CES 2012 Roll-Up: HH Features From CES

Name: CES 2012 Roll-Up: HH Features From CES - Page 10
Brand: CES

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 09:00 AM EDT

Corsair today announced on the second day of CES a couple of additions to its PC case lineup, including the builder-friendly Obsidian Series 550D ultra-quiet premium case, and the compact Carbide Series 300R gaming chassis, both of which sport an all-black interior and exterior theme. So other than size, what sets these enclosures apart?

The Obsidian Series 550D is for librarian types looking for a combination of noise reduction and a wide array of customizable cooling solutions. It's made of rugged steel and brushed aluminum, and features two 120mm intake fans and a single 120mm exhaust fan. There are additional mounting points for a total of up to ten fans, including a spot for dual side-mounted fans to keep those toasty GPUs from getting too hot under the collar. Speaking of which, there are eight expansion slots with room for GPUs of up to 450mm in length.

Other features include a CPU cutout to make it easier to install heastinks, tool-free HDD bays with removable caddies and integrated 2.5-inch SSD support, four tool-free ODD bays, magnetically mounted dust filters, side panels that flip open with the press of a button, and a diamond cut aluminum front control panel with USB 3.0 connectors.

Moving on, the Carbide Series 300R boasts three tool-free optical and four hard drive bays (also with 2.5-inch SSD compatibility), and it too supports graphics cards up to 450mm in length. It has a cable routing system to keep the interior from becoming a cluster-fudge of wires.

"Inexpensive, compact cases often fall short in builder-friendly features, airflow, or the cosmetic features that make great gaming PCs really stand out," continued Mr. Mookerjee. "The Carbide Series 300R hits the mark for an affordable, enthusiast-quality compact PC case. Its innovative features will be appreciated by both seasoned system builders and PC gamers who are taking the leap and building their first system from scratch."

The Obsidian Series 550D ($159) and Carbide Series 300R ($89) will both be available in February.

Tags: Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Samsung, ViewSonic, ces2012

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com