CORSAIR OBSIDIAN 250D Mini-ATX Case

This little case has so many features that I was fully expecting to pay $200 for it when I saw it announced. This is a very impressive Micro-ATX case for the money. It offers huge flexibility for water cooling/air cooling solutions, great cable management potential, good build quality, and a very professional and sleek appearance while offering a HUGE side window to show off your components.Up front the fan intakes are behind a removable metal front-plate with a fan-filter in between; the gap around the front panel is very large and deep which offers lots of room to draw air through, though I would still recommend pressure optimized fans to help move air through the case. There are plenty of mounting holes for either a dual 120mm setup, dual 140mm, or single 140mm (fans or rad). The front filter is large and easy to remove, although the mesh could be slightly better quality and the edges of mine are fraying in places (just a nit-pick). The power button and the rest of the front is all finished in brushed and anodized-black aluminum that looks downright fantastic. Corsair really nailed the looks on the Obsidian cases, and the 350D is no exception.The metal side panel is taken up almost entirely by an enormous window, in fact it's really not a side panel but a window with some panel at the edges! I'm so glad Corsair didn't add a vent on the window which can ruin the aesthetics of a case. Inside there are many details that Corsair added which make for a great building experience. Everything is black-painted steel and feels quite sturdy. The HDD cages can be removed very easily with a few screws and you can fit a large front rad with ease; also the sliding drive trays are very easy to use. The bottom vent for the PSU comes with a large and sturdy filter which slides out the back of the case and clicks into place so it won't fall out when moving or tilting the case. The rear 120mm fan mount has a hexagonal grill that is slightly bowed outward for increased airflow and room for mounting. Cable management potential in the 350D is fantastic; there are large cable-routing grommets below the motherboard mounts/ next to the PSU, next to the mobo, and above the mobo. The only complaint I have is that the grommets on the side of the mobo are a little thin, so routing the 24-pin through it is a little tricky, however I was able to squeeze a USB3.0, PCI-E 6 pin, PCI-E 8 pin and the 24 pin mobo cable all through one grommet via some considerable wiggling and maneuvering of cables.The biggest complaint I have with the interior of the 350D is the construction of the SSD drive cages that hang under the 5.25 drive bays. The single unit is comprised of 3 SSD cages than clip together and as a unit attach to the bottom of the 5.25 drive bays. The SSD cages are made of plastic which isn't a big deal, but if you want to separate them if you only want to install one or two SSDs instead of having 3 slots PLEASE READ THIS: make sure you pull on both sides very evenly or the clips will snap off. I had this happen twice, so I only have one SSD tray that has intact clips. You might be able to pinch the clips with needle-nose pliers, but even this could be risky. I wish Corsair made the SSD cages easier to separate or made them from a better material, although they mount to the case securely so I would just leave them all attached together (3 cages) so they don't break.The top of the case is black-painted steel and has a large indentation for the top fan/rad mounts. Like the front of the case you can mount a dual 120mm or 140mm setup. The top mounts come with rubber grommets for vibration isolation which is a nice touch. The pattern on the top fan grill is neat too, kind of a patchwork of parallelograms. The back of the 350D is pretty standard (everything black steel), although one nice touch is a large flat lip at the top for carrying (I usually lift with one hand at the top lip on the back, one hand on the bottom at the front.) The back also has three water-cooling tube punch-outs above the rear 120mm fan mount if you plan on using an external rad. The other side panel on the 350D is completely flat black steel, and inside you get tons of tie-down points for the cable-routing grommets. There is 1/2 inch of space for routing cables and I found that laying excess cables along the bottom lip is nice for tucking large cables (like the 24-pin) out of the way. I was able to lay the 24-pin and 8-pin cables from my PSU along the bottom groove without it being visible. The cutout for the motherboard is enormous, in fact it's bigger than any other case I've seen; this is great if you have a bulky CPU cooler mount. Near the front there are cutouts for the front fan mounts which is a nice touch if you want to hide the cabling for your front fans/rad in the side pannel.Pros and Cons of the Corsair 350D:Pros:- Tons of features for a Micro-ATX case- Sleek, refined, svelte appearance- Great construction, very solid frame and panels- Exceptionally large side window for viewing components- Great cable-management solutions- Excellent water-cooling capabilities for this type of case- Mounts for up to 5 case fans and offers great airflow for cooling- Flexible fan/rad size mounting options- Huge mother board cutout for CPU cooling mounts- Easily removable HDD, SSD drive cages- Modular SSD cages (from 0 up to 3)- Great front pannel cables (all black, except the very end of the connectors)Cons:- Poor quality of SSD cage construction and how they separate (two of mine broke while removing them correctly and carefully)- Filter mesh could be slightly better quality (this is not an issue, just a preference)- No top filter or cover (if you aren't installing top fans/rad you might have dust issues).Overall this is a brillant Micro-ATX solution from Corsair and the 350D offers some of the most features for the money of any case out there. It's not cheap, but it's also not that pricey if you're looking for great features. I can't say it enough, the 350D looks fantastic and it's a joy to build in! If you want a high-performance Micro-ATX build that looks professional inside and out, I highly recommend going with this case. (Just be wary of separating the SSD cages!)EDIT (10/23/13): After a couple months of use I haven't had a single issue or complaint with the case. Everything in my system receives great airflow and the filters have been doing an adequate job of keeping out dust.EDIT (11/9/14): Well over a year later and the 350D still looks fresh and I haven't had any issues with durability or fitting parts. I've removed the drive cage, then re installed it to fit the needs of my storage and it's been very flexible. I wish the 350D omitted the 5.25 bays or had an optional model without them. There would be enough room for a third 140 or 120mm fan mount in the front to help with positive case pressure.EDIT (7/3/15): Two years later and I exchanged all of my fans for Noctua fans and added my own sound proofing foam. This case is absolutely silent and temperatures are even cooler. I've rearranged hard drives and components several times and the 350D has been very accommodating. I could see myself using this case for several years.

I've always built your standard mid-tower ATX case and jammed as much as I thought I needed into it and then tried my best to wire manage everything, usually with pretty good results. However, my latest build I just wanted simple, to the point, no BS, nothing I'm not going to use. I also wanted it to be smaller and maybe a little quieter (My last build ran with 7 Yate Loon hi-speeds - VERY good fans, very cheap, moved TONS of air, but WOW they were loud!)My setup was this:This caseEVGA Z87 Stinger mITX boardi7-4770K cooled by Corsair H100iCorsair Vengeance Pro 16gb kit 2400MHzCorsair RM750 (fully modular PSU)EVGA GTX 780 Ti (03G-P4-2888-KR)Samsung EVO 840 256gb 2.5" SSDWD 4TB Green 3.5" HDDASUS 12x BluRay BurnerFirst, I need to say, unboxing everything, I thought I made a HUGE mistake. However, putting everything together, it all came together like a puzzle with very little issues. Motherboard fit without issues.**The I/O plate fit kind of funny in the opening of the case, I don't know if Corsair's specs made the hole too small, or EVGA cut their plates a little bigger, but there was some flex in the aluminum like I have never had in any builds. Was not a big deal, all of the plugs still fit without issues, just strange that the normal specs didn't match up**You get a little bit of space with the standoffs, under the motherboard, so you can use it for fan wires or something, maybe you can run your 8pin 12V CPU rail under it (I wired mine over the cooler fans). Putting the H100i was a little tedious.**You can take the ODD tray out of this case, which is VERY awesome! Especially if you're not running an ODD, you can pull it out for some more space, it really opens the case up.**Put the H100i together first, pull out the ODD tray and mount the cooler. The screws holding the fans to the radiator were VERY VERY close to my motherboard, however, they did not touch or cause any issues.**My 8pin 12v cable connector hits the fan when I mounted it. This was a little frustrating, but after running the setup for a while, it never caused any issues and the clip holds the connector without issues.**The plates to cover the hard drive bay is a nice touch. It's pretty thin and somewhat flimsy, same with the plate that screws on the power supply. The trays for the drive feel like a flimsy plastic, but they flex a good amount, I had no issues with them.**The EVGA GTX 780 Ti is a MONSTER! It's the biggest card I've ever used and I had an uneasy feeling when sizing it up to the case. Sure enough, I popped the card in, which takes some careful turning and turning back, and it snapped into the board, screwed into the back of the case and looked GREAT! SO HAPPY! Then I noticed the power connectors. The ODD plate has holes cut in the PERFECT spot for the power connections, so with or without the plate makes no difference here. The issue is the absolute beast size of the card, put your power connectors almost FLUSH with the rails the case top slides on. Using Corsair's 8pin PCI-E connectors, pulling the wires to the side as much as possible and trying to slide the case top on resulted in A LOT OF MOTHERBOARD FLEX on the standoff closest to the power connectors. I bought 2 90 degree, low profile 8 pin PCI-E power connectors that just snapped on to Corsair's connectors and then my fitment was PERFECT! THESE TWO ADAPTERS SAVED THE BUILD!**Wire management is pretty much what I expected for a case this small - there's not much. There's some zip tie points here and there. I surely used the ones on the bottom of the case and standoffs, etc.The filter on the front of the case is very convenient and easy to access. Every Antec case I ever had with filters made you pull half of the case apart to clean them! Also the side filters are a nice touch, but I'm not really feeling the filtering mess with the adhesive sticking it to magnets. It's a cool idea, but feels really REALLY cheap. I seriously doubt I will be removing these very often to clean them. I think that could have been done better.Aside from that, the case overall **LOOKS AMAZING, the design is laid out well. **The front is very clean (better if you don't use an ODD - I may put mine in an external case and put the plate back in it's spot to make it look better). **USB 3.0 on the front was a HUGE selling point for me. **Being able to easily take off any side of the case with ease is a huge plus! **The huge front fan moves a good amount of air and is pretty quiet. **The power button and front lights are very tastefully set up and look great, button feels great. **Case feels very sturdy! **Small feet lift it off the resting surface enough for your power supply to breath, another great feature!-- Wire management was so so. -- Some of the panels feel flimsy but I had no issues with breaking or bending anything. -- I put in screws for the power supply and had to take it out, removing the screws, paint around one of them cracked off, leaving the silver bare metal, kinda frustrating. All of the negatives are really very small things to me and provide no real functionality issues, so I didn't take away any stars.Very awesome case if you are looking into a mITX build!