Corsair 650D. My "review"

HungryHippos

HungryHippos

HungryHippos

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Note I put "review" into quotes, this is not an official review :P

So I recently went from an old style Cosmos case to the Corsair 650D. I wanted something that did not have handles (I don't need to move it much) and also I wanted to finally put the sides back on the case without my PC overheating.

Corsair 650D seemed to fit the bill quite well. Big old 200mm fans for more airflow/less noise.

Good Points:

  • Solidly built, case seems to be using good quality materials. No dodgy sharp edges to be found.
  • The Built-in hot-swap bay is a really useful feature. Let me plug in hard drives without needing to get a separate drive bay? yes please!
  • Comes in black. everyone likes black. Goes with anything.
  • Built in fan controller. Easily accessible (it's in the same section as the hot-swap bay).
  • Sides come off nice and easy.
  • The front fan grill clips into place and can be easily removed for cleaning.
  • Case is generally not too large, a good size. Probably not good for water cooling though.
  • You can get at the back of the CPU to allow easier installation of a new CPU cooler without removing the entire motherboard.
  • Cable Management is easy with lots of holes to put cables through etc.

Bad Points:

  • The front 200mm fan seems exceptionally noisy, even on the lowest setting on the fan controller.
  • To replace the front fan with something else, it either needs to be 20mm thick, or you need to "mod" the case and remove the front fan grill. Picture to demonstrate taken by Robbie Khan (mrk on these forums) http://i.imgur.com/Mb329.jpg
  • If you decide to replace the front fan with one which is >20mm thick, you also need to move the drive cages to the left.
  • If you move the drive cages to the left, you can generally only fit one in. The second one will be blocked if you have a large GPU. This is a problem for me because I have 3 3.5" drives and 2 2.5" drives, and you can only fit 3 drives into one cage.
  • If you have moved the drive cage to the left, you can't remove the lowest hard drive from the bottom cage without removing the entire cage.
  • The drive cage is screwed in with two screws to the left at the front and back, next to the power supply. If you have a large PSU, you will need to remove that before you can take out the drive cage.
  • It's very hard to put the power cables in to the drives without them putting pressure on the side of the case, meaning you can't close the case properly. Even now mine is not exactly plush.

These might be unique to me, I've raised them to Corsair:

If I plug a drive into the hot-swap bay, it crashes Windows without fail. If a drive is plugged in before I power on the machine it does work.
My Kindle won't work properly on the front panel USB 2.0 port. It works fine when plugged into the back of the computer though.

Summary

A good case if you don't need to replace the front fan or move the hard drive cages. If you do I would not recommend this case without serious looking at alternatives.

Corsair could fix these problems pretty easily by putting in a 200mm fan that was actually silent. They could also let you screw the cage into the left slot using holes on the bottom instead of screws on the left side.

Let down by some design flaws that even I could see needed resolving. 6/10.
 
bit strange that 200mm fan is noisy its quite large should be able to rotate slower and make very little noise !

perhaps check on corsair forums see if its not a faulty fan ?

thx for review
 
Eulogy said:
Bad Points:

To replace the front fan with something else, it either needs to be 20mm thick, or you need to "mod" the case and remove the front fan grill. Picture to demonstrate taken by Robbie Khan (mrk on these forums) http://i.imgur.com/Mb329.jpg
Click to expand...

I thought that internally the 650D and 600T were identical? If that's correct then your point above is wrong as I've replaced the front 200mm fan with a Bitfenix Spectre Pro which required no modification to the case at all.
 
Eulogy said:
Bad Points:
To replace the front fan with something else, it either needs to be 20mm thick, or you need to "mod" the case and remove the front fan grill.
Click to expand...

You dont need to mod it, I didn't mod mine in the end, but I thought I would need to originally.


Eulogy said:
Bad Points:
It's very hard to put the power cables in to the drives without them putting pressure on the side of the case, meaning you can't close the case properly. Even now mine is not exactly plush.
Click to expand...

Practice makes perfect, just learn to do better cable management. Mine is flush.


Also this case is getting on a bit, everything that anyone needs to know is already out there
 
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I never had any problems with the front fan on mine, was super quiet.

My cable management also fitted perfectly in the back even with extensions.
 
xbournex said:
Clicky!
Click to expand...

The BitFenix Spectre PRO fan is 25mm deep. The Coolermaster Mega-Flow is 30mm deep. The BitFenix one looks like it would fit but barely, I doubt the Coolermaster one will fit though without moving the cage.

Looking for something that gives around 20 Dba though, I like my computer to be as quiet as possible.

Evoss said:
You dont need to mod it, I didn't mod mine in the end, but I thought I would need to originally.

Practice makes perfect, just learn to do better cable management. Mine is flush.
Click to expand...

I was a little mislead on that one, so i'm gonna blame Mrk. I was under the impression you did need to, but yes you're correct you don't need to cut the front out. Mrk did it to reduce noise.

The cables are fine really, it's just a little tight no matter how you spin it, especially with the Corsair PSU power cables and the inability to bend them too much!

What fan did you replace the front one with?

almostgfx said:
I never had any problems with the front fan on mine, was super quiet.
Click to expand...

Mine is definitely not super quiet unfortunately, it's not awfully noisy either, but if I unplug the front fan the whole thing gets a whole lot quieter.

Looking at replacements, just on Ocuk, my only real option to replace the 200mm fans is the BitFenix Spectre or SpectePro fans, unless someone can recommend something else?
 
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Eulogy said:
What fan did you replace the front one with?
Click to expand...

CM Mega Flow

My case however is far from stock, so much has been cut out and riveted together to improve airflow and reduce noise.

For most people its fine, but when you spend so much on components, you want the case to suit your specific need, and mine was silent with great cooling, hard to do with the stock case unless you go for 100% water cooling
 
Last edited:
Ah right, well if the BitFenix Spectre PRO will fit, it looks like that will be the best bet to replace the front fan. The CM Mega-Flow is 5mm thicker and I don't think it would fit properly without some modding which I'd rather avoid!

I'll pick one up and then see about the top one after. Although the top one seems pretty quiet to be honest by comparison.
 
Eulogy said:
Ah right, well if the BitFenix Spectre PRO will fit, it looks like that will be the best bet to replace the front fan. The CM Mega-Flow is 5mm thicker and I don't think it would fit properly without some modding which I'd rather avoid!

I'll pick one up and then see about the top one after. Although the top one seems pretty quiet to be honest by comparison.
Click to expand...

MADMAN said:
see if corsair can replace the front fan alone.... there customer service is quite good
Click to expand...

Its not the fan that makes the noise, it is the mesh grill in front of the fan that creates the noise, thats why I too cut my mesh out to eliminate noise.
 
A nice example would be swinging a badminton racket. The noise you hear is the air going through the strings. Remove all the strings, almost all the noise will be gone.
 
MADMAN said:
bit strange that 200mm fan is noisy its quite large should be able to rotate slower and make very little noise !

perhaps check on corsair forums see if its not a faulty fan ?

thx for review
Click to expand...

Ive just done a build using a 650D, ive posted elsewhere on the forum about the excessive noise from the front fan, it really is noisy. Ive ordered a coolermaster megaflow 200mm fan to replace it, i'll see how that goes.

As for the case itself, its a fantastic case and the inside is superb to build with, i like the understated, classy look of the case.

The cable management is great with plenty of rubber grommet holes, the one thing i'd slightly criticise is thee amount of space between the door and the inside of the case to hide the cables, with the big thick power cable along with all the other cables the cables will still be pressing against the door to press out very slightly.For a case this size that suprised me.

The build quality is top drawer.
 
The Matrix said:
Ive just done a build using a 650D, ive posted elsewhere on the forum about the excessive noise from the front fan, it really is noisy. Ive ordered a coolermaster megaflow 200mm fan to replace it, i'll see how that goes.
Click to expand...


Sorry to disappoint you, but that noise wont change, as we have said countless times over the past months, it is the mesh in front of the fan that creates the noise, some people just don't bother reading then create posts about it. Cant help some people.
 
Evoss said:
Sorry to disappoint you, but that noise wont change, as we have said countless times over the past months, it is the mesh in front of the fan that creates the noise, some people just don't bother reading then create posts about it. Cant help some people.
Click to expand...

Some of us arn't on here every day to read all the threads that get posted, the confusing bit is that i read that some people on the forum with the 650D have changed to the cooler master megaflow 200mm front fan and they then said that it has made there 650D silent ?
 
The Matrix said:
Some of us arn't on here every day to read all the threads that get posted, the confusing bit is that i read that some people on the forum with the 650D have changed to the cooler master megaflow 200mm front fan and they then said that it has made there 650D silent ?
Click to expand...

Yeah that would be me, but I have also cut out the mesh.

You may not be on here everyday, all you need is a little common sense to read previous posts and use the search function.
 
MADMAN said:
does the mesh really restrict the air flow that much for it to be cut out ?
Click to expand...

It doesn't restrict the airflow as such, it just makes a horrible whine type noise thing. I have cut mine out and stuck in a spectre pro white l.e.d in there and it looks stunning. Will post a pic soon if I have time.
 
I will be cutting it out soon for my WC mods. Phobya 200mm also going in there :)

If I don't forget I'll take a simple flow meter to check how much better it is.
 
If the cooler master megaflow doesn't quieten this down then i'll have no choice but to the mesh out as well, ive never heard a pc so loud.

It sounds like an air conditioning unit, i had the headphones on earlier listening to some music and could still hear it, i went to make a coffee and could hear it in the kitchen lol
 
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