A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior of the chassis, simply push the buttons in the back to make them pop off. Both sides of the chassis are lined with fairly thick sound dampening materials, which is quite soft and odorless.


Those with a trained eye, will notice that Corsair has utilized the same internal body as the Carbide 500R for the Obsidian 550D. This is by no means a bad thing, as we have reviewed the 500R in the past and think it is a great chassis as well. An adequate number of openings in the mainboard tray, along with a little L-shaped trench should make cable routing and hiding a breeze, while the large opening in the tray itself will give you access to the underside of the motherboard for easy CPU cooler exchange. Unlike the 500R, you will only get around 25 mm worth of routing space within that trench - which should still be enough to allow for clean cable management.


Taking a quick look at the hard drive bays, there are two cages which may each hold three drives. You may either just remove the top one by taking off a few thumb screws or go all out and clean the entire front out. To do so there are the four afore mentioned thumb screws in the underside which hold the bottom cage in place. Two black 120 mm fans are part of this area, to cool any hard drives you may install within the system. On top of that are the four external drive bays with the same screws-less system we have seen in other Corsair cases, too. It consists of solid plastic clips which work rather well.


Turning our focus to the rear of the chassis, on the bottom you have the PSU bay with a large opening in the floor to allow fresh air to enter the unit. Above that are the eight mainboard expansion slots, each held in place with a single thumb screw and then there is the afore mentioned 120 mm exhaust fan with a 3 pin mainboard header and all black cable. In total the Carbide 500R ships with four fans right out of the box.


Unlike the 500R, Corsair has redesigned the top, allowing you to install a 240 or 280 mm radiator in the ceiling of the chassis. As it is extruded a bit you should even be able to place 55 mm thick rads in here without issue and may certainly go for one of Corsair's own cooling solutions as well if you like.


Before we dive into the assembly part of this review, let us take a quick look at the internal cables. Corsair has kept them all in black to go with the overall look of the chassis. Even the actual connector of the USB 3.0 header is black, unlike many other offerings, which still utilize at a blue lead or plug - even if the cable itself is black.