Corsair Carbide 400R review - Introduction

Carbide Series 400R Mid-Tower Case

You know, ever since Corsair entered the market with their PC cases their cases have been nothing other then a success story. And that's because Corsair aims at a very specific audience, the high-end to enthusiast community. Though pricy, the people that understand that investing in a good chassis show the fruits of the labor. So with that in mind my stomach turned around a little when I noticed the all new Carbide series chassis in a preview at Computex. Luckily that mockup I noticed back then changed a bit -- for the better.

With the Carbide series Corsair enters the more mainstream market, and as we all know that means a cheaper product often resulting is ripped away features, style and functionality that we know and learned to love from say the Obsidian or Graphite series.

Regardless of my initial sentiment, admittedly what Corsair has been doing with the Carbide series will work out well for them as it did convince me in a positive way alright. A sub 99 USD chassis with the primary features the more expensive range offers as well. Keywords here would be an okay design chassis, tool free, lots of of space, high airflow and prepped for liquid cooling.

Carbide Series

• Side panel with mesh fan mount locations
• Four 5.25” drive bays
• Six 3.5” hard drive bays with 2.5” compatibility
• Eight expansion slots
• Supports most 240mm dual radiators (15mm spacing)
• Two-year warranty
• Front I/O panel contains:
  • Two USB 3.0 connectors
  • One Firewire connector
  • 3.5” headphone and microphone connector
  • Power and reset switches
  • Lighting toggle switch (lighting kit not included)
• Dimensions: 20.5” x 8.1” x 19.8”
• Supports graphics cards up to 316mm in length
• Six 120mm/140mm fan mounts
• Four 120mm fan mounts
• Includes two front-mounted 120mm fans and one rear 120mm fan

• Intel LGA 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, and 2011
• AMD sockets AM2 and AM3
• Hydro Series H80 requires a case with a rear or top 120mm fan mount
• Hydro Series H100 requires a case with dual 120mm fan mounts with 15mm spacing for a 240mm radiator

The flipside of the coin for a cheaper product is loosing features like hot-swappable front side storage, fan controllers, stuff like top side drive bays, see through windows, and some dust prevention. The shell of the chassis for example is made out of a cheaper steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces.

But other then that, the chassis does nearly touch the high-end market, as you're about to find out.

Have a peek at the product reviewed today, this is the Carbide series chassis from Corsair, costing roughly 99 USD yet comes with a nice design and a very decent feature set. Next page please.