Corsair 400C Compact ATX Case Review

tinytomlogan

The Guvnor
Staff member
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Let's have a look at Corsair's new 400C Compact ATX Chassis. Wait.... no drive bays?


Corsair 400C Compact ATX Case Review
 
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So Corsair has finally made a case without ODD driver bays but on the Carbide first i thought they would have done it on the Obsidian first, TBH only has taken them two years to catch up to the likes of NZXT & Fractal.

Yes i'm not that much of a Corsair fan boy anymore.
 
Just finished watching the review and to me this case just seems to say lets send out a case because we need something new and gives the impression of Corsair going backwards, really got me scratching my head on this one
 
Wonder if they'll release a version of this in the 780T style considering this is really just the 760T shrunk down, Style wise anyway :)
 
Reminds me of my NZXT S340, However having room for a 360 rad in the front is a great bonus. Could prove to be an interesting case to play with.
 
That power supply cover though....
"Oooohh we want to be corsairy and innovative so let's make it a sliding one... Of course a bad implementation.
 
Some people don't need 5.25" bays and I get that. But I hate cases without 5.25" bays. I still use DVD's from time to time and I like having a sleek looking 5.25" fan controller.
 
Would you put a £500 graphics card in an £80 case though? my smaller 960 would line up much better with those power cover holes but your point is correct.
 
Just finished watching the review and to me this case just seems to say lets send out a case because we need something new and gives the impression of Corsair going backwards, really got me scratching my head on this one

You are putting it nicely. This is not exactly a budget case, like a Haf 922 or something. Those clips on the front are God awful. You have a removable dust filter behind it, and designed to have a rad placed on the front. You have to open both sides of the case just to get the cover off to clean the dust filter. This makes no sense to me what ever. They could have just used a peg system or magnets and it would have worked heaps better than this. In my eyes, Fractal walks all over this at a lower price point. Don't get me wrong, I love my 900D, but this is monstrosity compared to past cases. Someone just phoned in the design when they thought this one up.

Corsair cases have a history of innovation. The window is pretty, and I like the door. anything else good stops there. This just seams like a quick cash grab to try and compete with the Fractal Define S in a slightly smaller footprint.
 
You are putting it nicely. This is not exactly a budget case, like a Haf 922 or something. Those clips on the front are God awful. You have a removable dust filter behind it, and designed to have a rad placed on the front. You have to open both sides of the case just to get the cover off to clean the dust filter. This makes no sense to me what ever. They could have just used a peg system or magnets and it would have worked heaps better than this. In my eyes, Fractal walks all over this at a lower price point. Don't get me wrong, I love my 900D, but this is monstrosity compared to past cases. Someone just phoned in the design when they thought this one up.

Corsair cases have a history of innovation. The window is pretty, and I like the door. anything else good stops there. This just seams like a quick cash grab to try and compete with the Fractal Define S in a slightly smaller footprint.

PSU cover could have been better looking. That would be my only gripe really. I have a 500R that uses pegs on the front and I find that when I move it occasionally I'm detaching the front as I pick it up from the bottom. Typically as I'm getting it out of the car so not ideal.

and yes
Just finished watching the review and to me this case just seems to say lets send out a case because we need something new and gives the impression of Corsair going backwards, really got me scratching my head on this one
I think there was probably some of that 'need to release something' pressure.
 
Too much of the case is half baked and one thing I'm surprised Tom didn't pick up on or forgot to mention is the fact that the PSU cover is different sizes the left piece has a approx 25mm bezel yet the right hand piece has double the size just does my head in
 
The comparisons with this and the S340 are going to happen.

There are things I like more and things I like less. At the end of the day, I would personally take this over an S340 simply because there are more cooling options, the PSU filter is just that, an actual filter not the whatever that is they put on the bottom of the S340. The cover is removable, it isn't a hard mount for the 3.5" drives and they are removable without a dremel. Truth be told, I think I would personally just yank out the cover all together and call it a day as Tom eluded too in the video.
 
This is alot better than their other new case but I think that there are better cases at that price level than this.

The interior is very well designed (in an s340 kind of way) but I think the exterior could have been done much better. Still, I like that Corsair have tried to make it stand out from the other super clean cases at this price.
 
This is alot better than their other new case but I think that there are better cases at that price level than this.

The interior is very well designed (in an s340 kind of way) but I think the exterior could have been done much better. Still, I like that Corsair have tried to make it stand out from the other super clean cases at this price.

Indeed, I wouldn't mind a case like this for my home server build so it could look nice and pretty while being low powered and silent but I just wish there was the option of adding a HDD cage.
 
;887808 said:
Indeed, I wouldn't mind a case like this for my home server build so it could look nice and pretty while being low powered and silent but I just wish there was the option of adding a HDD cage.

remove the right half of the PSU cover and you can add as many HDD's as you like (depending on your cooling options) I think there would be better options tho. I know a lot of the corsair HDD cages are stackable but not sure about this one it has different mounts.
 
this totally did not deserve a gold, There is far to much wrong with it.
giving away golds like they come in a box of frosties.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0Ka58nwECs

After watching this video I am going to have to say thinking about this review I am going to have to change my mind on a few things.

First, I still don't like the front panel. But, after seeing a lot of CES coverage and seeing this case besides others, I understand what they have created. There are some people such as myself that build these giant monstrosities such as the 900D. Later we see all these sweet small form factor PC's and wish we had built something like that. Now a few years later, hardware has not progressed enough to warrant an upgrade. Another downside is a new smaller mobo is no longer being built. We are forced to pay 4 to 5 times the price of what they cost when they were in production, or source unknown used elements on E-Bay. So, we are still stuck with my ATX mobo that requires at minimum decent size mid-tower to operate. It's not as small as what I want, so again there is no reason to upgrade and I am still using my super tower.

Now George comes along with few tweaks, and is able to really shrink down a case to a fairly small form factor that will fit my needs. I just need not be so blind that I can't see the forest for the trees. This case can not be truly appreciated until you see it next to other cases when looking for something with a smaller footprint. This is what this case was designed for. I could make this case work, and it would look great on my desk doing it. Again, don't care for the front panel, but after watching this video, I better understand why it was done.

TTL, I have to change my mind, and say good call on the case review.
 
I think every one needs to build a monstrous PC at least once, just to get it out of their system. When I build my Cosmos 2 system I thought I was building my dream PC. Turns out that all I was doing was wasting a whole load of money on something that was completely impractical.

It's gone now and I will never make the same mistake again. Whilst my Alienware isn't exactly small it is tiny compared to that old Cosmos 2 sitting on my desk.
 
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