[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
A little less than one year ago, Corsair decided to expand into the PC case market. Their first offering, the full-tower Obsidian 800D, carried a heavy price tag (USD 300) and didn’t get our stamp of approval, even though it brought tons of features. Now Corsair is offering a brand new mid-tower case, the Graphite Series 600T, at a more affordable price, but carrying features usually found only on more expensive, full-tower models. Let’s see if Corsair has finally hit bull’s eye.
Although sober, the looks of the 600T are pretty cool, and the overall quality is pretty impressive. Two things catches the eye when first looking at it: the latches that hold the side panels, and the big knob available at the top to control the speed of the fans. The side panels open to the side vertically. Both panels are completely solid.
Figure 1: Corsair 600T case
Figure 2: Corsair 600T case
Figure 3: Opening the Corsair 600T
No door is present on the front panel, and the 600T comes with four 5.25” bays, all using meshed covers with air filters. At the bottom part of the front panel the 600T has a 200 mm fan with an air filter. This air filter is easily removed by simply pushing it (the available mechanism will release the filter by pushing it, not by pulling it). No technical specifications about this fan are provided. It uses a three-pin power connector, so you can monitor their speed if you connect it on your motherboard, but most likely you will want to connect it to the available speed controller.
Figure 4: Front panel
Figure 5: Air filter removed
[nextpage title=”The Top Panel”]
The top panel of the Corsair 600T can be seen in Figure 6. It features a 200 mm fan identical to the one available on the front panel. By pushing the top panel mesh you release it (it uses a mechanism identical to the one used on the front panel, where you have to push instead of pull, which works great). This mesh hides a lock for the left-side panel of the case.
Figure 6: Top panel
Figure 7: Top panel with mesh removed
Figure 8: Lock for the left panel
The 600T comes with four USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, one FireWire port, and the audio jacks on its top panel. A big knob for controlling the speed of the fans is also available. This controller can handle up to four fans, so you can control all three fans with it. Just keep in mind that, since this controller has only one knob, all fans will spin at the same speed.
Figure 9: Buttons and connectors
[nextpage title=”The Bottom and Rear Panels”]
On its bottom panel, the 600T comes with an air filter matching the vents used by the power supply. To remove this air filter you need to push it, just like it happens with the front air filter and the top mesh.
Figure 10: Bottom panel
Figure 11: Air filter removed
The rear panel features a 120 mm fan. No technical specifications about this fan are provided. It uses a three-pin power connector, so you can monitor their speed if you connect it on your motherboard, but most likely you will want to connect it to the available speed controller.
One of the highlights of the 600T is the presence of eight expansion slots instead of seven. This feature is only available on some full-tower models, and in fact this is the first time we’ve seen a mid-tower case with eight slots. This allows you to install three dual-slot video cards in your computer, provided you have a motherboard with at least three PCI Express x16 slots, of course.
The slots come with vented covers, except the first cover, which is solid with a small hole for you to route the USB 3.0 cable to the outside of the case, in order to you to install it on the motherboard rear panel.
Two holes protected with rubber covers for liquid cooling solutions are available. The power supply goes at the bottom of the case. The rear and the interior of this case are painted black.
Figure 12: Rear panel
Let’s now take a look inside the Corsair 600T.
[nextpage title=”Inside the Corsair 600T “]
As shown before, the side panels of the 600T are removed by pushing two latches available at each panel. In Figure 13, you can see inside the Corsair 600T. The motherboard tray has a big hole around the area where the CPU is installed, allowing access to the backplate of the CPU cooler, so you can replace the cooler without having to remove the motherboard. The motherboard tray has several holes protected with rubber covers, allowing you to easily route and hide cables behind the tray, and
the motherboard tray has several clips for you to fasten cables using cable ties.
Figure 13: Overall look
Figure 14: A view behind the motherboard tray
The case comes with black thumbscrews for you to fasten expansion cards. The top fan can be removed if you want to install a liquid cooling 240 mm internal radiator with two 120 mm fans.
Figure 15: Overall look
In the 600T you can install the power supply with its bottom fan facing up or facing down, so you will have to decide if you want the power supply to be pulling cool air from outside the case (fan facing down) or hot air from inside the case (fan facing up). As already explained, this case has vents with an external air filter on its bottom panel, matching the location of the power supply fan. The power supply compartment has a bracket with thumbscrews for better matching the size of your power supply.
Figure 16: Power supply compartment
The maximum video card and power supply length will depend on how you configure the hard drive cages. We will talk more about this in the next page.[nextpage title=”The Disk Drive Bays”]
The Corsair 600T comes with four 5.25” external bays and six internal 3.5”/2.5” bays, all featuring screwless installation mechanisms. One of the most interesting features of this case is that it allows you to change the configuration of the hard disk drive bays. These bays are available inside two cages, each one holding three 3.5”/2.5” bays. The default configuration is shown in Figure 17. With this configuration, you can have video cards up to 13” (330 mm) long and power supplies also up to 13” (330 mm) long.
Figure 17: Disk drive bays
However, if you want to install even longer video cards, you can simply remove the top cage. This will allow you to install video cards up to 18” (457 mm). You can install the top cage side by side with the bottom cage, as shown in Figure 18. This will allow you to increase the space available for the video cards and, at the same time, keep all the six hard drive bays, but reducing the space available for the power supply to 9” (230 mm).
Figure 18: A different configuration to allow longer video cards
You can even remove the bottom cage and leave the top cage installed in the middle of the bottom panel, if you want to increase the case internal airflow.
Figure 19: Another possible configuration
Each 3.5” bay is actually a small drawer, and one big advantage of the 600T is that all 3.5” bays also support 2.5” devices.
Figure 20: Drawer
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
The main specs for the Corsair 600T case include:
- Style: Mid-tower
- Application: ATX and smaller form factors derived from this one
- Power supply: Doesn’t come with the product
- Available colors: Black
- Material: Steel, painted black
- Side panel: Solid
- Dimensions: 20 x 10.4 x 23.3 inches (507 x 265 x 592 mm) (H x W x D)
- Net weight: 25 lbs (11.2 kg)
- Gross weight: 30 lbs (13.6 kg)
- Bays: Four external 5.25” bays and six internal 3.5”/2.5” bays
- Expansion slots: Eight
- Maximum video card length: 13” (330 mm) or 18” (457 mm), if one of the hard drive cages is removed
- Maximum CPU cooler height: NA
- Fans: One 200 mm fan on the front panel, one 200 mm fan on the top panel, and one 120 mm fan on the rear panel, fan speed controller
- Optional fans: None
- Extra features: Lock for the left-side panel
- More Information: https://www.corsair.com
- Average Price in the US*: USD 160.00
* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
Corsair has really hit bull’s eye with the Corsair 600T, a top-notch mid-tower case with features usually only found on more expensive full-tower models, being a perfect choice for the enthusiast that wants a cost-effective mid-tower case with a truckload of features. Of course there are more affordable mid-tower cases around, but not with the set of features present on the Corsair 600T.
Strong Points
- Top-notch material
- Air filter for the front fans
- Air filter for the power supply fan
- Meshed 5.25” bay covers with air filters
- Six internal 3.5”/2.5” bays will be more than enough even for the most hardcore user
- All 3.5” bays support 2.5” devices
- Screwless mechanisms on all disk drive bays
- Anti-vibration mechanisms for the hard drives
- You can move or remove the hard disk drive cages to allow longer video cards or to improve the internal ventilation
- Holes with rubber covers for liquid cooling solutions
- A hole in the motherboard tray for accessing the backplate of the CPU cooler
- Holes on the motherboard tray for routing and hiding cables behind the tray
- eSATA port
- USB 3.0 port
- Fan speed controller
- Hidden lock for the left-side panel
- Cool and practical mechanisms for removing the side panels
- Eight expansion slots
- Vented slot covers
- Black thumbscrews to fasten expansion cards
Weak Points
- No individual fan speed controllers
- Some users may want a fan on the left-side panel
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