Corsair Crystal Series 280X review
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Unilythe
Looks amazing, with a nice form factor.
I notice a distinct lack of thermal performance testing in most of Guru3d's latest case reviews. Why is that?
I'm going to assume that front panel restricts a lot of airflow, so I hoped to get that info here.
chispy
Great review Hilbert. Very nice small case , lots of airflow.
Netherwind
Looks great! One question though, why are mATX mobos more expensive than ATX mobos? Less material and components right?
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
ITX is a form factor that sells in way fewer quantities compared to ATX. Smaller batches are more expensive to fab, and that drive prices up. Well, that and once something is a bit more exclusive, they know exactly where to find that hard earned cash of yours 😀
fantaskarsef
Great review as always, thanks still for doing at least a generic sound test!
I guess because it comes down to Hilbert having to test with the exact same hardware, the exact same fans in the cases, or it's not really comparable after all. It's also a lot of work, and as not every piece of hardware stays with him, there's not always time enough to do all those tests.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Well .. not in the latest, .. not at all as I've never done them. I've also explained a million times already that I find temperature measurements too subjective as the components inside your PC dictate heat and airflow. One person uses GPU A, another GPU B. The difference can be a blower style cooler or one that dumps heat inside the chassis. You can also argue a GTX 1050 heat versus a GTX 1080 Ti (and similar for AMD Radeon of course). The same goes for CPU cooling, there are a million coolers let alone the effect of say a heat pipe cooler or an exhausting LCS. Some, however, do a bottom rad mount, dumping heat inside the chassis. Then some have high RPM fans, another hate sound, and control them at low RPM.
So any temperature measurement is so incredibly subjective that I just do not see the point of performing them. As subjective as it is, I always check airflow though and make comments about it, much like I stated in this review, airflow simply is not an issue as there are many vents and meshes.
Unilythe
I must be misremembering then. My bad. I guess I assumed that because I never noticed the lack of thermal testing before, then you must have been doing them before. Guess I was wrong.
Can't disagree with your reasoning, but of course in general some cases have a lot worse airflow than others. Like you said, you did comment on it. I just like something more tangible, no matter how subjective it is. But I definitely see your point.
Koniakki
^
Agree. It's too subjective.
Some cases come with 2 fans usually, some with 3 and some with all the fans included(usually low/medium quality), so to get a comparable results which will require extra time/effort from the editor/reviewer and a whole section on its own in the review, would be to always use a specific set of fans(corsair, noctua etc) and populate all case fan mounts, running at a specific rpm speed(~1500rpm?) since some cases are obviously bigger than others.
And use the same exact setup in each one, using the exact same testing procedure in a controlled temperature environment.
It might look/seem easy, but the effort required is substantial and it only covers air cooling. Some use aio in front or top sections which will of course provide different results to any testing if it was done in the review.
It can be done but again as HH said, too subjective.
p.s: Not referring of course to some case that use too much tempered glass(covering air vents) and are very restrictive or those silent version cases optimized for quiet operation, which will be restrictive but usually those are easily picked upon from any editor/reviewer and their restrictiveness is usually mentioned/commented upon, among others if they are/seem restrictive.
Koniakki
Btw, sweet ass looking case! 2x 240/280mm rads and some tight bends.. Pure awesomeness!:p
MorganX
Threadripper will never be ITX, this might be the case that gets me to give up my Ncase M1 and go mATX with TR.
Netherwind
Thanks boss 🙂 Always appreciate a personal answer from you. I'm not sure they'll get my cash this time but it would be cool to try this form factor coupled with AIOs for CPU/GPU in the future.
tunejunky
finally something nice, small, and professional looking from Corsair. i love it.
i don't have to pay for Lian li or waste time reinforcing/modding a Silverstone for a Ryzen 7/ I-7 rig.
even better i can buy it with or without the circus lights.
schmidtbag
I thought ITX was more expensive because they're more difficult to make? Many of them have stuff soldered on the back (which I think complicates the manufacturing process) and I'm sure it's tricky to position everything without causing EMI issues or dropping features. I could be wrong, though - I don't really know the in-depth specifics about how they're made.
Killian38
This will be my next case. Love it!
Fox2232
mITX save a lot of cash on not having as many ports. That more often than not includes cutting away SATA, USB, one less m.2. VRMs are often much weaker.
You pay for it being "Premium" form factor. Which is tragic, as it is around for so long.
Moment there is standard for external PCIe x4, x8 or x16 port, mITX will be pretty popular. You build your tiny Basic PC with great CPU and basic iGPU. And if needed external GPU box handles heavy graphics. But till then uATX will be cheapest on both cheapest and premium priced part of spectrum.
But with case like this, with so many rad spots, I would like to see how thick radiators can go in there with thick fans before they hit memories, GPU or prevent use of uATX and force mITX.
m4ttjirm
Hello thanks for the review. Can you please let me know if this 300mm max gpu size is indicating with the front fans installed, or without? I have a 299mm GPU and I want to make sure I can fit a front bottom fan for intake and put the GPU in also. Can you let me know which GPU you used to do this review? Did you have the front fan included also? I can't find any of these answers through the corsair manual or the case website itself. Thanks!
Koniakki
From a quick 1:1 scale measurement in Photoshop, the 300mm gpu clearance it's with the front fan/s installed, but of course some more hand-on confirmation would be better.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Can't check it anymore as the setup has been disassembled, however, at 30cm there is very reasonable clearance for LCS incl fans of course. One front fan was included and I used a Titan which has at 27cm size. Hope it helps!
OmegaStageThr33
Would this case accommodate a 240mm radiator AIO CPU Cooler + mATX + Hybrid EVGA GPU?
fantaskarsef
The Corsair product website is just one google search away and says yes, top, bottom, and front 😉
Of course it depends on the depth of the rad too, but the average rad should work I guess.
