Corsair Carbide SPEC-03 Review

[section_title title=Conclusion]Conclusion

So with the budget conscientious gamer at mind, does the latest offering from Corsair fit the bill?  Is it the usual “quality” product that you would expect to find stamped with Corsairs seal of approval?

Well in a nutshell, yes.  The SPEC-03 has a very aggressive front panel which should appeal to those looking to make a statement with their build and with the inclusion of the red LED fans (alternatively you can replace the fans with whatever colour you want), you are halfway there to having a kind of red demonic beast of a computer without the drawback of a hefty price tag.

Performance wise the case is certainly appealing especially to those who 100% intend to air cool as water cooling isn’t one of the primary aims of this case.  It traded blows with some of the coolest cases on test albeit at the cost of noise.  The fans included are what I would consider to be cheap offerings from Corsair and although they do cool well, you sacrifice the element of silence as the SPEC-03 ranks among the loudest cases on test; this could be alleviated with a fan controller.  To even come close to cases like the Prodigy or the Nanoxia, the SPEC-03 offers in terms of cooling performance nothing short of a feat; especially as this is the first Corsair case on test by us.

Now the aesthetics/design of the case is probably one of the main talking points of the Corsair SPEC-03 chassis for 2 main reasons.  Firstly the front grill is something entirely new on Corsair case especially due to its very aggressive nature; it resembles the Hannibal Lector mask from Silence of the Lambs in my opinion. This actual design looks 10x better in the flesh than it does in pictures and I don’t really think images do justice to the look of the case. Secondly are the oddly placed grommets for water cooling on the rear, Some people might prefer this kind of setup but I like my grommets to be located more towards the top as I find it is easier to route tubing higher up; this is just my personal opinion but I felt it needed touching on.  With little options for water cooling I am surprised to even see them but I do feel Corsair know what they are doing so it isn’t something I will knock!

Price wise, the latest entry into the Carbide series can be had for little over £45 which makes this case highly competitive in a massively overcrowded mid-price ranged market.  When looking for a case in this price range, I highly doubt you will find one that performs as well as the SPEC-03 in terms of thermal performance and obviously if you were to load the case with your own fans, possibly a fan controller then I could see this case beating cases at the top of our list.  To even have the capacity that shows what a real steal this case is and if you aren’t “offended” by such aggressive designs and like the look of the front grill, then this entry aimed at gamers is something to consider, with such performance, it becomes versatile for those performance junkies too!

Overall the Corsair SPEC-03 ticks quite a lot of boxes and punches well above its weight in terms of performance but it is slightly let down by the lack of cable management space behind the motherboard especially when trying to hide PSU cables (modular would eliminate this problem).  With that being said, there are many more pro’s than cons which means I am happy to award the Corsair SPEC-03 our Silver award!

Many thanks to Corsair for sending us the SPEC-03 in for review and I look forward to seeing more offerings in the near future.