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[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Corsair has recently released their first case, a USD 300 beast that is targeted to be the most complete case on the market. Let’s check it out.

800D impresses by its size and weight. At 35 lbs (15.8 kg) you will probably need to rent a forklift to move it around after you have all your parts installed inside. It could definitely be manufactured in aluminum, but if it is already expensive using steel, we don’t even dare to imagine how much it would cost if Corsair decided to go with an all-aluminum solution. The front panel and feet, however, are manufactured in aluminum.

Figure 1: Corsair 800D case.

Figure 2: Corsair 800D case.

The reviewed case comes with five 5.25” drive bays and four hot-swap drawers for hard disk drives that are accessible from the front panel.

Figure 3: Front panel.

Buttons and connectors are available on the top part of the front panel and hidden behind a door that mimics a disk drive bay, as you can see in Figure 4. This case comes with four USB connectors (separated in two sets of two) and one FireWire port. No eSATA port is available, which is unbelievable for a case from this price range.

Figure 4: Buttons and connectors.

[nextpage title=”Introduction (Cont’d)”]

You can install up to three 120 mm fans on the top panel from 800D – yes, it doesn’t come with these fans. A really bummer for a USD 300 product.

Figure 5: Top panel.

Corsair 800D comes with a huge air filter on its bottom panel, which is easily removable from outside the case. As you may suspect, this filter matches the power supply fan.

Figure 6: Bottom panel.

In Figure 7 we have the rear panel from 800D. As you can see, it is painted black and we wouldn’t expect anything less one a high-end case. It features a 140 mm fan (no technical information was provided) using a three-pin connector, so you have to install it directly on your motherboard, allowing you to monitor its speed. The slot covers are not meshed, but notice how this case has meshes on the top part, along the left side and right below the last expansion slots. Two holes protected by rubber covers for hoses from liquid cooling solutions are also available.

Figure 7: Rear panel.

What is really unique on 800D is the mechanism for removing the side panels, which doesn’t use screws. To remove a side panel all you need to do is to push a button.

Figure 8: Removing one of the side panels.

Now let’s take a look inside Corsair 800D.

[nextpage title=”Inside Corsair 800D”]

Figure 9 we have an overall look from inside Corsair 800D. As one would expect on a high-end case, its interior is painted black. This case brings a lot of interesting features. Notice the huge amount of holes for routing cables behind the motherboard tray, all protected by rubber covers. This case also has a huge hole on the motherboard tray for you to have access to the backplate from the CPU cooler (twice as big as the hole usually found on cases with this feature), allowing you to replace it without having to remove the motherboard. This hole comes with a plastic cover, as shown on Figures 10 and 11.

Figure 9: Overall look.

Figure 10: A view from behind the motherboard tray.

Figure 11: A view from behind the motherboard tray with hole opened.

This case has a wall separating the power supply compartment from the motherboard compartment, creating two separated chambers. There is a 140 mm identical to the one located on the rear panel attached to this wall, and this wall also features two holes with rubber protections for you to pass hoses from liquid cooling solutions.

Figure 12: Power supply compartment.

[nextpage title=”Inside Corsair 800D (Cont’d)”]

Corsair 800D has two 3.5” hard drive bays located on the power supply compartment and a removable plastic lid separates these bays from the power supply compartment. Another two lids are available, one covering another 140 mm fan in charge of cooling down the hard disk drive cage and another covering the hot swap connectors. Compare Figure 13 to Figure 14 to understand.

Figure 13: Over
all view.

Figure 14: Lids removed.

Notice how there is a hole near the hot swap connectors, so you can easily route the cables while keeping the lid closed for better aesthetics.

An optional 120 mm can be installed on the lower hard disk drive cage.

In Figure 15 we have an overall view from the motherboard compartment. Daughter boards are fastened to the case using black thumscrews, which is great.

Figure 15: Overall view.

[nextpage title=”The Disk Drive Bays”]

Corsair 800D has five 5.25” bays, all featuring screwless mechanisms, and six 3 1/2" bays for hard disk drives. Four of them feature hot-swap connectors, meaning that you don’t need to install any kind of cable to your hard drive: just install each drive inside a drawer and lock the drawer in place (of course you must connect the hot swap connectors available inside the case to your motherboard and power supply). All the four hot-swap bays from Corsair 800D also support 2 1/2" devices, which is terrific, allowing you to easily install SSDs.

Figure 16: 5.25” bays.

The hot-swappable bays are opened from the front panel and as shown before there is a 140 mm fan to cool down the hard drives installed on them.

Figure 17: Hot-swappable bays.

Figure 18: One of the hard disk drive drawers.

The other two hard drive bays are available on the bottom part of the case and they can be accessed by removing the front panel. You have the option to install a 120 mm fan to cool hard drives installed on these bays.

Figure 19: The other two hard drive bays.

No support for external 3.5” devices is given.

In Figure 20, you can see all the accessories that come with Corsair 800D.

Figure 20: Accessories.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

Corsair 800D case main specs include:

• Style: Full-tower
• Application: E-ATX and smaller form factors derived from this one.
• Material: Steel (SECC), painted black inside, with aluminum front panel.
• Power supply required: Doesn’t come with the product.
• Available colors: Black.
• Side panel: Transparent acrylic.
• Dimensions: 24” x 9 x 24” (60.9 cm x 22.9 cm x 60.9 cm) (H x W x D).
• Net weight: 35 lbs (15.8 kg)
• Gross weight: 42.5 lbs (19.4 kg)
• Bays: Five external 5.25” bays and six internal 3.5” bays (four with hot-swap connectors also supporting 2 1/2" devices).
• Expansion slots: Seven.
• Fans: One 140 mm on the rear, one 140 mm on the power supply compartment and one 140 mm fan on the main hard drive cage.
• Optional fans: Three 120 mm fans on the top panel and one 120 mm fan on the second hard drive cage.
• More Information: https://www.corsair.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 290.00

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

Corsair 800D is certainly a nice case, full of nice features, but we think it is highly overpriced, especially when you can get a Zalman MS1000-HS2, which has six hot-swap hard drive bays (two more than this model from Corsair), for USD 175. Of course this model from Corsair brings some extra features, but we don’t see why it should cost so much more, and therefore we can’t recommend it.

Strong Points

• Hot-swap hard disk drive bays.
• Support for 2 1/2" drives on all hot-swap bays.
• Air filter on the bottom panel.
• Rear panel and interior are painted black.
• Hole in the motherboard tray for accessing the backplate of the CPU cooler with lid.
• Holes for routing cables on the motherboard tray with rubber covers.
• No sharp edges where you could cut yourself while building your PC.
• Screwless mechanisms for fastening drives.
• Thumscrews for fastening daughterboards.
• Aluminum front panel.

Weak Points

• No noise absorbing mechanisms for the hard disk drives.
• Slot covers could be meshed.
• No eSATA port.
• Doesn’t come with the top fans.
• No support for external 3.5” devices (who still uses floppies anyway?).
• Too expensive.