Corsair Spec 03 Mid Tower - Not Impressed

[BenestoTech]

Yo,

 

Yesterday I built a PC in a Corsair SPEC 03 Mid Tower, and I have to say, for the price? Not impressed. It costs around $80 in Australia, so the price is first off way too high for what you get. There was barely any room behind the motherboard tray for cable management, and there was no gap above the tray for CPU or fan connector tidying. I BROKE a screwdriver trying to get out the thumbscrew in the Expansion slot cover, as the thumb screw was overtightened by the factory. Some were impossible, some too tight and some manageable with my fingers...

 

A plus is the two dedicated SSD cages, but really, i'm fine with blu-tacking an SSD behind the motherboard tray. And there was only 4 Hard Drive cages. I found no dust filters on the front panel, but filters on the exhaust at the top?

 

For the same price you can buy a Thermaltake Versa II - more feature packed, more feature-rich and it includes a 400W power supply. I was really let down by Corsair - for their reputable brand name and their renowned high-end cases, I thought they could put a bit more effort into the SPEC 03. Let me know what you guys think.

 

BenestoTech

[Coombzy]

It's expensive in Australia then everywhere else for the price you pay it's a pretty good case.

[Enderman]

I think that the high price is because of where you live. And it is a budget case, no where near the quality standards of the Obsidian series. If you broke a screwdriver it must have been really cheap quality. And the fan filters are something you should have known about before buying the case. Only 4 drive cages? That is listed on the spec sheet man, do you even read? If for the same price you could have bought a Versa 2 then maybe you should do a bit more research before buying parts for your PC.

[Anthony10]

It's expensive in Australia then everywhere else for the price you pay it's a pretty good case.

this^

 

Your $80 AUS is like $50 US which would make it a very good case for the money.

[Balverine]

Are you sure you got the Spec-03? what you describe sounds more like the Spec-01 which indeed has no dust filter (not even metal mesh) in the front and 4x 3.5" bays (whereas the Spec-03 only has 3).

 

Still, the quality doesn't sound like what Corsair usually sells. I have a Graphite 230T and for a first case (and kind of a value build) it's amazing. Not on a level of -lets say- an Obsidian case or some other case for 100€/$ +, but there is little I can actually critisize (like the missing dustfilter on the bottom for an extra intake fan; the PSU does have a removeable dustfilter underneath it).

[Lays]

It's not intended to be a great case, it's intended to be a cheap budget minded case with the bare necessities. 

[dre92]

Well even though you seem disappointed, I personally think this is a brilliant budget case, based on my last build for a client using this case. So let me share a bit of my opinion.

Design:

If you were comparing it to the Thermaltake Versa II then for me the Spec 03 is obviously a clear winner because of the interior design itself. The Versa II still uses the sort of "conventional" design with those hard drive mounts, which some people might like, but I honestly hate for cable management reason. Exterior wise, I actually like the "Bane" look of the case and also 2 of USB 3.0 ports at the front, while many other budget cases usually only come with one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port.

Airflow & dust filter:

I believe the Spec 03 has some kinda mesh at the front and a removable dust filter for the bottom mounted PSU, and that's good enough for me since I only mount intake fans at the front. One thing I love about the front intake is that Corsair provides the space for 2x140 mm fans, which is not usually found on other budget cases. Also because of the design of the HDD mounts, I can create a "windtunnel" through the case and feed air directly to the GPU and CPU area.

HDD / ODD mounts:

4 HDD mounts is more than enough for me. I usually just mount one SSD and one HDD, sometimes two HDD if I need extra storage capacity. Even if the case provided 6 or 7 HDD mounts, I'd always end up using half of them because I still think about the airflow. Sure if it's a server that I'm building then it's a whole different story and I will definitely choose better case. I love the fact that Corsair only provides 2 ODD mounts, same thing with some Fractal cases, and I honestly think putting more than 2 ODD mounts is pointless nowadays.

Cable management:

The fact that there is almost no room behind the mobo tray is simply for reducing production cost, but that is also the reason why Corsair put that large indentation on the side panel, and that provides a big room for cables especially the thick 24-pin cable.

 

Overall I think this is a great case and I didn't have any problem with the screws or anything like that. Those are all purely my honest opinion, I am no Corsair fanboy , when the product is good then I'll say it's good, if it's bad then I'll ask people not to buy it.

[Guest]

I liked the case