[section_title title=”Closer Look”]
Closer Look
Lifting the Corsair Carbide 400C from its cardboard trappings gave me somewhat of a surprise, weighing in at just 8.2kg the case is rather lightweight. With its polystyrene bumpers and protective bag removed the 400C proves itself to be very solidly built, with an aesthetic styling that is both very clean and a little at odds with itself. If I’m honest, I’m not entirely sure I like it…
The new Corsair Carbide 400 is currently available in two flavours. The first being the 400Q (Quiet), a case featuring high quality sound dampening material in each and every panel (even including the removable top panel). The second being our review sample the 400C (Clear), a case that ditches the silence in favour of a slightly more glitzy approach and sporting a rather large and dominant side panel window. Not only is the window huge, but the panel itself is hinged and latched (much like the new Carbide 600C and one of my personal favourites the Graphite 760T). The 400C is described by Corsair as being a Compact Mid-Tower case and with measurements of 425mm(L) x 215mm(W) x 464mm(H) they certainly aren’t wrong.
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The gargantuan left panel window is certainly one of the most eye catching features of the 400C, but also one that I feel slightly spoils its overall aesthetic. Do I dislike the slightly smokey clear acrylic panel? Most certainly not. This near border-less panel offers us the opportunity to see all that lovely hardware concealed inside the case and it does look good. What I’m not so sure about is whilst the window is lovely and the case aesthetics sleek, I feel they are somewhat spoiled and perhaps broken by the panel latch itself. Personally I’d have preferred either a smaller latch, or none at all (although this would most certainly make the swing mechanism more awkward.)
With our attention taken away from the windowed left panel, we find the right to be feature free. Unlike its swinging partner, this panel is affixed via two captive thumbscrews. Looking at the sides of the front panel shows approximately 20mm of venting running down the edge of either side. While this is going to be welcome in helping to give the front intake fans access to cool air, I can’t help but feel these vents would look that much better if some sort of mesh had been used just to give them a slightly more finished look (or perhaps I’m just being picky?!?)
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From the front we find the Carbide 400C features a removable front panel with no slots or additional panels to remove for 5.25″ devices (handy as there are also no 5.25″ bays inside). It may look a little uncomplicated, but the black textured steel panel, with its curve edged top and small unassuming Corsair logo, offers the 400C a sleek and almost sophisticated styling which I like a lot.
Looking at the rear we find everything that we’d expect from the back of a case, with a motherboard I/O shield and PSU cut-out, exhaust fan mount and blanking plates for seven expansion slots. Yep that’s right seven! That’s because despite the Compact Mid-Tower nature of the 400C, it’ll even accept motherboards of up to EATX sized.
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Above the 400C and we find a continuation of the front panels sleek styling, but instead of a single steel sheet design, we find the case front panel and a large vented area for additional fans.
Beneath the case we find the PSU air intake and four 35mm feet with rubber anti-slip pads. Approximately a third of the way from the front is an odd little plastic slider, which is part of the internal 3.5″ drive cage.
The Corsair Carbide 400C features a nice and simple control panel, composed of a reset button, storage drive LED indicator, 3.5mm audio and mic sockets, two USB 3.0 and a power button. All of which not only sit entirely flush with the top panel, but feel of high quality with no movement whatsoever (unless intentional of course). In fact although it might be a slightly odd statement, but it feels good to use the power button to turn the rig on.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Corsair Carbide 400C features a hinged and latched swinging side panel. In fact if you were to say that the case had one focal key feature, this would be it. The panel is entirely made from 5mm acrylic plastic and offers a slight smokiness in its transparency. This not only looks good, but has an additional bonus for any potential internal lighting you may choose to use, by dimming a little of the brightness and helping to clarify the view of the case contents. As you can see from the image above the outside of the panel has a black plastic border of sorts running along the top and bottom to aid its visual appeal and to hide the fixtures along the inner chassis edge when closed. It is held firmly closed using the latch system and magnets, but also very easy to remove once opened via the easy to use latch and courtesy of two sliding pin hinges. While I won’t deny the massive window looks great and the acrylic is of a high quality, there is some considerable wobble on the panel itself due to the lack of bracing, of course given the materials used this can be expected. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the latch system either. It seems the lightweight handle and mechanics are of a slightly lesser quality and I feel spoil the overall aesthetic qualities of the panel and 400C due to its size.
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Of course that huge swing door is not the only feature of the Corsair Carbide 400C. We also find a simple slide out filter beneath the PSU bay. This may be simple, but its high quality tight weave nylon nature is certain to help keep your power supply of choice dust free.
Then looking at the top of the case we find a large removable dust filter that very nearly covers its entirety. This particular filter unlike the others is of a thin plastic and affixed by four strips of magnets and fits in place nigh on perfectly, in fact much like the Obsidian 750D before it.
Then by removing the case front panel we find yet another dust filter covering the fan mounts. This is is affixed using a combination of magnets and plastic clips. Although having a case with a multitude of dust filters is always welcome and very handy in keeping your hardware inside clean and dust free, the front panel is not the easiest I’ve come across to remove, so maintaining the front filter won’t be the easiest task in the world.
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Given the size of the left panel window, we’ve already got a good idea at how spacious the 400C interior is, but with the panel removed if seems huge and has ample space for CPU coolers of up to 170mm in height, or maybe even an extra long 370mm GPU. This is at large down to the fact that Corsair like many other manufacturers these days, have dispensed of any kind of 5.25″ drive bay, along with your typical storage drive rack. This alongside the PSU bay cover, not only give the the 400C a much cleaner internal look, but should help to aid the case airflow.
Once the right panel is removed we can see more clearly how well laid out the motherboard tray is. We find a large CPU cooler cut-out along with with another twelve very well placed cut-outs to help with cable routing. Some may be a little disappointed that only three of these have rubber grommets, but they are all well finished with smooth edges and very unlikely to cause any kind of cable damage. Looking more closely at the reverse of the tray we also find a total of nine tie off points which again will help with tidy cable management and something I’m sure will be needed. Why? Well the 400C may have 20mm of cable space on the motherboard reverse, but its compact measurements of 425mm(L) x 215mm(W) mean the majority of cables used are going to have a fare bit of excess and unlikely to all squeeze beneath the PSU cover (especially if your planning on using one or two 3.5″ HDD in your build).
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The other big key feature of the Carbide 400C is its PSU bay cover. This isn’t something new of course and something first introduced by Cooler Master with the HAF X a few years back. The cover is comprised of two parts, one covers the PSU bay area, while the second covers the 3.5″ drive rack. Both covers are easy to remove and fixed via two thumbscrews apiece on the reverse side of the motherboard tray, then slid forward. Whilst I applaud the use of the two piece cover and the fact it is removable, it could be a little more practical in its implementation. You see while the central cut-out is perfectly placed for cables powering any GPUs, the cut-outs are angular holes which means you’ll be scrambling around to feed any cables through, which isn’t going to be an easy task given the size of the motherboard tray PSU access cut-out or the proximity of the 3.5″ drive rack to any installed PSU.
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The Carbide 400C offers a pretty reasonable amount of storage drive space considering its size and design. Just in front of the PSU bay we find a drive rack with the capacity for two 3.5″ tool-less drive sleds. Should you decide not to use this rack, it can very easily be removed should you need a little extra space for cables. Something that would have been nice to see here, would’ve been if once the drive rack had been removed, the available mounting space would’ve had native support from a pump for a fully custom loop. After all the 400C offers plenty of space for a variety of radiators.
With the immense popularity of 2.5″ storage drives, especially in the form of silent and fast SSDs, many manufacturers have recently started adding 2.5″ only drive bays. Corsair are certainly no different, but their implementation on the 400C is slightly different from that of others and one I rather like. As you can see Corsair have fitted the case with a removable hanging rack with space for up to three 2.5″ drives in a side-by-side configuration. Each of the bays is sprung loaded and uses a plastic spring tab to hold the drive in place. While the plastic making the rack may seem a little cheap, drives fit snugly within each bay and I can guarantee you’ll have a little fun ‘ejecting’ your drives during your build.
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Corsairs 400C features numerous fan mounts, the first of which is an adjustable slide mount on the rear. This comes pre-installed with one Corsair AF120 fan set as an exhaust, but sadly not one of the prettier variety with the interchangeable coloured rings. The fan mount itself can also be used to mount your choice of 120mm radiators.
By removing a traditional fixed storage drive rack and 5.25″ bay, Corsair have really opened up the front end of the Carbide 400C and made it a potential monster of cooling. As you can see in the photo above we have one Corsair AF140 fan set as an intake, what isn’t so visible (and also perhaps slightly obscured by the 3.5″ drive rack cover) is that the front end of the 400C can accept up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans. Perhaps more interestingly these sliding fan mounts also allow for radiators of up to 360mm in size (could this also mean we might be seeing a bigger Hydro series AIO cooler sometime soon?)
The Carbide 400C roof is again compatible with a variety of fan combinations with your choice of two 120mm or two 140mm fans. This of course once again means rad space! Yet there maybe be a slight limitation here with just 120mm and 240mm radiators listed as compatible. There is a chance you might be able to squeeze in a 280mm, but it would be very tight and cause possible interference with your motherboard.
Despite my initial reservations on the appearance of the Corsair Carbide 400C the case is certainly growing on me with its sleek appeal and sturdy build quality, but how will it fair with an installation and with its thermal performance?
