Corsair Obsidian 900D Review: Making Room For High-End Gear
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.
Installing The Power Supply
Upright, And A Choice Of Left Or Right
There are two viable mounting locations for the power supply, so you can take your pick (unless of course you'd like to install two power supplies, which is also possible). In both cases, the PSU sits upright. This isn't particularly ideal for passively-cooled power supplies, but it shouldn't be a problem for units with fans.
The shot below shows that there's plenty of room, even for extra-deep power supplies. If your power source of choice is less than about 7.5" deep, you can mount a drive cage in front of it. Don't feel pressured to, though; this case already offers tons of interior space for storage.
The power supply sits on the bottom of the case, without any sound-proofing material. I don't think a thin rubber pad for isolation is too much to ask for in this price category.
I hooked up my microphone and concluded that relatively quiet power supplies probably won't present any vibration problems. But if you plan to mount an older PSU with a large or unbalanced fan, the lack of acoustic decoupling could result in additional noise.
Putting this minor concern aside, I wanted to address a more pressing question: does the upright position result in higher power supply temperatures? I measured Corsair's AX1200i sitting up and loosely positioned on its back, recording zero different between the two orientations.
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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 fullReply -
slicedtoad ^yeah, I've never seen any computer related benchmarks done in Fahrenheit , lol.Reply
Very nice review though, Corsair makes some sweet cases, second only to the custom suppliers (mountain mods and the others) but much cheaper. -
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 fullReply
Be prepared to fork out an extra $120 because of the simple fact we're from Australia.
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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