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

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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.

An Illuminating Case Mod

A huge side window like the one on Corsair's Obsidian 900D almost begs for some sort of internal illumination, and ever since the day one of my Christmas trees won an award for being tacky, I cannot past up a lighting challenge.

I opted for a three-foot long LED strip, which I installed by starting at the top-right corner and running it counterclockwise to the lower-left corner. It has an adhesive on the back, and simply sticks to the metal. On the left side, point it towards the enclosure's interior to minimize glare. If you want to do something a little different, you can buy remote-controlled LED strips or multi-color kits with effects. Just make sure they operate at 12 V so you don't need an external power supply.

The video below shows my install with audio control, enabled by CCFLs (cold-cathode fluorescent lamps), available for around $5 and up. To avoid clutter, you can hide the control electronics in one of the unused 3.5” drive bays.

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