Choosing new case: Corsair C70 vs 550D vs 330R

[Guest]

Hi!

 

I'm looking for a new case to my i7-4790 build with H100i cooling.

 

My priorities are good sound dampening, practicalness, must have hdd activity light, must be able to fit H100i cooler. All fans will be replaced with Noctua fans.

These are the ones I've looked at - what would you choose and why)

 

Corsair C70 (this one is in the list because it gives an impression of design < practicalness):

http://www.corsair.com/se-fi/vengeance-c70-mid-tower-gaming-case-gunmetal-black

 

Corsair 330R:

http://www.corsair.com/se-fi/carbide-series-330r-quiet-mid-tower-case

 

Corsair 550D:

http://www.corsair.com/se-fi/obsidian-series-550d-mid-tower-quiet-case

 

(recommendations are welcome, but please don't recommend Fractal Define R4 or Fractal Define XL R2 as I'm not much for those cases)

[Cokeman]

I would go C70. And don't waste money on a H100i if you are getting a 4790. You can't over clock a 4790 so a h100i is pointless 

[Guest]

I would go C70. And don't waste money on a H100i if you are getting a 4790. You can't over clock a 4790 so a h100i is pointless 

Why would you choose the C70 over the others? It seems to me it's not as quiet as the other ones although more practical, which I like. Also, what would you choose instead of the H100i?

[Cokeman]

Why would you choose the C70 over the others? It seems to me it's not as quiet as the other ones although more practical, which I like. Also, what would you choose instead of the H100i?

Nothing use the stock cooler. Or a 212 evo. Its a waste of money since you can't over clock the 4790. Well I like the C70 for the looks and I can't stand case doors.

[Lord Pantaloons]

550D master race, don't get it though because I want there to be as few as possible on the forum.

[Guest]

Nothing use the stock cooler. Or a 212 evo. Its a waste of money since you can't over clock the 4790. Well I like the C70 for the looks and I can't stand case doors.

Sorry, slight typo - I bought a 4790K (devils canyon), so it is overclockable.

[Cokeman]

Sorry, slight typo - I bought a 4790K (devils canyon), so it is overclockable.

Oh ok then get the H100i love that cooler.

[Guest]

550D master race, don't get it though because I want there to be as few as possible on the forum.

I'll promise to lie and say I'm using a generic dell case or something if I end up buying it

Are you happy with it? Anything you think it's missing? Which CPU cooler are you using?

[JAKEBAB]

Ive always thought Thermaltakes urban series were nice but no one seems to own one

[Lord Pantaloons]

I'll promise to lie and say I'm using a generic dell case or something if I end up buying it

Are you happy with it? Anything you think it's missing? Which CPU cooler are you using?

I love it and I don't really plan on changing any time soon. I don't think anything is missing though I had to do some dust proofing to make it perform better in my room as we have lots of dogs and our house is very very dusty and the case isn't 100% dust proof. I'm using a Cooler Master V8, though I've had an H100i and a 212 Evo in it as well.

 

If you want I can take some pictures of my rig in it's current state, though I might have to wait till tomorrow as it's 10pm here. I can try to take some tonight in my living room where we have some bright lights and if that doesn't work out I can take some outside tomorrow.

[connorpiper]

I have a Corsair C70 in white and have been using it for two years. Never broke. Great case.

[Guest]

Ive always thought Thermaltakes urban series were nice but no one seems to own one

Yeah I can see what you mean. I like the case, but the blue light in the top makes it look cheapish and rainbowy IMO. Also, I'm not loving sidewindows in cases.

[Guest]

I love it and I don't really plan on changing any time soon. I don't think anything is missing though I had to do some dust proofing to make it perform better in my room as we have lots of dogs and our house is very very dusty and the case isn't 100% dust proof. I'm using a Cooler Master V8, though I've had an H100i and a 212 Evo in it as well.

 

If you want I can take some pictures of my rig in it's current state, though I might have to wait till tomorrow as it's 10pm here. I can try to take some tonight in my living room where we have some bright lights and if that doesn't work out I can take some outside tomorrow.

How did the H100i fit? And how was the clearance between the cooler and the motherboard?

 

Yeah, I'd love to see some pictures of it. Especially how you handled the "dust proofing" and the insides.

 

I have a Corsair C70 in white and have been using it for two years. Never broke. Great case.

Hows it for sound dampening? It looks like it has some kind of sound dampening material on the inside? Also, is the power/reset switch is of as good a quality as it looks like?

[connorpiper]

How did the H100i fit? And how was the clearance between the cooler and the motherboard?

 

Yeah, I'd love to see some pictures of it. Especially how you handled the "dust proofing" and the insides.

 

Hows it for sound dampening? It looks like it has some kind of sound dampening material on the inside? Also, is the power/reset switch is of as good a quality as it looks like?

 

There is no sound dampening at all. The case is just metal. Made for durability and airflow. But I run my fans at 750-1200 rpm so the sound is not much.

And the switches are great as well as the front I/O. Its very durable all round. I would suggest the white color because of the two tone interior/exterior.

 

I have the H100i in right now. There is lots of space around the H100i.

 

[Lord Pantaloons]

How did the H100i fit? And how was the clearance between the cooler and the motherboard?

 

Yeah, I'd love to see some pictures of it. Especially how you handled the "dust proofing" and the insides.

 

Hows it for sound dampening? It looks like it has some kind of sound dampening material on the inside? Also, is the power/reset switch is of as good a quality as it looks like?

Well it fit fine, though it was a bit of a hassle due to my motherboard(Sabertooth Z77) and it ended up being defective anyways.  The dust proofing isn't pretty in some places but none of it can be seen and it works so it doesn't bother me too much. I've been considering redoing it but I've not gotten around to it yet. I'm in the process of setting things up to try to get good pictures of it, in fact I'm about to shut my rig down now to take it out into the living room where the light is better. I'll do what I can to show what I did to dust proof it.

[Guest]

There is no sound dampening at all. The case is just metal. Made for durability and airflow. But I run my fans at 750-1200 rpm so the sound is not much.

And the switches are great as well as the front I/O. Its very durable all round. I would suggest the white color because of the two tone interior/exterior.

 

I have the H100i in right now. There is lots of space around the H100i.

 

DSC_0025.JPG

I must say - normally I'm not much for the "case styling" thing (i'm 27 and is supposed to be somewhat grown up) - but that looks really good!

[Lord Pantaloons]

Alright I have some pictures, keep in mind that I'm no photographer and I was using my phone. I did resize the images because my phone takes huge ones but the lighting wasn't as good in my living room as I had hoped so I don't think that they turned out very well. I used a black cloth like gaffer tape for the dust proofing, over the course of a few months I just blocked off any holes that I saw dust gathering at when the front/bottom filters became clogged. This seems to have done the trick as my Rig has been running for a few months now and there's almost no dust inside the case.

 

I put them in an imgur album because I didn't want to flood the thread with pictures.

http://imgur.com/a/bm9py

[Guest]

Alright I have some pictures, keep in mind that I'm no photographer and I was using my phone. I did resize the images because my phone takes huge ones but the lighting wasn't as good in my living room as I had hoped so I don't think that they turned out very well. I used a black cloth like gaffer tape for the dust proofing, over the course of a few months I just blocked off any holes that I saw dust gathering at when the front/bottom filters became clogged. This seems to have done the trick as my Rig has been running for a few months now and there's almost no dust inside the case.

 

I put them in an imgur album because I didn't want to flood the thread with pictures.

http://imgur.com/a/bm9py

Yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks for the pictures, and nice rig btw!

 

I ended up ordering a 550D - mainly because of the sound dampening material. I really like the C70 as well, and I think I'm gonna miss the practicalness a bit on the 550D - but i value the sound dampening higher.

 

Thanks a lot to this awesome forum for the answers! Once again, the help was just amazing.

[connorpiper]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks for the pictures, and nice rig btw!

 

I ended up ordering a 550D - mainly because of the sound dampening material. I really like the C70 as well, and I think I'm gonna miss the practicalness a bit on the 550D - but i value the sound dampening higher.

 

Thanks a lot to this awesome forum for the answers! Once again, the help was just amazing.

 

YW

[Lord Pantaloons]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks for the pictures, and nice rig btw!

 

I ended up ordering a 550D - mainly because of the sound dampening material. I really like the C70 as well, and I think I'm gonna miss the practicalness a bit on the 550D - but i value the sound dampening higher.

 

Thanks a lot to this awesome forum for the answers! Once again, the help was just amazing.

WELCOME BROTHER!!

 

You do realize that you're now obligated to post pictures of the transition from your old case right?

[Guest]

WELCOME BROTHER!!

 

You do realize that you're now obligated to post pictures of the transition from your old case right?

I'd do that - except for one problem. My H100i didn't fit in the 550D due to the high heatsinks on the motherboard

 

I'm so dissapointed right now. Besides from the obvious "H100-not-always-fitting"-flaw, the 550D has so many other design flaws. I'm amazed that Corsair thinks it belongs in the obsidian series. My old 500R was much easier to work with, felt like better quality and didn't have half of the design flaws of the 550D. The pricetag DOES NOT in ANY way fit the case quality or features.

 

At least thats my opinion. 

[Lord Pantaloons]

I'd do that - except for one problem. My H100i didn't fit in the 550D due to the high heatsinks on the motherboard

 

I'm so dissapointed right now. Besides from the obvious "H100-not-always-fitting"-flaw, the 550D has so many other design flaws. I'm amazed that Corsair thinks it belongs in the obsidian series. My old 500R was much easier to work with, felt like better quality and didn't have half of the design flaws of the 550D. The pricetag DOES NOT in ANY way fit the case quality or features.

 

At least thats my opinion. 

Really? What motherboard are you using? The H100i was a tight fit with my Sabertooth but it seemed to fit better if I mounted the fans on the top side of the rad instead of the bottom even so it was still tight. As far as design flaws I really don't see any barring it not being dust proof(which the case isn't advertised as anyways) I mean sure the cable routing holes could be a bit bigger but there's enough of them and there's plenty of space behind the motherboard tray for cables. The 5.25in bays are tooless as are the HDD cages which are easy to install/remove because they slide on rails and are secured with thumbscrews. Honestly the only annoying thing imo is having to remove the HDD cages to get at the front fans but that's far from exclusive to the 550D. I've also built in quite a few cases and I don't find it any more difficult to work in it than any others, could you elaborate more on the issues you're having?

[Guest]

 

Really? What motherboard are you using? The H100i was a tight fit with my Sabertooth but it seemed to fit better if I mounted the fans on the top side of the rad instead of the bottom even so it was still tight. As far as design flaws I really don't see any barring it not being dust proof(which the case isn't advertised as anyways) I mean sure the cable routing holes could be a bit bigger but there's enough of them and there's plenty of space behind the motherboard tray for cables. The 5.25in bays are tooless as are the HDD cages which are easy to install/remove because they slide on rails and are secured with thumbscrews. Honestly the only annoying thing imo is having to remove the HDD cages to get at the front fans but that's far from exclusive to the 550D. I've also built in quite a few cases and I don't find it any more difficult to work in it than any others, could you elaborate more on the issues you're having?

My motherboard is a Asus Z97-Deluxe. The H100i didn't fit in push nor pull setup.

 

In terms of design flaws - besides the H100i not fitting with my motherboard:

I wonder why they didn't make enough room to mount the radiator in the front when drive cages are removed. It literally just needs another 1-2 inches in height. Alternatively, there is a cutout in bottom of the 5,25 drive cage which they could've just have made a tiny bit bigger, then it would've fit perfectly.

 

The bottom drivecage is mounted by screws, but can only be moved up, or removed entirely. In many other cases, the bottom drive cage can be moved a few inches away from the front fans and turned to improve airflow and cooling of hard drives. It's all a matter of 4 extra screw holes.

 

Why put a dustfilter on top of the 2x140mm fan outtakes on the top of the case? To prevent dust getting OUT of the case? I guess it's nice to have the ability to use the top as intake, but how often do you do that? I'd much rather see some other much needed features being implemented instead of this.

 

No SSD mounts on motherboard back plate, or ability to mount them anywhere else than in the drive cages (which you'd need to remove if you want any decent airflow).

 

No thumbscrew holders on case sidepanel edges (this is present on older cases in their Carbide line).

 

Other than the aluminum front, the case feels very plasticy and cheap, which is not what I was expecting for a $200 case.

 

The front door can be annoying to open. If you pull in the top 20cm or the bottom 20cm, you can't open it in 1 pull.

 

The 2 bottom fan screws for the lower front fan can't be removed because of the badly engineered plastic frame in the front.

 

Corsair AX* PSU's can only be mounted with 3 screws as the case is missing a screw hole top right of the PSU mount.

 

 

That's what I remember from the build - but keep in mind it was a few weeks ago, so I might have forgot something. I actually ended up buying a 500R again along with some sounddampening material. In comparison, the 500R just have so many nice features (and lacks many of the flaws), although it was designed for last generation PCs so I can't make use of the front firewire connector because ASUS Z97 mobos doesn't support that.

 

[Lord Pantaloons]

 

 

My motherboard is a Asus Z97-Deluxe. The H100i didn't fit in push nor pull setup.

 

In terms of design flaws - besides the H100i not fitting with my motherboard:

I wonder why they didn't make enough room to mount the radiator in the front when drive cages are removed. It literally just needs another 1-2 inches in height. Alternatively, there is a cutout in bottom of the 5,25 drive cage which they could've just have made a tiny bit bigger, then it would've fit perfectly.

 

The bottom drivecage is mounted by screws, but can only be moved up, or removed entirely. In many other cases, the bottom drive cage can be moved a few inches away from the front fans and turned to improve airflow and cooling of hard drives. It's all a matter of 4 extra screw holes.

 

Why put a dustfilter on top of the 2x140mm fan outtakes on the top of the case? To prevent dust getting OUT of the case? I guess it's nice to have the ability to use the top as intake, but how often do you do that? I'd much rather see some other much needed features being implemented instead of this.

 

No SSD mounts on motherboard back plate, or ability to mount them anywhere else than in the drive cages (which you'd need to remove if you want any decent airflow).

 

No thumbscrew holders on case sidepanel edges (this is present on older cases in their Carbide line).

 

Other than the aluminum front, the case feels very plasticy and cheap, which is not what I was expecting for a $200 case.

 

The front door can be annoying to open. If you pull in the top 20cm or the bottom 20cm, you can't open it in 1 pull.

 

The 2 bottom fan screws for the lower front fan can't be removed because of the badly engineered plastic frame in the front.

 

Corsair AX* PSU's can only be mounted with 3 screws as the case is missing a screw hole top right of the PSU mount.

 

 

That's what I remember from the build - but keep in mind it was a few weeks ago, so I might have forgot something. I actually ended up buying a 500R again along with some sounddampening material. In comparison, the 500R just have so many nice features (and lacks many of the flaws), although it was designed for last generation PCs so I can't make use of the front firewire connector because ASUS Z97 mobos doesn't support that.

 

 

 

 

It's odd that the rad wouldn't clear the motherboard, it doesn't look anymore bulky than my Sabertooth does but considering how close it is with my Sabertooth it wouldn't take much to make it incompatible I did mention that though so you had fair warning. As for no rad mounting on the front of the case it's not uncommon for that in cases from 2 years ago. As far as poor airflow from the front even with the cages in I found that a good set of fans can get enough air through for my SLI system and my temps never get above 75c on either of my GPU's.

 

It would be easy enough to just drill your own holes to move the bottom cage though I can easily see someone not wanting to do that but it was just a thought.

 

Dust filters on the top for obvious reasons, so it can be used an an intake and it really didn't take much effort to put a filter up there since it's just magnetic mesh.

 

Motherboard SSD mounts are still a relatively uncommon trait in cases today, asking that of a 2 year old case is a  bit much I think.  I also would have mentioned it if that had them and since I didn't it was pretty obvious that they were not present in the 550D.

 

The Side panel is opened via a button, why does it need thumbscrew holders?

 

I was disappointed that aside from the huge front panel cover the front was plastic but the plastic feels sturdy and has a nice texture to it. That however is more of a personal preference so I can't really argue that. On a side note this case is $120....where did you get it that priced it at $200.

 

Pull the front door in the middle and it can be opened in one pull with two fingers easily.

 

I thought that about the screws as well but with the way the fans are mounted those are the only two screws that you need to use to mount the bottom fan so I didn't see it as much of an issue.  You can't mount a rad there so not being able to remove the screws easily isn't really an issue imo.

 

You don't need more than two screws for a PSU, and there is a screw hole on the top right though. For some reason it just doesn't line up with Corsair's newer units.

[pjm0925]

I have a C70 that I'm using with an H100i on an 8320.  Love the case, plenty of room to build in, looks nice.  Just wish I'd gone with the camouflage design.