I had my build in the beautiful Sentey Arvina 6400 Black case, which I love. But, after I found myself sitting the case left side facing out on top of my computer table with the side panel off to view the inside components, lighting, etc, I decided that I wanted a case with a "windowed" side panel. I initially considered modding the Arvina's side panel, cutting a window in it, but decided that it's way too nice and has the design buildout for ventilation that I did not want to risk messing that up; which, knowing me, would be way too high a risk to take. I will move my eleven year old son's build into the Arvina, and keep his current AZZA Hurrcan 2000 case aside for the future.
For my build I researched the "windowed" computer case market inside and out. I always came back to the Corsair cases because of the overall design, simple, classic "classy" exterior design, quality and cable management. Initially I struggled between the Graphite series "black" and new White versions...but, again, as beautiful as those cases are (the white version with a mesh side or window option), I opted for the white, but then became concerned with the white not really fitting in very well with the interior colors/set up of my home office. However, I have a feeling that one day I will have that Corsair white case sitting there...?
Finally, Corsair took the enviable but huge Obsidian 800 D to mid size... alas, the 650 D appeared on the market and I was awed with the elegant black mid-tower case with a nice, well though out window size and placement that does not show the hard drive cages! I thought that for what you get, the Corsair quality, the price was reasonable as well, with other higher end windowed cases by Silverstone, Sentey, Lian Li, and others ranging at least $50.00 plus higher. The main thing that impresses me about Corsair is that they really do put a great deal of "end-user' consideration and thoughtfulness into their design planning process.
I planned on making good use of that "window view" by doing some interior lighting mods to make the interior lighting interesting and pleasant to view. It turned out looking great.
The large 200mm fans on the front and top of the case are a great idea, they do indeed push a lot of air and are silent. I am glad Corsair decided to make the top fan mounts size adjustable; but the front fan mounting holes are not.
Cable management gives you just about every routing option imagineable, is top notch, as is the overall quality of the case itself.
Another nice feature is the option of being able to remove the top hard drive cage completely or, reposition it on the bottom next to the main cage. indeed, I'm currently using an older 1100 watt non-modular PSU and needed a bit more room for some cables/wires that were bunching up on the back near the bottom HD cage location, and I was able to use the space under the main cage to hide the wires.
However, one negative issue I have with this case is with the hard drive trays which are surprisingly way too thin and flimsy. They literally seem to "warp" even with a 2.5 inch SSD mounted. Also, when I was plugging the SATA and power cables into the HD's, on two occasions the HD tray bent and fell out of the cage, thus the reason for my four star rating. I was a bit dissappointed that Corsair seemed to "cut corners" with this key feature. They need to make these HD trays out of thicker plastic or better yet, metal. (Case in point; take a look at the $99.00 Sentey Arvina HD trays, made out of metal with a nice locking mechanism and attractive front release panel.) The grommets and metal posts on the sides of the Corsair HD trays are also difficult to line up with the HD holes without "popping out". With a little patience, however, it's not a big problem overall installing the HD's.
I am very pleased with this case overall and already have had comments about how classy it looks. I would highly recommend the Corsair 650D to anyone interested in investing a few extra dollars in a very steamlined, classic, well built and well designed case.
Corsair, please consider making your HD trays sturdier in this case... otherwise, kudos again to Corsair on another winner!
PWN