Corsair Obsidian 550d?

Just finished a build with a friend. He's got a 550D, ASUS P9X79, H100, AX850, and this power extension cable. The whole thing barely fit together. I'll be posting pictures in a little bit but it was such a tight fit you simply couldn't install the H100 unless you unplugged the EPS power extension, got the H100 set up, and then put the EPS power extension back in. The 25mm fans are ever so slightly kissing the MOSFET heatsinks on the P9X79, and the EPS extension's wires are also ever so slightly kissing the rear fan on the H100. I'll post pictures later.

But when you install the H100 you are supposed to leave the rubber 'fan mounts' on the top side of the case right? If you just use the H100's provided washers without leaving the rubber fan mounts in there the washers are BARELY larger than the 550D's top holes...
 
Rattle said:
not sure if serious :eek:
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serious. My case came with built in stand-offs. Whats the point of the baggie if the mobo tray does'nt have extra holes for them and the ones that are in are not removable.
 
night_2004 said:
Just finished a build with a friend. He's got a 550D, ASUS P9X79, H100, AX850, and this power extension cable. The whole thing barely fit together. I'll be posting pictures in a little bit but it was such a tight fit you simply couldn't install the H100 unless you unplugged the EPS power extension, got the H100 set up, and then put the EPS power extension back in. The 25mm fans are ever so slightly kissing the MOSFET heatsinks on the P9X79, and the EPS extension's wires are also ever so slightly kissing the rear fan on the H100. I'll post pictures later.

But when you install the H100 you are supposed to leave the rubber 'fan mounts' on the top side of the case right? If you just use the H100's provided washers without leaving the rubber fan mounts in there the washers are BARELY larger than the 550D's top holes...
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I had no issue with my H100 touching the board or covering the board.
 
Ruffy said:
serious. My case came with built in stand-offs. Whats the point of the baggie if the mobo tray does'nt have extra holes for them and the ones that are in are not removable.
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Extra stand-offs for more/other holes? Like how some cases may come with 6 pre-installed/non-removable stand-offs, but your board uses 9 or 10; or where you may have 9 pre-installed in the case, but your board needs 12, 13 or 14 (~EATX).
 
Hey guys, loooong time lurker and reader, first time posting!


Received my 550D here in europe yesterday!


No kinks or broken hardware. The only thing I can report is a little bent hard-drive cage. The lower one was slightly skewed, and not straight, can easily be bent back, tried flexing it a little, but I'm not that bothered with it as I'll maybe only use one cage, maybe none at all.

Shipping box arrived in mint, looked brand new, shipped with German DHL and the store was mindfactory.

So far, very pleased, though I haven't built a system in it yet, still waiting for Ivy Bridge :cool:
 
I don't know weather to ditch my R3 and get the 550D or not. Cooling wise how does it compare to the R3? I like how you can remove the drive bay cages on the 550D, the R3 you can not. What color is the power LED is it blue?
 
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shadyqwerty said:
I have been hard on you guys in the past for previous cases such as the 650D that came close, but clearly someone listened. The 550D is the best case I've ever owned. The only issue I "thought" I had was the back side where the cables didn't have as much clearance as I'd like. But the side panel snapped on w/ almost no pressure on my part.

The case arrived w/ no damage, except a small reverse y carved into the door foam, lol. The side panel's aren't perfect, but they're VERY close and I'd of never noticed if I hadn't seen the pictures.

The case is noticeably quieter than the P280. Probably a result of the oversized foam, pushed back fans, rubber gromits for the fans, door that actually closes, front foam on front fans, etc. It looks amazingly better as well. It was a bit harder to work w/ putting the PC together, but IMO, worth it for the noise trade off. I've yet to check temps, but idle looks a touch higher than P280.

Here's the pics!

As you can see, no shipping issues. Case arrived in perfect shape. There were no issues w/ the actual case either. Nothing like what I've seen in some of these pics!


Here's some comparisons w/ the Antec P280.

It's a bit smaller, always a welcome attribute. :D

Wow, it looks a lot better! The silver panel's nowhere near as gaudy as the pictures. I'm fine w/ it. The power light is a subtle white!


Definetly more airflow in the back of the P280, but surely causes more noise. A tradeoff.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/jodiuh/Corsair%20550D

The big failure of the Antec P280.


The only issue, haha!


Wow...that's A LOT thicker than the P280's lame dampening.



Finally, the insides of them. These cases, more than any other's I've used before are cake to look good. There's a big difference in quality and ease of use compared to my previous Fractal Design Define R3. Little things like the gromits always falling off on the Define, just didn't happen w/ these. All three are nice cases. The Define is cheap, the Antec cools better, and the Corsair is quiet. FWIW, I'm using 4 SFLEX E's @ 1200 RPM.


Feel free to fire off any q's.[/QUOTE]

Wow, thank you so much for this post. When the P280 was first announced, I was sure it would be my next case (for an IB build), but after reading reviews and seeing it in person, I was underwhelmed. Seeing them next to each other just reaffirms that I will be buying the 550D. Cheers!
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The cables that come from the top I/O power switch thing. Is their any way to route that behind the motherboard tray without going threw one of those rubber grommet holes in the front? I want to be able to bring the front connections down in a way that you don't even see those wires.
 
In fact there is.

I didn't realise it at first, but after I gave it a serious go, I managed to squeeze the USB3 header and the power cables through a hole in the upper left corner, just where the 5.25" bays end, toward the middle of the chassis.

I'll take pictures if my description is not adequate. Not sure if the hole there is intended for this use, but the USB3 header fit through it with a little jiggle.


Edit1: I took some pictures, uploading now.
 
That would be great if you could take a picture of that. This is really the only issue I would have if I were to buy it.

Thanks...
 
http://i.imgur.com/5JHFc.jpg

Excuse the horrible quality, limited light available at the moment, but you should be able to see what I mean.

If you wanted to put them through even closer to the front, theres a possibilty to bend metal cutouts on the 5.25" away, and fit them there.

The HD audio cable as you can see I've tucked away at the top, on a nice little shelve there.
 
Aw ok got it now :) Yeah that will work perfect. The case comes with a USB 2.0 adapter for the front header right? My motherboard has no USB 3.0 on it. And that routing looks like it would work perfect for what I want. Thanks alot for the time and picture :)

Many Thanks
 
Yep, a simple adapter that fits on the USB3 header to USB2 comes with the case.

No problem! Glad to help.
 
I think it does, yes.

Threw a new toy in this weekend. LOVE the green.

Case.jpg
 
You said you used a 10x24" shelf from home depot for this right? Does the shelf bear the weight of the PC without any obvious stresses? I think I'm going to do the same for my PC, but use these for feet instead of using casters.
 
shadyqwerty said:
I think it does, yes.

Threw a new toy in this weekend. LOVE the green.

Case.jpg
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I love this shot - so clean!

I find it funny that the interior of your case has awesome cable management but the desk behind it - eh, not so much. :D
 
Does anyone know how 550d compares to Define R3 in terms of noise and ventilation?

I could live with the flaws of the R3 if i just knew it was more quiet (Its also a lot cheaper here in Sweden).

Im planning to buy one of them and keep the moduvents closed since im more into a quieter system than maximum airflow.

Too bad there arent any proper reviews out yet. I really want a new case since Im still using my 10 year old chieftec fulltower that i have noise dampened myself :rolleyes:
 
Redbeard said:
I love this shot - so clean!

I find it funny that the interior of your case has awesome cable management but the desk behind it - eh, not so much. :D
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Yep, so fresh and so clean! What are those bits right at the top of the case? Looks like dust filters you can slide out or something?
 
Those 'bits' at the top of the case are part of the panel latching mechanism. Aside from the bottom intake filter all the other dust filters use magnets to cling to the case.

Ongaskonga said:
Too bad there arent any proper reviews out yet. I really want a new case since Im still using my 10 year old chieftec fulltower that i have noise dampened myself :rolleyes:
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http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/chassis/36473-corsair-obsidian-series-550d/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-Obsidian-550D-Case-Review/1508
 
I've read those reviews but they just compare the noise of the chassis by the stock fans.

Another point is that Hexus hasnt reviewed the Define R3 so the comment "the 550D is the quietest enclosure we've tested - you can hardly hear it" isnt really worth anything to me.

I dont consider the Hardwaresecrets one a review at all since they only list known stats and barely anything else... (No depth at all)

night_2004 said:
Those 'bits' at the top of the case are part of the panel latching mechanism. Aside from the bottom intake filter all the other dust filters use magnets to cling to the case.



http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/chassis/36473-corsair-obsidian-series-550d/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-Obsidian-550D-Case-Review/1508
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BitTech did an in-depth study on fan placement and cooling for the R3. You might want to give it a read, if only because it will give you some ideas about how that case performs. It doesn't make any comparisons against other cases but it does give you an idea about how the R3 can perform. The Corsair 500R shares the same skeleton as the 550D so maybe you can find some comparisons between those two chassis? It won't cover the improvements the 550D has (noise cancelling foam, fan covers, etc) but it is something.
 
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I just put my system into this box (I also had a RMA'd motherboard x58a-ud3r 2.0 and a new H60) and I have to say that this case is a very high quality build but with everything closed off, you do get a lot less airflow (previously using the Antec 900 which I found to be much lower quality). The motherboard's NB runs very hot usually and with the things closed, I start getting instability again (even with a fan on top of the bridge). I do like that this box does give you options, hopefully when I upgrade to Ivy Bridge the chipsets will run a bit cooler.

My H60 is also spewing a lot of pump noise (like an old hard drive) so I'm getting a fan modulator to try and fix it. After that, I will finally have the quiet machine of my dreams (if the NB stays alive).
 
How hot does your NB get? With H70 I was around 50C on NB with i7 930@4. My H70 got the dreadful grinding noise Saturday with the pump only running around 400RPM (sent RMA request to Corsair) so now I'm running default clocks with the Intel reference cooler and still my NB peaks at 59C. And I have no side/bottom fans installed on my X58A-UD5.
 
I'm running a hackintosh so I can't be sure how accurate these temps are but right now it's at 44C, no overclock. I have a H60 and a small 40mm fan directly on the Northbridge. If I seal up the 550D then it goes up to about 56-58 at which point my hackintosh will hard crash.

I have the pump noise but I bought a Zalman Fanmate because my guess is that the headers are probably a bit higher than the pump is expecting - I've never been happy with Gigabyte's quality on this board but I'm holding out for ivy bridge at this point.
 
Ugh, does anyone have the UPC from the box that they don't need? My apartment mate threw away mine before I could clip it for the Newegg rebate...
 
Davidion said:
Ugh, does anyone have the UPC from the box that they don't need? My apartment mate threw away mine before I could clip it for the Newegg rebate...
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Sounds like your mate owes you $20. Not to mention a discussion about respecting other people's property :p.
 
Has anyone else noticed that the screw mounting holes for the bottom position are smaller then the top, back, and sides. I noticed there was no rubber grommets on the bottom making it impossible to use the included screws to mount a fan. I moved the grommets from the side panel since I don't anticipate I will use them but found out when I tried to put the screw through it was too tight. Ended up ripping two grommets before I realized what was going on.

Redbeard any commet on why the screw holes on the bottom are smaller in radius and why rubber mounts weren't included? What screw should be used to mount a fan to the bottom?
 
The screws that come with your after market fans should fit in those bottom holes. They look to be about the right size.
 
night_2004 said:
The screws that come with your after market fans should fit in those bottom holes. They look to be about the right size.
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my nexus real silent fans came with rubber screws but when I use them the fan filter won't slide into place. Ugh why can nothing just work lol.

edit: zip ties to the rescue I guess ha ha.
 
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rickten said:
my nexus real silent fans came with rubber screws but when I use them the fan filter won't slide into place. Ugh why can nothing just work lol.

edit: zip ties to the rescue I guess ha ha.
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The traditional fan screws would be almost flush with the case. Rubber screws wouldn't.
 
Looks like Corsair's rebate company "lost" my rebate. I'll give them a little more time to process it but I have proof of delivery indicating they got it days ago. Figures since an ATM stole $20 from me as well yesterday. Fortunately I have documentation supporting both :).
 
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