional space due to the connecting of SATA leads. A large CPU cooler backplate cut-out provides clear access to a motherboard's rear side. Corsair positions the 140mm intake fan in the upper slot so that its airflow avoids the restricting drive cage. As well as the included 140mm fan, another 14cm unit can be mounted in the case's front section. Alternatively, two 120mm units can be housed at the case's front, if they are preferred to 140mm variants. The front panel IO ports are physically attached to the chassis itself, not the panel. This design is far better as it doesn't force the removal of cables when the panel is detached. A 3.5" HDD is securely held in position by Corsair's well-designed, tool-less mechanism. Four screws are used to hold a 2.5" drive in place. Building a high-powered system into the Corsair 330R is no problem; clearance for large components is very good. With up to 405mm of space for graphics cards in the upper slots - a figure that is cut to 290mm for the bottom two spaces - we had no problem fitting Gigabyte's WindForce GTX 780 in the low-noise Corsair 330R. CPU coolers up to 170mm-tall can fit in the 330R without problems. It is possible to squeeze a unit a few millimetres larger than the 170mm limit into the chassis, but interference with the side panel's foam may occur. A major oversight by Corsair was the length of the 330R's front panel audio cable. We had no choice but to route it through the middle cable management cut-out and sprawl it across our motherboard. It simply would not fit via a concealed path which used the bottom cut-out. The final appearance of our cable management efforts was clearly impaired. Seasonic's platinum-rated SS-760XP 760W unit sat in the 330R with plenty of room to spare. The case's cable management cut-outs make routing power cords away from the PSU a simple and neat procedure. With 21mm of room behind the 330R's motherboard tray, cable management can be a tricky procedure on times. We had to compress the fat 24-pin cable against the case's side panel to force it back in place. Corsair provides appropriately-positioned cut-outs, although an additional gap near the vicinity of the front panel audio and USB headers would have been welcomed. Bezel colour of an optical drive is of little concern with the 330R; its front door will hide unnecessary eyesores. On the negative side of that point, a fan controller with protruding knobs will prevent the door from closing properly. Given that this chassis is designed for low-noise usage and does not feature a built-in fan control system, the latter point is of far greater inconvenience. The omission of even a basic speed-adjusting fan controller via a method as cheap as a basic variable resistor is very disappointing. Recessed panels make connecting cables to a system's rear ports an interference-free task. To put this case through its cooling paces we will be using a test system consisting of an AMD FX-8350, Gigabyte WindForce GTX 780 and multiple storage drives. This system allows us to produce a substantial amount of heat and effectively test the Corsair Carbide 330R's cooling capabilities. For stress testing we use a mixture of Prime95 and FurMark to create the maximum heat output. Prime95′s ‘Small FFTs’ setting allows us to stress our CPU. FurMark’s ‘GPU Burn-in’ mode creates the maximum amount of load our GPU is ever likely to see. Test System: Processor: AMD FX-8350. Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme9. CPU cooler: Thermaltake Frio (100% fan speed). Memory: 8GB Patriot Viper 2133MHz. Graphics card: Gigabyte GTX 780 WindForce OC ('auto' fan setting). Power supply: Seasonic SS-760XP 760W Platinum-rated. Storage drives: 256GB SanDisk Ultra Plus (OS), 320GB Seagate 7200.12. OS: Windows 7 Professional with SP1 64-bit. Thermal Performance Test Procedures: The case’s default fan configuration is used to give an accurate interpretation of the out-of-the-box performance. The Corsair Carbide 330R's default fan configuration is: 1x 140mm front, 1x 120mm rear. The fans are operating at full speed. We allow the system to idle for 15 minutes and record the stable temperatures. We allow the system to operate under extreme stress for 15 minutes and record the stable temperatures. Room temperature was maintained at 21°C. At idle, the Corsair Carbide 330R has no problem taming our test system's components. When a demanding load is applied to the graphics card and CPU, the 330R struggles to keep temperatures low, but at no point did we near the thermal thresholds of our components. A low-noise case with the ability to keep a GTX 780 below 80°C is actually fair performance. Despite not receiving direct airflow and relying on pressure-infused circulation, the temperatures of our storage drives stayed below 30°C throughout testing. We would have no concerns regarding the safety of our components when using the Corsair Carbide 330R for an extended gaming session. Acoustic Performance Test Procedures: We placed our Digital Sound Level Meter one metre away from the case. The case fans are set to maximum speed. The CPU cooler’s fans are set to minimum speed. The Corsair Carbide 330R's default fan configuration is: 1x 140mm front, 1x 120mm rear. Please refer to our KitGuru noise guide for a comparison between the noise levels of this case and everyday scenarios. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA – High Quality Computer fan 40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet take-off/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Positive acoustic performance is displayed by the Corsair 330R quiet case. A sub-40 dBa system noise output is impressive, especially when taking pollution from the graphics card and CPU cooler (albeit at reduced speed) fans into account. Nevertheless, a basic variable resistor and slider fan controller would have allowed even lower acoustic levels to be obtained with ease. Setting the fans to adjust their speed, as controlled by the motherboard, is one way of obtaining a lower noise output. But a fan controller is arguably a better method as it places the control in a user's hands. The foam padding mounted on each door and the roof panel seemed to do a good job of damping vibrations. Perhaps damping is the wrong word to use and transferring would be a better choice; the noise seemed to be channelled through the 330R's rear sections rather than get eliminated by the vibration-absorbing foam. This is of little concern as few users sit facing their chassis' rear panel. The Corsair Carbide 330R is an elegant chassis that has plenty of room to house powerful systems in its well-built, low-noise design. The pair of included fans provides ample cooling performance and a quiet operating scenario even when set to 100% speed. Cable management is generally good for the Carbide 330R, with the exception of the clearance that Corsair leaves behind the motherboard tray. 21mm is barely acceptable for a mid-range system; an extra five millimetres or so would have eliminated most cable management issues. Despite its barely adequate cable clearance, the routing options are very good; Corsair provides plenty of cut-outs in the most appropriate locations. Expansion options for the Carbide 330R are very good. There is room to mount up to four 2.5/3.5" drives - a number that should suffice for the majority of this case's target audience. Three 5.25" devices can be housed and there is also plenty of clearance for multi-VGA configurations with long cards. Cooling performance exhibited by the 330R was about what we'd expect it to be. The two fans provided acceptable cooling performance, but by no means ground-breaking component temperatures. They did, however, manage to exhibit low-noise performance when backed by the vibration-absorbing foam padding, even at 100% speed. A fan controller would have been welcomed as it would provide increased flexibility between cooling performance and noise output. Appearance-wise, it's difficult to identify any major complaints for feedback to Corsair's design team. The 330R doesn't feature any hate-it-or-love-it features (for example, a window) nor is it overwhelmed by cheap plastic. Corsair's Carbide chassis is, quite simply, a good, old-fashioned, basic design; and it works. Corsair has done a good job in managing to squeeze an acceptable cable management system, plenty of room for components, and an appropriate level of cooling performance into a low-noise, mid-tower chassis. The Carbide 330R does have its shortfalls, such as a needlessly short front panel audio cable, no fan controller or PSU screws, and limited cable management clearance, but these points aren't 'deal-breakers'. At £74.95 from OverclockersUK, the Corsair Carbide 330R is about the same price as Fractal Design's competing model - the R4. The differences between each low-noise case in this market segment are few-and-far-between. At less than £75, the Corsair Carbide 330R is a good foundation for a quiet system. Pros: Plenty of room for large, powerful hardware. Elegant and subtle appearance. Decent noise insulation. Good cooling potential - lots of fan mounts. Supports up to E-ATX motherboards. Generally good cable routing options. Cons: No fan controller. Needlessly short front panel audio cable. Limited cable management space behind the motherboard tray. KitGuru says: A high-quality, low-noise chassis that is a good foundation for a quiet system.