Very quiet, plenty of room inside and it looks amazing, too
Written By
Published on 9 March 2013
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best buy
1 / 4
Our rating
Reviewed price £108 inc VAT
The Corsair Obsidian 550D is an imposing and gorgeous looking case. Its entire front is covered by a brushed-metal door, hiding all of the unsightly drive bays out of sight. All that’s visible is the front panel with two USB3 ports, and headphone and microphone jacks.
While the door is certainly attractive, it’s not just about looking good, but a practical way of keeping noise to a minimum thanks to its inner soundproof layer. This is joined by soundproof foam covering the sides, top and bottom of the case. It certainly helps – once we’d built our test PC inside and powered it on, we could barely hear the case.
Cooling out-of-the box is pretty good, with two 120mm fans at the front and one 120mm fan at the rear. If that’s not enough then there’s room for four more 120mm fans, six 140mm and a 200mm fan on the side; using the 200mm fan mount replaces two 140mm fans.
The fan mounts all have mesh dust covers, which are very easy to get to. It’s useful having these, as they prevent dust getting into your computer and are easy to clean off, so they don’t prevent air getting into your PC.
Pre-cut holes in the motherboard tray let you easily run cables out of site and keep your PC’s innards clutter-free. All of the holes have rubber grommets, so there’s no danger of catching your cables on sharp metal and wearing them through.
The drive bays (six 3.5in and four 5.25in) are perpendicular to the motherboard, so the cables won’t get in the way even if you fit a long graphics card. Each 3.5in bay can also take a 2.5in SSD. We found the tool-free bays really easy to use and they held our test drives firmly in place.
We certainly couldn’t accuse the Obsidian 550D of being cheap, but your money does get you an attractive, well-built and very quiet computer. It wins a Best Buy. IF you’re looking for something more reasonably priced, try the Corsair Carbide 200R.
Written by
Katharine Byrne
When Katharine's not glued to her Wii U and 3DS, she's usually found darting between tiny smartphones and huge pieces of home cinema equipment.She’s tested everything from laptops and monitors to motherboards and projectors, but she currently specialises in smartphones, games and AV.
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