Customer Reviews

Corsair CC800DW Obsidian 800D Black Aluminum Full Tower ATX Enthusiast Case

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This case is amazing to say the least. The package arrived in 1 day, just as advertised by using my Prime account, and at a savings of over $60 in shipping alone. Keep in mind that this case is extremely heavy. Shipping weight on the shipping label said 59 lbs. Can't beat $4 for overnight shipping on something of this size and weight.

I had to knock the ease of installation down one star because of the sheer weight and size of the case when trying to navigate around the case to get your wiring done correctly. This isn't a case you can lay down and get everything done. You need to be able to move around the case and get to things easily from all angles. I would suggest having a nice table in the center of a room so you can move around. You will get very tired of heaving this case around if you don't start off on a table or workbench.

The space and ease of routing cables inside this case is a dream. The use of the grommets to hide your cabling really puts this case in a class of its own. Although other case makers (ie. NZXT) have started to use similar grommets, their implementation is nowhere near as good as Corsair (ie. grommets come out easy and create more of a pain than they should). The only real issue I have is that the motherboard tray could have been moved maybe a half an inch forward to allow more space for cable routing behind the tray. With the sheer amount of cables I have hidden behind the tray, it took awhile to get things zip-tied in a way that would prevent the rear panel from flexing. The inclusion of the CPU power cable extender was a very nice touch, as I can almost guarantee that everyone will need to use it to reach where you need to.

I have never seen another case that allows so much room in the motherboard compartment to allow the components to breathe. I know this case is marketed as the ultimate case for watercooling, and isn't quite as good for air cooled systems. I would agree with this statement. I noticed that my temperatures rose nearly 5 degrees Celsius over my previous before I installed 3 ventilation fans along the top of the case. Once I had the fans installed, it corrected my temperature issues. This also made the case a little more noisy than my previous case, but still well worth it.

Once everything was installed, I would say this case was easily over 75 lbs. and is nearly as tall as my desk when sitting on the ground This is not a LAN case. This is the kind of case you build, put in place and enjoy it in all its glory. The side window is a nice addition allowing to see the beautiful install jobs you can do with this case. All the cabling is perfectly hidden with ease and makes things look ultra clean.

I'm still in awe of this case. If you are short on space, or need to move your pc often, I would steer you away from this case (something like the new Corsair 600t may be better). If you are going to go with an air cooled system, make sure you have fans to help with the ventilation of the case, and other than that, have fun with this thing. It truly is a work of art!

I bought this case to biuld a new gaming system for my 13yr old son. When UPS delivered it I thought it was a mistake the box was so huge that my kid could of fit in it, we couldn't stop laughing at the shear size of the tower when we took it out. Plenty of room for sure just remember to buy longer cables to cover the spacing, most cables neatly route behind the rear wall out of the way of your view and air flow. I'm very pleased with it. Make sure you have the space for this cases hieght might prevent it from sliding under some desks or tables.Older power supplies with short cables might not reach where needed. The fans that came with the case are extremely quite. The quality is top notch on a small note I thought the two plastic covers over the lower hard drive encloser could of been made to giude,engage and latch abit better. Otherwise Enjoy the King of Cases.

I purchased this case because I wanted an all black - in and out - case and I wanted one that would allow for plenty of expansion for either air or water cooling. And, I did not want a window on the case. That said, I never strayed in my search far from this case simply because it looked so good. I considered the FT02 from Silverstone and Antec's 900 and 1200, but this case was it. It is cavernous in the space it has. The rubber grommets for cable management are well placed and abundant - inside is very clean regarding wiring. Bottom power supply has a segregated chamber to isolate heat as do the HDDs. HDD racks come with rubber grommets also to keep drives quieter. It comes with three 120cm fans (one may be 140cm) and room for at least three more up top. I am air cooling at this time and it easily houses the Noctua NH-U12P SE2. plenty of room for long graphics cards. The air is pulled in from the bottom, so placing on thick carpet is not a good idea. I put it on ceramic tiles to keep the air flow optimal (on carpet). The case fans are very quiet. I do not hear them until I place my ear abot a foot from the case. The front I/O items are what you expect. No eSata. The aluminum front is nice also and the only light you see is a white LED on the power switch and the occasional HDD activity white LED. I do not like colors swirling around and lighting up my office area so a simple, classy case is what I wanted and this delivered. I recommend it and unless you have to have the space, there is no need for the 800D. No regrets.
The only issues I have are minor. The I/O panel does not open/close smoothly. It is less elegant for lack of a better word and seems too cheap for the overall case concept. Visually though, nothing is a problem as this is how it feels when you open/close it. Removing the front aluminum block could have been engineered to be easier. It is screwed on, but it seems too much of a hassle to get it off. The filter is also rear-accessed which does not work when this case is pushed into a niche as I suspect most will do. But, pull it out, clean the filter, put it back and problem solved. I will be using this case for a long time as CPUs and Mobos come and go.

Built PC:

CPU: Core i7 930
Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Mobo: Asus P6X58-E
RAM: 6 GB Corsair Dominator
HDD: 2 WD Caviar Black 1TB - Raid0
VGA: MSI 5850 Radeon
Sound: Asus Xonar 7.1
PSU: Corsair HX850 (850 Watts)
Case: Corsair 700D
OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64bit

This thing is huge. Never realized the size until it was on my front porch. So much room to do water cooling make everything tidy and neat.

There were only two draw backs to this awsome case.
1. Would have liked to see it come with a window.....They will probably sell it later as an accessory.
2. Not tie downs behind the MB tray for the wires and a little to shallow.

These are minor things compared to all the plus items.
1. Room
2. Wire runs every where
3. Radiator set up 360x120
4. Sweet look
5. Filter clean out and more

I raised this off the floor, carpet flooring, with a wood box to keep the carpet dust out of the filter. Painted it black and people have asked if it came with that because it just looked perfect.

This is by far the best case that i have ever built in. With the seperate compartments for the motherboard and another for drives and a totally seperate wiring compartment the case makes for a extremly clean build enviorment that provides excellent airflow.I have a water cooling system installed in mine and had to make no mods to the case since it is pre-set for the system. I would strongly recomend this case to anyone who has room for it (this is a full size case in all since of the word).

Updated on 3/12/2012 -- Corsair replaced the SATA backplate through their RMA process. Unfortunately, the new backplate did not solve my problem -- one of my hard drives continued to disappear from the OS upon a cold boot or wake up from sleep. Finally, I removed the backplate and plug the SATA and power cables directly to the hard drives. I have not experienced any hard drive drop off since. I think I have finally solved the problem. This is not optimal, but at least I have a usable machine.

Updated on 2/9/2012 -- I have owned this case for almost three months now. I want to write a follow up. As it turns out, I have been having problems with the SATA-III hotswap backplate in my case. I have all 4 bays filled, two of which contain SSDs, and the other two contain two 3TB Hitachi 6G HDDs. The backplate occassionally drops one of my hard drives. Unplugging and re-plugging it in will bring it back online. This problem almost always occurs after a cold boot or wake up from sleep mode. I tried replacing the cable just to rule it out. Then I saw in Corsair's forum that many people are having this problem. It is a known issue. I am in the process of applying for an RMA.

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Original Review (original rating = 4 stars):

Pros:
(1) The biggest selling point for me is the ability to mount the double radiator of the Corsair CWCH100 Liquid cooler underneath the top of the case. It fits perfectly. In fact, you can even mount a triple radiator there if you so desire. Additionally, it looks like that there is enough height clearance to use two sets of fans for a push-pull configuration, even though I didn't do that.

(2) The second biggest selling point for me is the hot-swap 4-drive SATA cage. You have no idea how convenient it is to have a hot-swap cage. Unfortunately, the industry is still changing from SATA-II to SATA-III, so one will need a motherboard that has 4 SATA-III connectors to take full advantage of this cage.

(3) The case is large -- It can hold an EATX motherboard. However, it cannot hold one of those newer XL-ATX or HPTX sized motherboards. Not a problem for me, but just want to mention it here if you are wondering about it.

(4) I like the fact that the key internal areas are compartmentalized. Heat from the PSU and HDD cage do not get into the motherboard area. So, that's good.

(5) As of December 2011, the case that I received from Amazon already has the hot-swap HDD back plane upgraded to SATA-III and two of the front panel USB connectors were upgraded to USB 3.0. Therefore, this is the updated version of the case.

(6) I also like the almost tool-less design, especially the side panel locking mechanism. That took some thought in design to come up with it.

Now the cons:
(1) The cables of the front panel USB 3.0 ports still use external USB connectors. You cannot connect these cables directly to the internal USB 3.0 ports on your motherboard. You have to route these cable through the back of the case and plug them into the back panel of the motherboard. Corsair should consider changing these to the 19-pin internal USB 3.0 connectors, or provide an external-to-internal adapter (like the Silverstone CP09). To Corsair's defense, the 19-pin connector is just becoming popular.

(2) There is no provision to mount a fan at the PCI-E area. If you have an SLI/Crossfire system, or want to install a high end RAID controller, this region will get hot.

(3) There are only 7 PCI/PCI-e slot openings/brackets. Even though a standard ATX motherboard only has seven slots, a computer case should have one or two extra to allow mounting of back panel connectors. This case actually has the room for it, too.

(4) The cover for the front panel connectors is made of flimsy plastic. It is totally out of character comparing to the rest of the case. Aluminum would have been the appropriate choice of material there.

(5) There is no external 3.5" drive bay. Corsair didn't even provide a conversion bracket to convert one of the external 5.25" bays to a 3.5" bay. If you ever want to add a 3.5" device, such as a fan controller, card reader, or floppy drive, you have to buy one of these brackets. Finding one that matches the case in color and quality, and can work with the tool-less drive retention mechanism, could be harder than you think.

(6) There are two internal 3.5" bays. I don't know what these spaces are for. As there is no fan pointing at them, conventional HDDs cannot be used there. I guess they are good for SSDs. However, SSDs these days will likely use the SATA-III interface. But wait a minute, the hot-swap cage already took up the four SATA-III connectors.

The only thing I did not like about this product was the instructions. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out that the front face comes off (with no tools) and the panel covers for DVD-ROM are removed rearward with face plate off. It is huge, 24" X 24" X 9".

Understand what you are buying, this is a full tower case made with quality materials which all equates to heft. I disagree with everyone who uses this as a con, full towers will just be heavier.

Beyond that, this case has ample space for everything you will need. Micro to extended motherboards will fit without a problem and the extra raisers a nice addition.

My only complaints are that I wish the face-shield over the front inputs (USB, audio, reset) wasn't plastic. Additionally, I wish there was an USB 3.0 port on the front like the revamped HafX has. And, lastly, I wish that the back of the motherboard tray had some fixed locations to tie down and organize cables with.

In my mind these are three rather small issues, but they may be important to some. Otherwise this case is exceptional. I like the bottom removable filter and the tool-less HDD caddies (there are also screw holes for 2.5 SSDs as well, so there is no need to buy a 3.5->2.5 adaptor.

This is a great case and will last you through multiple builds - I only wish I had picked it up before Christmas when it was about 50% off.

This case is amazing, the overall quality of the construction is above and beyond my expectations. All heavy gauge steel construction, CNC machined aluminum front plate, quick release side panels, wire management....this case has it all. The ATX standoffs come welded into the chassis and the removable access panel on the motherboard tray makes installation of new CPU coolers a breeze. The hot-swappable drive bays make upgrading and replacing HDD's much more convenient. I only have two suggestions regarding any sort of "negative" feedback... A...I'm planning on replacing the supplied 140mm fans with something with a little more CFM...the supplied ones are probably only 1000RPM 50CFM fans...and B...Make sure to pick up a 120mm filter for the rear intake fan if using this with a Corsair H50 CPU Cooler as I am. Great case regardless of the price tag.

My Rig: Corsair Obsidian 800D Case,
Intel Core i7 940@3.29Ghz,
Intel DX58SO Mobo,
6Gb GSkill Pi Series DDR3 on XMP1600 Profile,
2x BFG Nvidia GTX260 in SLi,
BFG 1000w Modular PSU,
1x GSkill Phoenix Pro 120Gb SSD,
2TB of Storage Drives.
Scythe 1600RPM Fans throughout w/Scythe 6 channel fan speed controller
Corsair H50 CPU Cooler in push/pull fan config.

I researched for many months and was always intrigued by this case. I owned a Antec 1200, which I enjoyed very much except for many little issues that were annoying. I seeked something with great cable management. This case can almost make cables disappear! I wanted something with great isolated airflow. This case keeps each section (powersupply, Hardrives, and motherboard areas)separated from each others airflow. Also the stock fans are very quiet while my antec had a good little buzz. My antec 1200 had so many fans that I doubt it really matter where airflow was going other than out. This case has what seems like double the open space that my 1200 had. The hotswap circuit board is a very nice edition that I fell in love with. Allowing me to easily swap hard drives with-in secs. I did have a problem with my OCZ Vertex 2 being detected by the hotswap board. Never was able get it to work through all my troubleshooting with the hotswap, but it would work just fine with plugging it directly up to the motherboard with sata cables. My only real complaint was with the plastic covers that covered the back of motherboard, hotswap board, and the HD fan cover. They were all made of light plastic that could break easily. Actually my motherboard back cover was broken on arrival. One of the tabs were broken that held it in the slot. So I SUPERGLUED it and no more worries! Overall I still would highly recommend this case to anyone that loves a big highly functional case with plenty of inside real estate!