Corsair Crystal Series 280X review - Article

Corsair Crystal Series 280X RGB
Small in size - massive in options and performance

It is time to check out a chassis based on the very popular small form factor design Mini-ITX / Micro ATX. Hugely popular, as small is something easy to tuck away. Today's tested chassis will impress in terms of looks, performance, and its features. And granted, I cannot really complain about pricing either. So if you like to build something small, really big .. with a proper graphics card, powerful processor, and liquid cooling then hey meet the all-new dual-chamber chassis from Corsair, it is the Corsair Crystal Series 280X. Based on the popular Air 240 this is a small mini ITX and Micro ATX form factor chassis that will not just house the smallest, but also the biggest stuff inside your computer. A high-end graphics card and liquid cooling? It is all not an issue, next to that you can now add three tempered glass panels and the options for RGB fans with an included Commanded series RGB fan control that you can control with your iCUE software suite.

Building a high-performance PC these days doesn't require a massive big-tower. I mean sure, taste differs, but the trend ever a few years has been "smaller". It is one of the reasons why small form factor PCs have become so much more important in the motherboard market. I mean you could build a simple HTPC, but also a bitching fragging game rig these days, as within that same small form factor you can also house a Z370/X370/X299 and heck, even X399 mini ITX motherboard with a six, eight-core heck even sixteen core processor, liquid cool that processor and then even add a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or Radeon Vega in there.

It all boils down towards clever housing as you're gonna need a bit of airflow to be able to chill down that high-end kit of yours. And next to quality features, good looks that's (airflow) what Corsair has been pursuing with the new Crystal Series 280X. By compartmentalizing chambers inside this small chassis they can house the aforementioned PC components. Next, to that it's Corsair, that means a mostly a tool-free design, a stylish design, heck even three tempered glass see-through panels are now is present.

Then there's room for two 3.5" HDDs and another three 2.5" SSDs. There's no space for 5.25" Optical drives though. The cube-shaped chassis comes in either black or white colors, complete with side-windows, and optimized for proper air or water cooling configurations (including room for multiple a 240mm radiators) without sacrificing space for a full-size graphics card—an impressive feat for a compact PC.  Corsair will be offering the new Crystal Series 280X  series as a non-RGB (110 USD) and thus with RGB options (160 USD).  That last option gets you a 1x Lighting Node PRO and two 120mm LL RGB fans included, that expensive stuff right there. You can control the LEDs through Corsair new univied iCUE software suite. The non-RGB version gets two 120mm fans and obviously lacks the Lighting Node PRO.

Both versions will get two color options, black and white. Today we test the black Crystal Series 280X RGB model.