Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Edition Case Review

1. Introduction2. Corsair Obsidian 350D: Packaging & Bundle3. Corsair Obsidian 350D: Exterior4. Corsair Obsidian 350D: Interior5. System Installation6. Testing Methodology and Thermal Performance7. Acoustic Performance8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

Corsair's success in the case market has been undeniable, yet there has always been that one missing option; a micro-ATX chassis. Enter the 350D, a chassis which sits in Corsair's Obsidian series and aims to provide enthusiast m-ATX users with a high-quality enclosure.

Since entering the chassis market with one of the most highly regarded cases of recent times, the Obsidian 800D, Corsair has slowly expanded its range of enclosures to suit the needs of a growing number of users. Today we will be looking at the company's first micro-ATX model – the Obsidian series' 350D windowed edition.

As is tradition with the Obsidian range, the Corsair 350D’s target audiences are high-performance system builders and watercooling users. With out-of-the-box support for up to three watercooling radiators, two of which can be up to 280mm, Corsair's 350D is aiming to bring extreme cooling to the micro-ATX market.

With a sleek brushed aluminium and steel finish, intelligently designed cable management options, and support for large dual card graphics configurations, can Corsair's 350D prove it is worthy of flaunting the Obsidian series' name tag?

Specifications:

• Motherboard support: Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX.
• Expansion slots: 5.
• Included fans: 1x 120mm (rear), 1x 140mm (front).
• Fan mounts: 4x 120/140mm, 1x 120mm.
• 5.25″ drive bays: 2.
• Internal drive bays: 3x 2.5″, 2x 2.5/3.5″.
• Dimensions: 450mm x 211mm x 439mm.

Corsair ships the 350D in the company's traditional brown box. An expanded image of the case located on the box's rear side shows each individual component.

The paperwork supplied consists of a brief quick start guide and a warranty information leaflet for Australian users. Corsair wisely secures the box of installation hardware into a drive tray to prevent movement during transport.

Installation hardware is the standard affair, with the exception of an absence of power supply screws. Corsair is clearly banking on most users owning the necessary screws via their PSU purchase, but this isn't the case for every customer; some will have to purchase the fasteners.

Four black zip-ties are provided to assist with cable management efforts.

With an imposing size of 315 x 315mm, a transparent plastic window engulfs the vast majority of the 350D's left side panel. A window on a case is perhaps the most opinion-splitting feature that a manufacturer can impose, and knowing this, Corsair has also released a non-windowed edition of the 350D with a slight cost reduction.

Some users may be disappointed by the exclusion of a side panel fan mount, especially given that this m-ATX case is designed for use with dual-graphics configurations. Personally, I feel that Corsair has made the correct decision in keeping the entire side panel to a consistent design, rather than jeopardising the appearance with a fan grill.

The 350D shows resemblances to the appearance of other cases in the Obsidian series by being encompassed by a high-quality, brushed aluminium and dark steel finish.

To our surprise, fingerprint resistance is a greater-than-expected trait of the 350D's brushed aluminium surfaces.

It is very difficult to dislike the subtle and understated, yet highly attractive and upper-class appearance that the Obsidian's brushed aluminium material exhibits. With the exception of IO ports and Corsair's logo, the front panel retains a very minimalistic style. No fan grills, no cheap plastic, just plain and simple high-quality aluminium.

Corsair cuts airflow holes into the 350D's roof to allow a pair of 120/140mm fans to be mounted there. The area lacks a filter, meaning that the case is going to rapidly fill with dust and dirt unless an exhaust fan is used in the mount.

Given that each individual airflow hole measures in at around 5 x 13mm, it is inexcusable for Corsair to omit any type of filter or dirt-catching device.

Two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphones jacks, power and reset buttons, and indicator LEDs form the front panel connections. Corsair uses a slender power button which slides towards the rear of the case when pushed.

Five recessed and vented PCI slots provide Corsair 350D users with the added flexibility of being able to mount a convenient USB or eSATA PCI bracket without sacrificing expansion options.

Corsair also subdues the rear 120mm fan by around 15mm. We think that this was a bad decision because it will increase the possibility of interference occurring when using motherboards with large VRM heatsinks, or sizeable AIO and air coolers.

A trio of watercooling holes allows tubing or other cables to be fed into the 350D.

Four rubber-tipped feet act to damp noise-causing vibrations and also lift the bottom of the chassis off the ground by around 25mm. An easily-removable PSU filter prevents dust entering from the 350D's underside.

The first thing you're likely to notice after removing Corsair's well-engineered side panels is just how roomy the 350D's micro-ATX interior is. All five of the PCI slots have a clear path of 360mm, meaning that even the largest graphics cards on the market can easily be housed inside the 350D.

Two 5.25″ devices can be mounted in the 350D's tool-less area. A pair of 2.5/3.5″ drives can be mounted in the lower bay, and a further three 2.5″ devices can be secured in the separate plastic rack.

For users who don't require the services of the 350D's 3.5″ drive bay, it can be easily removed by unfastening screws on the case's underside and behind the motherboard tray.

Removing the 2.5″ bay from its original position allows it to be fastened to the top of the 3.5″ mounts. This will reduce expansion card clearance to around 270mm, but it may also make cable management an easier task.

Once the 2.5″ drive bay is clipped in the 3.5″ mounting location, it is very awkward to remove. The only clear method is to remove the 350D's front panel and dust filter before poking a screwdriver through the fan blades to loosen the clip that is almost touching the front 140mm unit.

Unless you have very small and strong fingers, the only realistic method is going to be a needless waste of time. Corsair needs to improve its method of unfastening the 2.5″ drive bay.

A 3-pin 120mm rear exhaust fan removes heat from the system. There is 75mm of clearance between the fan's upper surface and the 350D's roof, giving watercooling users plenty of clearance for a tall 120mm radiator and tubes.

Each of the five expansion slots is held in place by a large thumbscrew.

Power supply clearance is 270mm (including cables), meaning that even the largest units on the market should have no problems fitting inside the 350D. The lower dust filter and vented area extends for 200mm from the case's rear.

A pair of grommet-equipped holes located adjacent to the power supply area should help to hide cables leaving the unit.

A pair of 120/140 mm fans can be mounted in the 350D's roof, meaning that radiators of an identical form factor can also be installed in the same location.

Each of the 120mm mounting holes features a vibration-absorbing piece of rubber, perhaps in anticipation of users resorting to a 120 or 240mm watercooling unit, such as Corsair's own H100i.

With a 280mm radiator, such as Corsair's H110, in the roof position, the uppermost 5.25″ bay will be partially blocked. Use a thicker, custom 280mm radiator with push-pull fans, and both 5.25″ bays will be rendered inaccessible to optical drives.

There is 23mm of space behind the motherboard tray for storing and routing cables. An extra 7mm is located in a rectangular form adjacent to the power supply's location.

To allow for a hassle-free connection of power and data cables, the space behind the 3.5″ drive mounts is 40mm and the 2.5″ bays have 50mm of clearance. 30mm of clearance behind the 5.25″ drive bays allows front panel cables to be routed without interference.

Corsair's positioning of cable management grommets is excellent. Being very picky, we would have liked a slender cut-out in the lower-right section for routing of audio and USB cables, and the grommet nearest to the 24-pin connector would benefit from a size increase.

A huge CPU cooler cut-out should allow access to the vast majority of motherboard backplate areas.

The front panel covering is formed from a plastic sheet which is then covered by brushed aluminium for aesthetic purposes. Removing this cover is very simple; just push against the two specific spring-loaded fasteners and the cover can then be unclipped.

Each dust filter is also equally simple to remove; just pull them out.

A pair of 120/140 mm fans can be mounted in the 350D's front section. Corsair includes a single 140mm unit which is positioned to bypass the HDD cage and blow air directly onto the graphics card area, by default.

Three holes situated to the fan's right side allow cables to be routed behind the motherboard tray.

As is the case with every Obsidian series chassis, the 350D is built with watercooling flexibility as one of its main features. We managed to mount a H60 radiator and fan in the 350D's front area, and the brushed aluminium panel could still be fastened (although the dust filter could not be attached).

With some shorter screws or further tightening, we could have also retained operation of the 2.5″ bay, as well as the 3.5″ mounts.

This method left the H60's fan with very little room from which to gather air; it was tucked up against the solid front panel. And seeing as the majority of the front panel is formed of plastic, not brushed aluminium or steel, it can't be used as a heat dissipation surface.

If you are willing to sacrifice the 2.5″ or 3.5″ drive bay, a thick radiator and fan(s) configuration can be installed in the front area of Corsair's 350D. There is plenty of room to mount dual-fan 120 and 140mm units, but 240/280 mm versions will require the removal of both the 2.5″ and 3.5″ drive bays.

We wouldn't be surprised to see watercooling enthusiasts pack the 350D's front area with a large push-pull 240 or 280mm radiator configuration and then simply fasten an SSD in any available piece of space. A 3.5″ hard drive could then be mounted in the 5.25″ bay, meaning that very little, if any, functionality is actually lost.

The brushed aluminium front bezel is far wider than a standard 5.25″ drive bay. When using a 5.25″ device, the cover has to be unclipped from the bezel itself.

Removing the drive bay cover reveals that a 5.25″ device will not be flush with the rest of the bezel; it is subdued by 4mm. This is very disappointing and has a negative impact on the system's appearance when an optical drive is used.

The fact that the recessed material is plastic, not brushed aluminium, is bad enough, but not making it flush with the rest of the bezel was a very poor decision by Corsair.

Removing the bezel requires users to push against four plastic clips before pulling the section away from the case. Unfortunately, the plastic clips aren't strong. We applied a small excess of force and one of the clips snapped. Thankfully, the bezel itself still managed to clip into place.

Up to three 2.5″ drives can slide into the tool-less plastic bay. They are held in position by the tight dimensions of the bay itself and a flexible plastic lever on the left side.

Four plastic ‘teeth' hold the bay securely in its location and make removing it a tool-less operation.

Corsair has improved the rigidity of its drive trays since this editor's previous experience with one of the company's cases. Four rubber-surrounded pins fasten a 3.5″ drive to the tray. 2.5″ devices need to be fastened from beneath with four screws when they are mounted in a 3.5″ tray and one of the tool-less pins also has to be removed.

Even with a very large power supply, Corsair's 350D is very easy to work with. Despite the micro-ATX form factor, some intelligent cable routing and a little extra time can reap the rewards of a clean, obstruction-free system.

Towards the motherboard's busy connection area, the build starts to get a little less neat and tidy, but Corsair's 350D still does a good job of hiding and routing as many cables as its m-ATX form factor will allow.

Corsair equips the 350D with an appropriate number of cable tie-down points, helping to make cable management an easier task. 23 millimetres of clearance behind the tray was right on the limit of acceptable for our build, but the additional clearance behind the drive areas was very convenient when routing and storing cables.

Large CPU coolers such as Phanteks' PH-TC12DX can be housed in the 350D without problems. We measured the maximum clearance as 165mm, meaning that the market's highest performance air coolers in the Noctua NH-D14 and Phanteks PH-TC14PE can fit inside the 350D without interference.

Two large grommets positioned above the motherboard tray are convenient for routing fan cables and the 8-pin power connector.

Clearance above the motherboard's upper-edge is around 55mm, giving the 350D just enough room to house common 240mm AIO units such as the Corsair H100i without interfering with tall RAM and VRM heatsinks.

Corsair's 350D houses Seasonic's large Platinum 1000W power supply unit without problems. Connecting the modular cables can be a little tricky, but the task is by no means impossible.

With an ability to accept graphics cards of up to 360mm in length, our Sapphire HD 7850 Dual-X had no problems fitting inside the 350D. It is easy to see that dual card configurations aren't going to cause the 350D problems, despite its m-ATX form factor.

Using an optical drive has an undeniably negative impact on the aesthetic appearance of a Corsair 350D build. It would seem that Corsair is trying to accelerate the death of optical drives among users who buy the company's cases.

A simple bezel or drive tray cover would have been a worthwhile addition to the 350D which would have concealed the faceplate of an optical drive. And it wouldn't have increased costs by a noticeable margin, either.

The recessed expansion slots make it easy to connect a large DVI or VGA cable without it interfering with a nearby wall or surface.

A sizeable portion of the system is visible through the plastic side panel window. When not using a watercooling configuration in the 350D's front area, the window is oversized as it shows the less-flattering drive areas. But when considering the fact that a large radiator, fans, reservoir, and tubing could be mounted towards the front, it is easy to see why Corsair was adamant on extending the window as far forward as possible.

We think that it would be a good idea for Corsair to release a tweaked version of the Obsidian 350D Windowed case that ships with the company's eye-catching braided cables and some integrated LED lighting. Then the window would be put to full use.

To put this case through its cooling paces we will be using a test system consisting of an Intel Core i5 3570K, Radeon HD 7850 and multiple storage drives. This system allows us to produce a substantial amount of heat and effectively test the Corsair Obsidian 350D‘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: Intel Core i5 3570k.
• Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M.
• CPU cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX (100% fan speed).
• Memory: 8GB Patriot Viper 2133MHz.
• Graphics card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Dual-X (‘auto' fan setting).
• Power supply: Seasonic Platinum-1000.
• Storage drives: 128GB Kingston V100 (OS), 1TB Samsung F3, 1TB Samsung F2.
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 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 Obsidian 350D‘s default fan configuration is: 1x 140mm front intake fan and 1x 120mm rear exhaust fan.
• 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 23°C.

With just two case fans, the Corsair 350D offers solid cooling performance, regardless of its micro-ATX form factor.

Adding an extra exhaust fan in one of the roof mounts would be a quick and easy way of improving cooling performance.

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 deactivated.
• The Corsair Obsidian 350D‘s default fan configuration is: 1x 140mm front intake fan and 1x 120mm rear exhaust fan.

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

Even at 100% speed, the 120 and 140 mm Corsair fans operate at a level of noise that is perfectly bearable. Had Corsair equipped the 350D with a basic fan controller, a silent system would be very easy to achieve.

The Corsair 350D is an excellent addition to the enthusiast-grade Obsidian series. Even with a physical size reduction, Corsair's impressive engineering and design has allowed the 350D to be filled with many of the important features that made its Obsidian series predecessors such successful products.

Perhaps one of the hardest features to perfect with any size-limited case is cable management. Corsair's 350D provides users with a cable management system that is easy to work with and can help to reap impressive final results. One of the main reasons that the 350D's cable management system is so effective is due to the appropriate amount of clearance that Corsair provides behind the motherboard tray and drive bays.

Expansion options for the 350D are very good, for the majority of users. Two 5.25″ device compartments, three 2.5″ slots, and room for two 3.5/2.5″ drives should suffice for the vast majority of micro-ATX users in the 350D's target audience. Five expansion slots also give added flexibility in regards to multi-card cooling configurations.

It's when you start capitalising on the 350D's watercooling flexibility that expansion becomes more limited. With a 280mm radiator and push-pull fans in the roof, 5.25″ expansion flexibility is impeded. A 240/280mm radiator in the front will force you to remove both the 2.5″ and 3.5″ drive bays. This is to be expected of a case with micro-ATX space constraints, but it is still worth pointing out to users who plan on using the Obsidian 350D with high-end watercooling configurations.

Cooling is adequate for Corsair's 350D. The supplied 140mm front intake and 120mm rear exhaust fans are perfectly capable of cooling a single graphics card system with an efficient LGA 1155 chip. Dual card users or those wanting to use an LGA 2011 system would be wise to invest in additional fans and make use of the 350D's excellent cooling possibilities.

Aesthetics are one of the biggest positives for Corsair's Obsidian 350D. While the costly brushed aluminium material is reserved for the front panel only, the 350D's aesthetic appeal and understated design create the platform for an attractive system. Personally, I like the window, but Corsair has the non-windowed edition for those who do not.

Our biggest complaint regarding Corsair's Obsidian 350D is the omission of a fan controller. Even a simple slider positioned on the front IO panel, combined with a basic variable resistor, would have been better than no fan controller. Instead, users are forced to either purchase a stand-alone unit, or resort to motherboard-controlled fans that make low noise operation difficult to achieve.

Priced at £94.99 from Aria, the Corsair Obsidian 350D isn't a cheap case by micro-ATX standards, but we feel that it is well worth its price tag.

Pros:

• Excellent cable management.
• Good watercooling options.
• Plenty of fan mounts.
• Good expansion options.
• Attractive design.

Cons:

• No fan controller.
• Not ideal for 5.25″ devices.

KitGuru says: Corsair's first venture into the micro-ATX market has been a successful one; the Obsidian 350D is an excellent chassis that is a ‘must have' for micro-ATX enthusiasts.

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