• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

CORSAIR Obsidian 500D

Darksaber

Senior Editor & Case Reviewer
Staff member
Joined
Jul 8, 2005
Messages
3,085 (0.44/day)
Location
Victoria, BC, Canada
System Name Meshlicious Monster
Processor Intel Core i5-10600T
Motherboard MSI Z490I Unify
Cooling NZXT Kraken Z53 with 2x Noctua Redux 1300 RPM PWM fans
Memory ADATA 16 GB 3200 Mhz DDR4
Video Card(s) MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio
Storage TeamGroup 1TB NVMe SSD
Display(s) Asus ProArt 27" 1440P, 75Hz
Case ssupd Meshlicious with mesh side panels
Power Supply Fractal Design Ion 660 W Platinum ATX
Mouse Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro Wireless
Keyboard Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard
Software Windows 10 Home
The CORSAIR Obsidian 500D offers sleek looks with a thick slab of aluminum up top and heavy swing-open glass side panels. But it does not stop there. You will also get USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity, two retail-grade 120 mm fans, and a few little surprises inside the chassis to make your life a lot easier when assembling your dream system.

Show full review
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Messages
857 (0.18/day)
Location
Oregon
System Name Red 101
Processor 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900k
Motherboard EVGA Z370 Classified
Cooling Custom Primochill and Heatkiller water cooling loop
Memory 16GB of Gskill 3200Mhz CL14
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW2 with Heatkiller block @2114Mhz
Storage 4- Samsung Evo 250GB, 1- Pro 512GB and 1-512GB M.2
Display(s) LG 38" UW
Case In Win 101 customized a lot and painted red
Audio Device(s) Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma
Power Supply EVGA 850w G2
Mouse Razer DeathAdderv2
Keyboard Razer Ornata Chroma
Software Win10Pro and games
Benchmark Scores NA
Only 2x3.5" hdd bays is a real shame.

2.5" SSDs or M.2s.ONLY!..... 3.5s are for servers or NAS ;)

This isn't a server tower. think of the market they are selling this to
 
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
420 (0.09/day)
Processor Intel i7 10700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Pro AX
Cooling Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4
Memory DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHZ (2X16GB)
Video Card(s) Palit GTX1080ti Super JetStream 11GB
Storage Trandscend 370s 256GB / WD Caviar Black 2+1TB
Display(s) Acer XB270HU 144hz Gsync
Case Phanteks Eclipse P600S White
Audio Device(s) Sound Blaster ZXR
Power Supply Corsair RM1000X 1000W 80 Plus Gold
2.5" SSDs or M.2s.ONLY!..... 3.5s are for servers or NAS ;)

This isn't a server tower. think of the market they are selling this to

I'm a home user and I have three 3.5" HDDs in my rig. 1TB for old games and emu, 2TB for steam games, and 4TB for others (works, movies, musics, porn).
Of course this doesn't include my boot drive (256gb SSD) and my 'frequently played' game drive (128gb SSD).
If I'm gonna buy my next case it better have plenty of mounting space for my drives.

M.2 doesn't appeal to me though. It's too hot and too close to the motherboard, hard to install/remove (especially when you already mounted the GPU), hogs the bandwidth from other SATA ports, and lastly, expensive. The increased speed over SATA SSD doesn't seem to make much different for home users like me. Moreover, you don't have much use for old M.2 when you decide to upgrade. SATA SSD, on the other hand, can be used with many devices such as PS4 and digital media player.

On a related note to this review, I really hate modern cases that remove 5.2" drive bay and replace it with... nothing. I know optical drives are obsolete these days, but at least they should add some removable cage/bay so people will have options to mount additional HDDs, front panel or even fan controller. It seems like a waste of space just to preserve a minimalist look.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 7, 2017
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
damn, I love it at the 1st sight o_O
But, why the HDD Tray is have to facing outward for the underside of the HDD ? It may could be more attractive with the brand logo of HDD such as WD or Seagate that facing outward..
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2010
Messages
841 (0.16/day)
Location
Edmonton, AB, Canada
System Name Project Neverending
Processor i9 9900K @ 5.0GHz
Motherboard Asus Maximus Formula XI
Cooling Corsair HX 150i Pro, Corsair ML 120/QL 120 fans
Memory 32 GB Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3200
Video Card(s) Asus RTX 2080Ti
Storage Samsung 970 Evo NVMe, 2 Samsung 860 Evo 1TB
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 (3440X1440), Samsung U28D590 (3840X2160)
Case Lian Li 011 Dynamic XL
Audio Device(s) Supreme FX X-Fi, Logitech 5.1 speaker system
Power Supply Corsair HX 1000i
Mouse Logitech G703
Keyboard Logitech G105
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores Updates coming soon ®
damn, I love it at the 1st sight o_O
But, why the HDD Tray is have to facing outward for the underside of the HDD ? It may could be more attractive with the brand logo of HDD such as WD or Seagate that facing outward..

This is a bit of a theme in recent cases. One video review of one explained it for ease of installing the SATA and power cable. With the HDD faced "correctly" it's difficult to place the cables with drive almost flush against the back wall.
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2017
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
This is a bit of a theme in recent cases. One video review of one explained it for ease of installing the SATA and power cable. With the HDD faced "correctly" it's difficult to place the cables with drive almost flush against the back wall.

Maybe they should lowering the HDD bay notch? It seems the notch is too high in this review,
but in the news before, it looks fine with the "correct" position..
 
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Messages
857 (0.18/day)
Location
Oregon
System Name Red 101
Processor 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900k
Motherboard EVGA Z370 Classified
Cooling Custom Primochill and Heatkiller water cooling loop
Memory 16GB of Gskill 3200Mhz CL14
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW2 with Heatkiller block @2114Mhz
Storage 4- Samsung Evo 250GB, 1- Pro 512GB and 1-512GB M.2
Display(s) LG 38" UW
Case In Win 101 customized a lot and painted red
Audio Device(s) Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma
Power Supply EVGA 850w G2
Mouse Razer DeathAdderv2
Keyboard Razer Ornata Chroma
Software Win10Pro and games
Benchmark Scores NA
I'm a home user and I have three 3.5" HDDs in my rig. 1TB for old games and emu, 2TB for steam games, and 4TB for others (works, movies, musics, porn).
Of course this doesn't include my boot drive (256gb SSD) and my 'frequently played' game drive (128gb SSD).
If I'm gonna buy my next case it better have plenty of mounting space for my drives.

M.2 doesn't appeal to me though. It's too hot and too close to the motherboard, hard to install/remove (especially when you already mounted the GPU), hogs the bandwidth from other SATA ports, and lastly, expensive. The increased speed over SATA SSD doesn't seem to make much different for home users like me. Moreover, you don't have much use for old M.2 when you decide to upgrade. SATA SSD, on the other hand, can be used with many devices such as PS4 and digital media player.

On a related note to this review, I really hate modern cases that remove 5.2" drive bay and replace it with... nothing. I know optical drives are obsolete these days, but at least they should add some removable cage/bay so people will have options to mount additional HDDs, front panel or even fan controller. It seems like a waste of space just to preserve a minimalist look.

Again this IS NOT the case for you... they have this made up department like every company... it is called a "marketing department" where people sit around all day and think of ways to sell products, this simply didn't think this product up for you and your 4TBs hard drives for porn.

M.2s are in most cases 4 times the speed or WAY more of the faster SSD and the cost is barely .50cents a gig now in cases cheaper than a SSD (again with 4x+ the speed), they only run hot if you use them for constant read/write, I play games all day on mine and can still put a finger on it, barely warm to the touch and no heat-sink... do a little bit of research before making such a blank nonsense comment
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
146 (0.03/day)
God this case is ugly. Reminds me of a poorly made car where the outer panels have a 1" gap between them and use big trim pieces to try to cover up the gaps.
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
10,885 (1.57/day)
Location
Manchester, NH
System Name Senile
Processor I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory 16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s) GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s) 34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (3440*1440) *FREE_SYNC*
Case Rosewill
Audio Device(s) Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply Corsair HX750
Mouse Logitech G5
Keyboard Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software Win 10
I'm a home user and I have three 3.5" HDDs in my rig. 1TB for old games and emu, 2TB for steam games, and 4TB for others (works, movies, musics, porn).
Of course this doesn't include my boot drive (256gb SSD) and my 'frequently played' game drive (128gb SSD).
If I'm gonna buy my next case it better have plenty of mounting space for my drives.

In in the same camp. Plus I have a 2-bay hotswap cage that takes 3x3.5" drives (and can take 2.5" drives with tray).... and I still need Optical occasionally. Hard to find a good case with 3 5.25" external bays these days, which is what I need based on all that. Rosewill has been my goto for cases lately, but I still can't seem to find everything I'm looking for in a case! I'd go back to a HAF, but they are just too heavy.
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
4,520 (0.90/day)
2.5" SSDs or M.2s.ONLY!..... 3.5s are for servers or NAS ;)

This isn't a server tower. think of the market they are selling this to
But having an option to add HDD trays as needed is always good. BeQuite, Cooler Master, Fractal design all offer extra HDD trays depending on individuals needs(for cases costing around $150).
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
1,188 (0.27/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 3700x
Motherboard asus ROG Strix B-350I Gaming
Cooling Deepcool LS520 SE
Memory crucial ballistix 32Gb DDR4
Video Card(s) RTX 3070 FE
Storage WD sn550 1To/WD ssd sata 1To /WD black sn750 1To/Seagate 2To/WD book 4 To back-up
Display(s) LG GL850
Case Dan A4 H2O
Audio Device(s) sennheiser HD58X
Power Supply Corsair SF600
Mouse MX master 3
Keyboard Master Key Mx
Software win 11 pro
But having an option to add HDD trays as needed is always good. BeQuite, Cooler Master, Fractal design all offer extra HDD trays depending on individuals needs(for cases costing around $150).
Because those company still care about consummers that would need to have lot of internal storage, this 500D looks more like the "show off my rig" and "watercooling FTW" kind of case. All of corsair new case are following this new direction of having only 2 3.5" bays, with ample support for 360 and 280 mn radiator. It doesn't looks like they are interested on competing with the define R6. ( I've just looked at the dimension and the 500D is quite smaller than the define R6)
 
Joined
Nov 19, 2014
Messages
113 (0.03/day)
Location
Toronto
Absolute garbage. 1st if you're not going to sli - ATX is a waste of space. All you need is ITX. Then there are Chinese brands like Jonsbo. They make cases that are way better than this (VR1/2 etc, as an example). Corsair is a rubbish brand that is no longer a sign or reliability of quality. Their ram is an abominable mix of hynix and some other trash, often masquerading as bdies, their PSUs are re-brands (just get a seasonic, really) and their ssds are outdated garbage. Their keyboards and mice are OK, but there are 1000000 models and they all look the same. Don't get me started on AIO asetek re-brands of very questionable quality and very high price.

Corsair is becoming an EVGA of everything - low to id quality rebrands at boutique prices.
 
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Messages
9,901 (1.85/day)
Location
Jakarta, Indonesia
System Name micropage7
Processor Intel Xeon X3470
Motherboard Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. P55A-UD3R (Socket 1156)
Cooling Enermax ETS-T40F
Memory Samsung 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Video Card(s) NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800
Storage V-GEN03AS18EU120GB, Seagate 2 x 1TB and Seagate 4TB
Display(s) Samsung 21 inch LCD Wide Screen
Case Icute Super 18
Audio Device(s) Auzentech X-Fi Forte
Power Supply Silverstone 600 Watt
Mouse Logitech G502
Keyboard Sades Excalibur + Taihao keycaps
Software Win 7 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Classified
just 2 x 3,5" and plastic tray
thank you
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
480 (0.13/day)
System Name Diablo | Baal | Mephisto | Andariel
Processor i5-3570K@4.4GHz | 2x Xeon X5675 | i7-4710MQ | i7-2640M
Motherboard Asus Sabertooth Z77 | HP DL380 G6 | Dell Precision M4800 | Lenovo Thinkpad X220 Tablet
Cooling Swiftech H220-X | Chassis cooled (6 fans + HS) | dual-fanned heatpipes | small-fanned heatpipe
Memory 32GiB DDR3-1600 CL9 | 96GiB DDR3-1333 ECC RDIMM | 32GiB DDR3L-1866 CL11 | 8GiB DDR3L-1600 CL11
Video Card(s) Dual GTX 670 in SLI | Embedded ATi ES1000 | Quadro K2100M | Intel HD 3000
Storage many, many SSDs and HDDs....
Display(s) 1 Dell U3011 + 2x Dell U2410 | HP iLO2 KVMoIP | 3200x1800 Sharp IGZO | 1366x768 IPS with Wacom pen
Case Corsair Obsidian 550D | HP DL380 G6 Chassis | Dell Precision M4800 | Lenovo Thinkpad X220 Tablet
Audio Device(s) Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD | None | On-board | On-board
Power Supply Corsair AX850 | Dual 750W Redundant PSU (Delta) | Dell 330W+240W (Flextronics) | Lenovo 65W (Delta)
Mouse Logitech G502, Logitech G700s, Logitech G500, Dell optical mouse (emergency backup)
Keyboard 1985 IBM Model F 122-key, Ducky YOTT MX Black, Dell AT101W, 1994 IBM Model M, various integrated
Software FAAAR too much to list
Absolute garbage. 1st if you're not going to sli - ATX is a waste of space. All you need is ITX.

mITX has a price premium for being small, while mATX and ATX trade places for being the cheapest bracket, regardless of socket and chipset.

On top of that, there are plenty of people who have uses for more than 1 PCIe: more/faster NICs and video capture devices for example. Those of us old enough to remember and own good EAX3+ games also like keeping an X-Fi around for old times' sake.

Then there are Chinese brands like Jonsbo. They make cases that are way better than this (VR1/2 etc, as an example). Corsair is a rubbish brand that is no longer a sign or reliability of quality.

That's mostly just your opinion. I personally find corsair stuff to be plenty reliable and high-quality enough. Price and performance aren't necessarily the best though, especially when you look at their SSDs.

Their ram is an abominable mix of hynix and some other trash, often masquerading as bdies,

Just like literally everyone else? There's 3 DRAM fabs (Samsung, SK hynix and Micron), and they only produce standard JEDEC-spec RAM. Anything beyond that (DDR4-4000, for example) is entirely just the vendors buying pre-binned dies in bulk, binning em some more, putting em on their custom PCB, putting said modules into a box and shipping it.

their PSUs are re-brands (just get a seasonic, really)

Like pretty much everyone not Seasonic or Superflower? I mean, none of the PSU builders besides Seasonic and Superflower have a consumer line up at all... Also, that trait does NOT apply for the HXi and AXi lineups - those are custom Corsair designs contract built by Flextronics and Channel Well Technology (CWT) respectively.

and their ssds are outdated garbage.

Just a bit slow and a bit old, making em poor value for money. Last I checked they aren't failing all over, or have extraordinarily poor performance (that crown goes to the BX300's sometimes HDD levels of slow...)

Their keyboards and mice are OK, but there are 1000000 models and they all look the same.

They have a particular style that sells well for their customer base, and a number of models based on features. Could use trimming, but it's not like Logitech is much worse

Don't get me started on AIO asetek re-brands of very questionable quality and very high price.

The majority of AIOs on the market are Asetek, and will be for at least the next 2 years (average TTM for a new product is somewhere around the 3 year mark iirc).

Corsair is becoming an EVGA of everything - low to id quality rebrands at boutique prices.

I just.. what? The only thing EVGA rebrands is their PSUs (and arguably reference cards like FE.. cause you know, it's gotta be reference), cause they don't have PSU expertise in-house. Literally everything else is their own R&D, be it simple stuff like cases, all the way to extreme overclocking bits like kingpin GPUs and FTW-K motherboards...

Back on topic: I do like this case, but like most cases, I do wish it supported a 480mm rad :/
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
4,520 (0.90/day)
Because those company still care about consummers that would need to have lot of internal storage, this 500D looks more like the "show off my rig" and "watercooling FTW" kind of case. All of corsair new case are following this new direction of having only 2 3.5" bays, with ample support for 360 and 280 mn radiator. It doesn't looks like they are interested on competing with the define R6. ( I've just looked at the dimension and the 500D is quite smaller than the define R6)
Good thing you mentioned Define R6, that along with Cooler Masters MasterCase 5 series(MC500 in nxt few months) both offer good modularity and the user can choose whether to go crazy with water cooling or have more drives in system. We can discount DB700 from BeQuite as it optimised for silenced and other than front and rear there are no good radiator mounting options. Generally Obsidian series of cases were balanced in terms of looks and compatibitly with LCS but with this case they have gone too far towards aesthetics/Water cooling ftw route turning away people who woild have been looking forward to a good Obsidian.
 
Top