Corsair Obsidian 900D Review: Making Room For High-End Gear

Features
By Igor Wallossek
published

Corsair already offers a heavy tower case called the Obsidian 800D. Now, the company is one-upping itself with the Obsidian 900D. Is this a genuine high-end enclosure, a bomb shelter, or a mess of sheet metal? We put the case through our bevy of tests.

Motherboard Installation And Cable Management

As you know, motherboard form factors don't end with ATX. The pre-installed black standoffs are indicative of the largest boards this case supports: HPTX, which measures 13.6” x 15” and is represented by EVGA's Classified SR-2 .

Looking at the back of the motherboard mounting panel and all of those cut-outs, it's evident that you have plenty of room for routing the largest bundles of cables. Three clamps help bring some order to the cabling chaos.

Thanks to a cavernous interior, motherboard installation is cake. Just remember to mount your rear I/O shield first. Ours fit the cut-out perfectly, requiring just the right amount of force to snap in snugly and securely.

Most of the installation tray cut-outs are covered with rubber gaskets. They're flexible enough to easily let cables through, but stiff enough that they don't fall out of their frames as you're trying to run wiring.

It was easy for us to route all of the cables around the installation tray's back side. Needless to say, there was no danger of this wide enclosure's side panel bulging out from cables pressing against it inside.

Igor Wallossek
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • slomo4sho
    Thanks for including the acoustics and temperature for a workhorse in addition to the gaming rig.
    Reply
  • kitsunestarwind
    I am seriously waiting for this to be come available in Australia, I have the 800D , I love it, but I have no room left and I want/Need more liquid cooling Rad space without resorting to Case Mods, The Corsair 900D will do me perfectly and hopefully won't look so full
    Reply
  • greenrider02
    Quite frankly, that is a beautiful case.
    Reply
  • ASHISH65
    Good review! Corsair's Obsidian 900D looks so great!!
    Reply
  • mapesdhs
    Igor, please at least include the option to show temps in C, not F. :D

    Ian.

    Reply
  • slicedtoad
    ^yeah, I've never seen any computer related benchmarks done in Fahrenheit , lol.
    Very nice review though, Corsair makes some sweet cases, second only to the custom suppliers (mountain mods and the others) but much cheaper.
    Reply
  • JJ1217
    kitsunestarwindI am seriously waiting for this to be come available in Australia, I have the 800D , I love it, but I have no room left and I want/Need more liquid cooling Rad space without resorting to Case Mods, The Corsair 900D will do me perfectly and hopefully won't look so full
    Be prepared to fork out an extra $120 because of the simple fact we're from Australia.
    Reply
  • Vatharian
    I don't fully understand your review. Workstation-class rig is up to the challenge for exploring 900D abilities, but gaming rig? You slap off-the-shelf closed loop watercooler on the midrange CPU (TDP wise), one simple GPU and call it 'watercooled system'? What's the point? Get two or three water coolled GPUs in addition to CPU, set up one loop and them evaluate if the case is suitable for serious LC&OC, and if it's possible to arrange radiators such way to get rid of the heat and not kill usability. Point is: for such class of case you put low-end gaming rig. It doesn't tell us will it perform if serious system is inside. If the case performs with high-wattage rig, it will do for any smaller one, but not necessarily the other way around.
    Reply
  • Idonno
    My 800D preforms great with a high end system and there is every indication the 900D is even better.
    Reply
  • christop
    Good review!! I want one!!!
    Reply