[section_title title=Closer Look – Installation]Closer Look – Installation
Usually with “budget” cases, the installation can sometimes be a tedious and traumatic affair in terms of cable management, but overall I actually feel Corsair have done a fantastic job with the SPEC-03. It has some real strong points including the tool-less HDD cages, which is a really ingenious idea and couldn’t be easier, there is ample VGA space if you intend to use a monstrously long card like a AMD 7990 (top slot only) and very generous PSU space. One slightly negative point about the installation especially if you are using multi-GPU setups or a non-modular power supply is the lack of space to hide cables. With there not being a top mounted HDD cage, the only place other than cable ties at the back (the area fills up fast), are the 5.25” bays but if you are planning on using them, it can become a little troublesome.
In terms of cooling, there is space to mount a slim 240mm radiator in the top for water cooling but you will only be able to use push or pull; not both. My Noctua NH-U12S is 158mm tall and this is probably the tallest cooler that will fit in this case when installed so bare that in mind, otherwise you won’t be able to pop your windowed side panel back on.
Here is a closer look at the tool-less HDD cage which to me, is one of the best features of the case.
As previously mentioned, there is ample space for even the biggest of power supplies and there is also some cable management potential to support this.
Overall the Corsair Carbide SPEC-03 chassis was easy to build, nothing to tedious about it and apart from the obvious cable management space issues, the case is definitely one of those that shouldn’t cause too many problems.
This thermal specifications graph is very informative. Just not about this case… Good job!