Corsair Obsidian 900D Case Review: Think Big, That's Only HALF as Large
by Dustin Sklavos on April 16, 2013 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- Water Cooling
- ATX
- XL-ATX
Testing Methodology
For testing full ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
| ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-2700K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD4H |
| Graphics Card |
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP (tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V) 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 in SLI (full fat testing only) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive 3x HGST DeskStar 3TB 7200-RPM HDD |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Plus 1000W 80 Plus Silver |
Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.
For the "full fat" testbed, the GTX 560 Ti is swapped out for a pair of GTX 580s, and three hard disks are added to fill out the case.
Thank You!
Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z77X-UD4H motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- Thank you to HGST for providing us with the trio of hard drives.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
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dylan522p - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
The 900D has probably the most space on the side pannel for cable management I have seen in a case. The 900D also supports a stupid amount of rad support.garadante - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
Remember, the 800D is three and a half years old. I don't think closed loop dual fan radiators were even available, let alone 4-way SLI/crossfire being as comparatively mainstream as it is nowadays.santiagoanders - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
Why no comparison to the Cosmos II? Similar layouts and price.praktik - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
Actually I think biggest competition for this would be the silverstone TJ11 - offers a 4x140 rad option in bottom if you take out the cages... also goes for 200 more.......and yes I am a deliriously happy owner of a TJ11, my case for a decade - will go liquid cooling in a few years but right now just happy to have the air cooling equivalent of an FT02 to tide me over..
Sabresiberian - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
What do you mean "Why no comparison?"The article isn't lacking anything just because it didn't include data about your favorite case.
santiagoanders - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Because hardware articles always benchmark against the other products in the same market segment. WTF are you talking about?scook9 - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
I like this case. Not enough to replace the 700D I got for $100 (including side window panel) but I like it. Having water cooled in the 700D I appreciate the changes. The 700D/800D really only has 2 good places for a radiator - a 360mm up top and a 120/140mm on the back. While this is a lot of cooling capacity (both can be double thick rads) the 900D obviously blows this out of the water and takes it to a whole other level.More exciting and likely to penetrate the market is the 350D that is coming out that is pretty much a mATX design using the same design ideas but being around $120. I hope that AT can do a review when that comes out and compare it to the all time favorite mATX case - the Antec Mini P180
noeldillabough - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
While this case rocks, it still doesn't hold a candle to my current favorite case, the TJ11. One of the problems with watercooling is that the board doesn't get any cooling and this case with its 2 giant (quiet) fans handles it with ease. Add to that a full size rad/pump/power supply fits in the bottom and I'm sold!Water cooling seems to be on its way out but cases like these make me think its only getting started!
OVerLoRDI - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - link
This case truly is for the water cooling enthusiasts. (I am one of them). If this had been around last summer I would have snatched it without a second thought.It makes me regret my Caselabs M8 purchase.
Biggestinsect - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
Never regret a CaseLabs purchase.