Corsair Carbide 400R: Succeeding in Reverse
by Dustin Sklavos on September 3, 2011 12:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Testing Methodology
For testing ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
| Full ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-875K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 3.8GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | ASUS P7P55D-E Pro |
| Graphics Card | Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (244W TDP) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive |
| CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS9900 MAX with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Gold 750W 80 Plus Gold |
A refresher on how we test:
Acoustic testing is standardized on a foot from the front of the case, using the Extech SL10 with an ambient noise floor of ~32dB. For reference, that's what my silent apartment measures with nothing running, testing acoustics in the dead of night (usually between 1am and 3am). A lot of us sit about a foot away from our computers, so this should be a fairly accurate representation of the kind of noise the case generates, and it's close enough to get noise levels that should register above ambient.
Thermal testing is run with the computer having idled at the desktop for fifteen minutes, and again with the computer running both Furmark (where applicable) and Prime95 (less one thread when a GPU is being used) for fifteen minutes. I've found that leaving one thread open in Prime95 allows the processor to heat up enough while making sure Furmark isn't CPU-limited. We're using the thermal diodes included with the hardware to keep everything standardized, and ambient testing temperature is always between 71F and 74F. Processor temperatures reported are the average of the CPU cores.
For more details on how we arrived at this testbed, you can check out our introductory passage in the review for the IN-WIN BUC.
Last but not least, we'd also like to thank the vendors who made our testbed possible:
Thank You!
We have some thanks in order before we press on:
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory we used to add memory thermals to our testing.
- Thank you to Zalman for providing us with the CNPS9900 MAX heatsink and fan unit we used.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive, Intel Core i7-875K processor, ASUS P7P55D-E Pro motherboard, and Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply and 140mm fans.
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Death666Angel - Saturday, September 3, 2011 - link
Hello!I don't understand that passage. I haven't used USB 3.0, yet. Is there some problem with booting from USB3.0 ports? Shouldn't they be backward compatible? :-)
Thanks for the review! Could you add metric measurements? :-)
livingplasma - Saturday, September 3, 2011 - link
I've had much better luck with side fans being used as exhaust rather than intake. This was true when I tested with my an Antec Three Hundred with a 4890 non reference that exhausts from the back and front, there was a slight advantage with the side fans as exhaust under load. With aftermarket cpu coolers like the Scythe Setsugen 2, the cooling advantage was even greater. CPU and board temps were also lower than with the side fans as intake. Only during idle or cpu only loads did side fans as intake performed a little bit better. Same results even with a pair of 6870's in the Cooler Master 690 II. Another interesting thing I've noticed is that all the fans I've tried are less noisey when pushing through a grill vent rather than trying to suck air through them.ckryan - Saturday, September 3, 2011 - link
I guess you have to admire what corsair is doing, even If I don't find the exterior to be particularly sexified. For an attractive, unusual, and generally backassward affair, see the Lian Li PC A05NB. I've been a hopeless shill for it for some time now, but a little Corsair magic on the inside wouldn't hurt (much).Hey, another case review so soon? Awesome.
B3an - Sunday, September 4, 2011 - link
Can you start reviewing cases like this that actually look nice and not like cheap tacky crap like they were designed by a 12 year old? I know they're very rare but these mythical beasts do exist!Dustin Sklavos - Monday, September 5, 2011 - link
Well shoot, I was just going to try and review as many bug ugly cases as I possibly could, but since you made the request I'll get right on it!TrackSmart - Monday, September 5, 2011 - link
I checked out the Lian Li PC A05NB (mentioned by ckryan above). For $90 on Newegg, I'm pretty curious to see how it would compare. The Corsair is not awful, but I still wouldn't put it in my living room. The Lian Li case, however, is undersstated enough to go anywhere.Maybe Dustin can request one of the Lian Li's for a showdown - if he isn't already buried in cases to review.
softdrinkviking - Monday, September 5, 2011 - link
i just put together one of these for my dad, and it was great to work with. I didn't cut my hand even once!also, the usb 3.0 on the front is a huge plus if your popping external drives on/off all the time.
one thing I did differently was I mounted the PSU upside-down becasue the holes on my seasonic didn't line-up properly otherwise.
AssBall - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
If your PSU fan is on the bottom, like many, you'd want to mount it upside down anyway.wyhtmgm - Friday, October 14, 2011 - link
I have a 650TXV2. The holes on the PS aren't symmetrical, but the holes on the case are symmetrical so it lines up the same way whether it's rightside up or upside down, i.e. I didn't encounter softdrinkviking's problem. I'm not that happy about how it lines up, since the head of one of the screws is sort of holding against the edge of sheet metal instead of going through a hole, but I haven't installed a power supply in years so maybe that's normal.Is the power supply in the review picture rightside up or upside down? In the picture I don't see the fan, which suggests rightside up, but the picture may just be too dark. There are other clues that it could be upside down; the position of the cables, and there's no visible label on top.
The PS would probably run cooler rightside up, but my floor tends to be dusty and I don't like the idea of blowing dust into the PS.
Valitri - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link
I currently use a CM 690 with 4 Yate Loon 120mm fans (1 front intake, 1 rear exhaust, 2 on Hyper 212+ push/pull out the back), and 3 Cheap NZXT White 140mm fans (1 bottom intake, 2 top exhaust, NZXT cheap white ones). The case has been banged up during moves and 3 different builds in it. I also redrywalled a room it was in so it's not clean either. I just ordered this 400R and will be ordering a few new fans for it as well. I curently load 54C on my 2500k at 4.5ghz after about an hour of Prime, so I'll test that against the 400R. I am also curious if my 6970 will run cooler if I install side fans on the 400R. The way my side panels work on my 690, I don't have room for side fans. The most important thing to me will probably be noise, I wish I had a way to accurately measure it. My case is very loud, and my fans seem to rattle sometimes.