We're starting with cases now! Corsair India sent their mid tower chassis "600T" for evaluation.
Packaging, Specs and first Impressions
The case comes in a brown box with some fair area about the case. Corsair does mention the specs on the side of the boxes however it would be nice if companies started putting up product shots of the case with all the components installed- about 2-3 longest graphic card filled in with sound card/other PCI cards, with box coolers, HDD bays filled in and then show the cable management pictures on the other side. This way people get a decent idea on how the overall layout.
Once you pull it out the case protected with 2 Styrofoam and a softcloth bag.
The basic internals are pretty much similar to what most of the chassis follow. Its the little things that matter..
Corsair 600T doesn't come with a tool free PCI secure mechanism like how coolermaster and Lian Li does. A lot of people have mixed opinions about them but many agree that one is better off using good old fashioned screws over plastic tooless designs. Thumbscrews are very much welcomed over plastic.
The Front bay comes with 4x USB 2.0 connectors with a single USB 3.0 connector and firewire port. The case comes with the usual headphone/mic jack with a control knob for the case fans.
Both side panels come with a spring loaded push-down latch. The front and the top Mesh are removable and secured via push clamps with 200mm fans pre-installed with good enough washers. The front panel fan, as usual blows air in and the 200mm fan on the top pushes air out, along with the 120mm rear panel fan. The Top panel comes with a key to prevent the left side panel from being opened.
The mesh are made from stainless steel and the front panel comes with a nylon cloth to prevent the case from collecting the dust. The 200mm fan blows air out (hence doesn't come with the same nylon cloth). It would have been nice to see the fan being installed between the removable mesh and the frame of the enclosure like Lian Li Lancool PC- K62. This way large air coolers like the Noctua U12PSE2 and the
overgrown coolers like the Noctua D14. You have an option to use 2x 120/1x 140mm fans as mounts are there on the top panel.
Corsair used 4 strips of thick and rough rubber strips rather than case stands.
The HDD cage is removable 2x 3 3.5 inch bay with a simple HDD secure tray. Personally I prefer those 3.5inch HDD mounts as all you have to do is attach it on both ends and slide it. As far 5.25 inch bay goes, a secure mechanism is only on the side of the bay, whereas the other side is secured once you put your DVD drive in. Still, I preferred to secure it with a set of screws.
Some manufacturers do that by putting up on facebook, however if you look closely they use a modular power supply with couple of AMD GPUs and an SSD. Irrespective of the form factor cases, simply populate the case. That's the only way one will get the idea about the cable management.
We used Gigabyte 890GPA UD3H Rev 1.0 that is given to us by Gigabyte India, alongwith 5x 3.5inch drives, including 300GB Velociraptor given by Western Digital and Kingston 4GB HyperX Blu kit and a dummy graphic card that we have lying around and Asus Xonar DX. As for the power supply, we used the Corsair TX750- notoriously known for its thick cables and average cable management's worst enemy.
Cable management looks like the rush but again the thick cables from TX750 does have a tendency to make a mess of things behind the case. That's why a lot of mid case users preferring modular power supplies, especially for 600W+ power supplies. the cable tie loops are pretty handy. By the way Corsair bundles 4 standard size cable ties. The other side of the side panel is secured without any hassles all thanks to the space between the rear part of the motherboard tray and the side panel.
Space given for the backplate is huge but its pretty much needed as different motherboards have different layouts. If you see certain cases, the point of keeping a space to secure backplate while mounted on the case is defeated because of certain motherboard layouts. Since we're seeing huge 140mm triple mounted coolers like D14, we might see even more coolers with larger backplate design.
There are couple of grommets for water cooler tubing to be routed however its unlikely one will use this for case. Maybe for prebuilt watercooling units like Asetek, Now defunct (in retail) CoolIT and also lineups from Antec/Corsair (H50/70 is made by Asetek).
The power is secured as it usually does but it comes with a secure plate on the bottom. The plate is needed since there is a small space between the power supply and the bottom of the case.
Once you reach you hand below there's a removable tray with a nylon cloth.
The only complaint that I have is the USB 3.0 connector for the front panel as its not a header. You'll need to re-route to the rear I/O panel of the motherboard. There are boards with USB 3.0 headers for the front panel connectors (like the Asus 990FX Sabertooth that I have currently). If Corsair is going have a revised version of 600T, they should replace this cable with the standard USB 3.0.
The top and the front 200mm fans comes with white LED lights. Unfortunately there's no way of turning off the LED lights.
Conclusion
550BE on Stock clock settings reported 38 degrees Celsius on load and overclocked to 3.8 GHz on load reported 45 degrees but about 3 degrees was shaved off when the top fans was disconnected. Green Edition drives that are used as secondary storage maintained the temperature between 33 degrees- to 35 degrees, whereas the 300GB Western Digital Velociraptor that is used as primary drive reports 38 degrees. The ambient temperature at the time of testing was 27~28.
Furthermore the control knob isn't really helpful and Corsair could have kept an option to turn off the LED lights.
The steal framework on chassis is well made however you can't get to see that all thanks to the plastic frame simply to make an appearance. For a case which comes to prevent dust covering the system there's no protection for the exposed USB/speaker/firewire ports. Sidepanel fans would have been nice as well.
This case costs about Rs. 10k in India currently.
UK (including VAT) and Indian pricing is pretty much similar but if you convert the dollar pricing, it comes about Rs. 7,300.
You're getting NZXT Tempest, Coolermaster HAF 912 And Lian Li K62 between Rs. Rs. 6,000- Rs. 7,000. Anything more, there's Coolermaster 932 and HAF-X. 600T is very expensive compared to the ones mentioned above.
There's really not much to say about basic chassis design because there's not much effective innovation possible on a standard ATX chassis (unless one plans to invert the motherboard tray) and the difference between most cases is either exterior looks or dimensions.
Corsair 600T Mid Tower Chassis Review
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