Final Words & Conclusion

The Verdict

Small form factors have become a hip and trendy things, as such it makes perfect sense for Corsair to pursue compatible chassis. The Obsidian 250D definitely is a very good example of what a small chassis should look like. Next to that being a Corsair product is has been fitted with the hippest features. It comes with a near tool-free design, brushed aluminum front, can house a good amount of HDDs and SSDs. Then the Obsidian Series 250D can even mount a large graphics card. If that isn't enough this small chassis will even allow for a Liquid Cooling Kit installation with a radiator up-to 240mm. Not bad, huh?

Aesthetics

I must admit that when you look at a photo of the chassis, you could end up frowning a little about its aesthetics. The chassis looks a little shiny, but really isn't. Overall the design is based on a dark matte finish, black from the inside out. It's perfect for dark-colored high-end gear like motherboards and graphics cards. The top panel window will definitely show you all the Mini ITX goods you install in a very tasteful manner. Tastefully done I guess is the better keyword here, as the chassis is not screaming with logos and flickering LEDs. Taste however is a difficult thing to objectively write about, we love it, you might hate it of course. 

Features

We can only acknowledge that the product is very feature rich for a chassis in this segment of the market. The removable HDD/SDD trays, decent cable management options inside the PC itself. Then there is the 5.25" drive bay, the two 2.5/3.5" bays and 2 PCI expansion slots. Up-to 2 HDDs and/or four SSDs which you slide in until you hear and feel a click, and your SSDs are locked and loaded to arm that PC of yours. For the liquid cooling afficonado's, you still can fit a radiator in the chassis including an up-to 240 mm one, that is pretty rare for a Mini ITX chassis we think.

Final Words

All factors combined makes us think that the Obsidian 250D from Corsair is a very funky product. It looks really nice and comes with features that you typically only find starting at the more high-end mid-towers. Next to that the build quality is good as well; it's a solid piece of metal alright. You are of course restricted to the smallest form factor motherboard, but the end result can be a super-duper-hyper-fast PC if you choose your components well. There are Mini ITX motherboards based on the Z87 chipset, read our MSI Z87I review here for example.

That is a product we equipped with a Core i7 4770K! Then with the space and options available you could even install three SSDs in RAID 5 whilst installing a nice R290 or GeForce GTX 780 Ti card inside the chassis connected to your kilowatt PSU as that one fits as well. So yeah, please do realize that the small form factor really is not a big restriction any more. Contrary you can build a PC that is massive in performance whilst being small in size. Combine that with plenty of airflow, the option for liquid cooling and a warranty of two years, well that's just golden in my book really. Pricing, you don't need to think 200 USD like price levels, no Sir it’s $89.99 for the version as tested and shown here today. EURO prices will be a notch lower and let me also state that these are suggested retail prices. In a few weeks you can easily shave off another 10 to 20% if you look around in (r)etail a little. Overall we are impressed with the Obsidian 250D, it offers a massive amount of features for the smallest form factor.

Very much recommended.

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