Corsair Obsidian Series 800D

[FtGF]

Originally Posted by sheepdogexpress

Man corsair is way too loved now adays because of their power supplies. Which are getting overly recommended these days considering the strong competition out now.

This case is 300USD dollars and is made out of steel. If you go to newegg.com, there is no case that is steel/aluminum at this price.

The closest being a thermaltake with a liquid cooling system preinstalled.

I would have no beef against this system, if it was made out of aluminum which is entirely possible at this price and considering the likes of lian-li and silverstone has been done. Heck the antec is atcs is aluminum and has some of the best cooling in the business and is 190US.

What Corsair decided to do here is take advantage of its name branding so it can increase its margins by removing the aluminum, because they know people will buy this for the corsair name alone.

This is hardly revolutionary or market changing like their power supplies which seemed to make people love corsair too much.

With all the thought that went into this case I think $300 is a steal. All the features of every good case in the market rolled into one. You don't even have to worry about stripping it to get it powder coated. I have a full tower Lian-Li and wish it had some of the little features on this thing. Also who cares if it's made out of steal how often do you move a full tower case around? My Lian-Li fully-loaded weighs a ton! Also the heat difference its almost zero. Corsair is liked so much because they release great products! They have always been one of the best for ram, now for PSUs and they want to get into the case market of course people are excited why wouldn't they be? I for one am not hating on this case and hope it rocks!

[martin_metal_88]

Well it's sure if it was the best case on earth and it was wright RaidMax on with a 450 generic power supply I would not buy:P for the rest no matter of the brand.

[rjbarker]

When comparing this Case to my TJ09 the only advantage I see is that Corsair provided Cable Management holes, although this can be overcome in a Silverstone with a little creativity.....I Agree with Sheepdog...Hot Swappable HDD's means nothing to me as I certainly don't carry out swapping out my HDD's on a day to day basis. Now, the HDD's in a Silverstone Case are within removeable racks...replacing a HDD is as easy as sliding the rack out, removing a couple of screws, inserting new Drives and sliding rack back in...hell the HDD racks are completely seperate from the rest of the Case.
The Cases in fact look very similar aesthetically (sp)....
However, i'll take my aluminum Silverstone over this steel case any day...didn't realize they went Steel!! I do constantly move my Case from its "living" position to the Bench to work on it and I really don't want to be lugging around a steel Case....
To each his own...I do stand by Corsair products, but will stick to aluminum.

[bovine.baron]

Originally Posted by FtGF

Corsair Reps have been saying $300 USD. Which would be reasonable considering all the features and its even painted inside. At that price it would be a steal. Lets hope it does retail at that.

I don't know, that's a deal breaker for me. Then again, the launch price may be higher than what it'll pan out to after a few months. Still, I'm glad Corsair jumped in on this, the industry could always use more well built, classy looking cases. I'm not a big fan of the windowed cases with LEDs and UV lights everywhere myself.

[FtGF]

Well it's a deal breaker for you because you are simply not the market segment they are targeting. $300 case is not for everyone obviously it's for people who also have high-end systems. Corsair is not stupid they are not going after people who buy the HAFs and 900s they would have priced it accordingly if they were. The people who Corsair figures will buy these are the people who drop $500 on mobos and $300+ on ram and $600+ on gpus a $300 case for them is reasonable. If had not just bought a Lian-Li I would definitely consider this case and $300 is just right. Quite sure these will sell like hotcakes if they review well.

[sheepdogexpress]

Originally Posted by FtGF

Well it's a deal breaker for you because you are simply not the market segment they are targeting. $300 case is not for everyone obviously it's for people who also have high-end systems. Corsair is not stupid they are not going after people who buy the HAFs and 900s they would have priced it accordingly if they were. The people who Corsair figures will buy these are the people who drop $500 on mobos and $300+ on ram and $600+ on gpus a $300 case for them is reasonable. If had not just bought a Lian-Li I would definitely consider this case and $300 is just right. Quite sure these will sell like hotcakes if they review well.

The price tag is not the problem at all. Its that at 300 dollars USD, it doesn't compete with any steel cases since steel cases are not in this price range and your competing with alot of good aluminum cases. Since casing material is the biggest expensive in making a case, it has to have alot of crazy feature to make up for it.

Not only does aluminum have thermal dissipation properties and lighter but it also has a particular look that makes it look more sleek. E.g the anodized smooth look. One thing that it also has working against it, and this destroys much of the workability is a non removable motherboard tray.

Look at this particular case.

Newegg.com - ABS Aplus ABS-Black Pearl Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

All aluminum seperate bottom compartment, room for a dual radiator on top, just as nice in my opinion.

The price?

159.99US

Thats half the price of the corsair. No matter what features the corsair has, I don't know how it can compete with that.

When corsair came out with their ps, they somewhat showed how much features and reliability you could get for the dollar. Does this case do the same thing? I don't think so because we know basically all the features and for 300US dollars, its not rewriting any rules. Basically we are paying for the harddrive cage and the wiring holes.

It misses alot of key features which is why I can't respect this case yet. E.g Aluminum, removable MB tray and larger bottom compartment which has room for radiators. For alot of people these features(and not price) are what are stopping people from liking this case.

Corsair knows it brand commands alot of respect and as a result, can charge higher than the likes of antec or coolermaster, kind of like their ram.

[bojangles]

But as a case with such a large motherboard area, is a removable tray really necessary? The steel part is something that I would look to as a bit of a turn off because it is so heavy, but with cases like these, are you really going to move them around a lot? I wouldn't really worry about that.

[bovine.baron]

Originally Posted by FtGF

Well it's a deal breaker for you because you are simply not the market segment they are targeting. $300 case is not for everyone obviously it's for people who also have high-end systems. Corsair is not stupid they are not going after people who buy the HAFs and 900s they would have priced it accordingly if they were. The people who Corsair figures will buy these are the people who drop $500 on mobos and $300+ on ram and $600+ on gpus a $300 case for them is reasonable. If had not just bought a Lian-Li I would definitely consider this case and $300 is just right. Quite sure these will sell like hotcakes if they review well.

True, being an unemployed student with temporary jobs at best means I don't fall into their demographic. It doesn't mean, however, that I don't pay attention to all ends of the market. Although we've been comparing it mainly to full aluminum cases from Lian Li and Silverstone at the $300 mark, the steel body would mean its' main contenders would be cases like the Gigabyte Poseidon and Silverstone TJ904B, which also feature a nice aluminum face plate, at prices of $120-130. I adore the many extra features that come with the Obsidian as well but frankly, they could all be done without without too much too much fuss or extra material by a case modder which many people with high end systems are anyway, or at least they know someone who could do it for them for less than $170.

I appreciate all the thought put into this case too but engineering and marketing are two different departments and I certainly think marketing dropped the ball on this one by going for such a high retail price. Like I said, high end enthusiast computing simply isn't in my budget right now but if being in the community has shown me anything it's that the vast majority of people look for the best performance per price. And even factoring in time and labor for introducing better cable routing, a door on the back of the motherboard plate, fan holes/grills, a ~$100 powder coating job, and a ~$50 Dremel and cutting discs if you don't already have those, I doubt many would choose the retail over a DIY on a cheaper aluminum/steel case. And that's without factoring in having the skills and tools to do more such projects in the future and, more importantly, the "Hell yes, I am the king of all handymen" feeling a guy gets

[Liu Kang]

Originally Posted by sheepdogexpress

I was really excited about this case until they said it was going to be a steel case.

I couldn't agree more... this alone makes me want to hurl. Why on earth would anyone make a steel case these days?

This is a fanboy case, no experienced builder would waste their time with something this primative. Too bad though, they had the right idea.

I'm still waiting for Silverstone to revamp their Temjin line, and release a second version of the 07 or 09/10 :)

[Perineum]

All right, I'll bite.

I've built hundreds of machines with steel cases and only 2 with aluminum. Am I experienced enough that I should not want to use steel cases now? What reason should I give?

One of the aluminum cases I built up was no different than any antec case. The only other was the Lian-Li case that I bought off of Lowfat, which is VERY different because the layout is.... well... different

That Lian Li vents from the back of the case and ejects heat out the front.

I see absolutely no advantages to aluminum cases except for the weight difference, which is not a concern for me at all. I do not believe that aluminum cases act like some sort of radiator to carry away heat to any real appreciable value.

Air moving through a steel, aluminum, wood or cardboard case is what is going to move the heat away, not the case which is more or less only held to any heat source via 8 screws.