A Closer Look - Outside

The chassis itself is made of steel with an aluminum front, but is still quite light considering the large dimensions. Corsair further protects the front and window of the enclosure with plastic foil. The surface of the case feels much like fine sandpaper, which is excellent as it is very resilient, but actually acts like a fine sand paper and will rub off the dead skin cells off your hand. This does not harm your hand, nor is it bad for you, but it will leave that "skin dust" on the surface of the chassis.


Looking straight at the front of the chassis, the first thing that becomes obvious are the clean and straight lines. Corsair has refrained from using any additional design elements in this area. The edges of the front panel are quite sharp, so you want to avoid bumping into these as they will hurt (but not further harm you). In addition, any foreign object may damage that sharp corner as aluminum is a fairly soft material. so a bump with something edgy leaving a mark is more likely with the Obsidian 800D in comparison to those cases with rounded corners. The rear hints at the huge amount of space you will have within the case. Look at the PSU bay on the bottom with all that space around it! If you look closely, you can see the row of holes running along the left side of the rear. This gives a hint to the area between the side panel and mainboard tray. A fan pushes air across the four hot-swappable bays and under the tray out the back. Sure, this won't make much of a difference in real world scenarios, but is a nice layout for air flow.


Both sides of the chassis are also made of steel as well, but Corsair has chosen to place a window on the main panel. While this is a nice feature, those wanting to use the 800D as a workstation case may want to shell out another 20 US Dollars and buy themselves the solid panel instead.


Let us take a close look at the front of the chassis. On the bottom you will find the three sails of the company logo and the brand name. We will skip the middle area for a second and move right up to the top. The five 5.25 inch drive bays should be more than most of you will need. Especially as you already get four externally accessible hard drive bays. Corsair has not added a 3.5 to 5.25 inch frame to the Obsidian 800D, so we were forced to use the Lian Li one for this review. I do believe that there is still plenty of use for such a bay and that one should have been included with the 800D.

All covers are made of plastic with a thin aluminum plate glued to them. So Corsair is cheating slightly here to achieve the all aluminum look. These covers are extremely loose and are very easy to push them into the case about 2 mm. They still stay in place, since the internal case frame won't allow them to move any further. This is frustrating to say the least. Corsair should either use stronger plastic clips on them or allow you to screw them down. The very top holds the four USB 2.0 connectors, one Firewire plug and the usual pair of audio connectivity. A reset button is present as well, under the panel cover. The diamond cut power button and power LED have been placed to the left of this panel.


So, let's get back to that mysterious door in the middle of the front panel. It covers the four hot-swappable hard drive trays. It opens from right to left by default, but you may place the hinge on the other side if you wish. The trays are made of plastic, while the locks are constructed of aluminum as well. The locking mechanism works extremely well and the silver metal springs make sure that the tray does not have any play.


Turning the case around, starting at the bottom, we have the afore mentioned PSU bay. You may place a single unit here with the fan facing downward. Above that are seven mainboard expansion slots, with some additional space below the last one. Corsair advertises it as "7+1", but I would have liked to see an actual 8th slot instead, as the space is available. On top you will find a vent and two holes for water cooling tubes to be routed outside. There are two buttons which release the side panels. These take the same idea Lian Li has implemented with a locking bar, but take it a step further, not requiring any screws - well done!


The ceiling of the Obsidian is covered with three slots for fans to be installed. You may also place a triple radiator here, which is an excellent feature. However, if you do not use such a device, the opening allows for every bit of noise from the interior of the chassis to escape to the outside, let alone allowing objects to fall into the running PC. It would have been great to see some sort of silcone cover for this area if it remains unused. Let's be honest, many of us will want this case because of the cable management and space, while only a few will install a water cooling loop.