Corsair CC800DW Obsidian 800D Black Aluminum Full Tower ATX Enthusiast Case

After only a few months of attempting to enjoy my laptop, I finally gave up and remembered why I fell in love with building and overclocking computers. I decided that if I was going to rebuild from scratch that I would save up and get some of the best parts that I could find so that I wouldn’t feel the upgrade bug (at least not as often/soon). I knew that I wanted to watercool the CPU and GPU but it needed to be classy and all internally mounted. The options for cases started to come into play and the idea of modding the case in order to fit the 360 rad wasn’t sounding good. I had mounted an RX360 inside of a HAF 932 in the past, but honestly I think I’ve matured a little in style. I came between a Lian Li, Corsair 800D, or a Fractal XL Design. Almost simply because of the quality of the power supplies, I choose the Corsair 800D and was excited, but not so much about its $280 price tag.

Immediately, I was excited about building in a truly professional case that was really designed to do exactly what I wanted it to: function beyond my expectations and look classy. I was bringing it up the stairs to my apartment when I noticed the sound of something rattling inside. Undettered, I opened up the packaging to find that it was well shipped and that the front bezel/side window had been covered in a sticky plastic to keep them from scratching during shipping. My first impression was simply that it was simple, sleek, sturdy, and perfect. To me, simplicity is beauty and this thing is a work by DaVinci.

Giddy with joy, I pressed the power button even with nothing in it. The button didn’t really move so I guessed that this was more of a touch sensor than anything else. I didn’t remember reading that though. I opened up the side with the awesome door button, to find that the plastic cover for the HDD hotswap sata ports was the piece that had come loose during shipping and was banging around inside. Nothing appeared to be damaged so I think we can overlook this.

I took out all of the pieces to find a rather surprisingly small set of screws, a box of goodies, an inventory, and a sheet saying not to return it to the store but to rather contact Corsair first. Maybe I have been spoiled by companies like Coolermaster and Antec, but I always have found myself with a huge excess of screws for every situation. Here, Corsair has skimped down to the bare minimum. This is fine if they give you exactly what you need, but we will see this come up again later.

One glaring omission from the contents was a user manual. I have built a vast number of computers with many different cases, but I always seem to have at least one question quickly answered in the user manual. I start off each build by mounting the dvd drive. So how do I remove the front panel piece and put it in? The inventory sheet told me that a user manual was online so I went there and found out that all I had to do was simply pull from the bottom of the front panel. Quick and easy, it was off. Just to mention, Corsair sells this as “Tool-free optical drive installation makes building a system faster than ever,” but I noticed that if I pushed on the optical drive with even a slight bit of force that it would give way. You really must secure the drive on the backside with a screw or two in order to stabilize it. This is really a failure to make this work right, and I was very disappointed in it. In fact when I later pushed on it with a little force trying to secure the drive, the plastic cover completely fell off. I managed to get it back on, but it really is a piece of junk. With how poorly they executed this, they should have just allowed the user to screw mount them.

The power supply installation (Corsair TX750 V2) was uneventful as would be expected as was the motherboard installation. It was nice however to see that the ATX motherboard standoffs were already in place saving me just a few minutes. The cpu backplate door was exceptionally handy, and I’m really glad to see that they’ve included this feature as it really needs to be standard on all cases. I routed the case fan wires the best that I could to hide them, which was fairly easy. Like most cases, the exhaust fan at the rear of the case gives the most trouble to hide, but a little bit of tape helped it stay along the wall. The black plastic over the fan wires is nice, but I would have expected to see the wires sleeved in black much like their PSU. It’s a little thing, but in the highest end cases the little things matter.
The PCI slots are done with thumbscrews, which is fine as most attempts at toolless PCI slots fail miserably. Maybe in a new revision of the case they will update this, but it’s not a big deal. The grommets for cable management are everywhere and work wonderfully. Unlike other cases I’ve owned, the grommets are actually secured nicely and don’t tend to push out of place when shoving wires through them.

I was really excited for the hot swap bays, as this is just a neat feature not seen on many cases and not one I’ve ever had before. I quickly mounted a 500gb Western Digital Caviar Blue with no issues and it slide in fine. It just seemed to work and was exactly as expected. I went to mount my Crucial 128gb M4 and immediately ran into a problem: How the heck do I mount this? With no manual in hand to turn to, I found a solution online here (http://www.corsair.com/media/cms/manual/800D_Hot_Swap_Drive.pdf). It almost looks like they are telling you to take the screws out of the SSD and use those to screw it in, but thankfully I reread it before making that mistake. One thing to note is that the case comes with 36x screws for the motherboard and harddrives, 16x motherboard standoffs, 14x case fan screws, and 6x long screws for the lower harddrive bay. I would naturally think that the 36x motherboard/harddrive screws could be used to secure the SSD. No. In fact, the screws needed to mount the ssd are smaller and aren’t included. Looking at the picture linked above (Page 3), you’ll see that they used flat-headed (recessed) screws that aren’t included at all. In order to make the guide they’ve put online, they would have had to acknowledge internally that they aren’t including them whether on purpose or on accident. Why wouldn’t they include them? Almost anyone who is choosing to buy a $280 case would also spend the money for a SSD virtually guaranteeing the need; this isn’t something that only a select few will need. Baffled, I found screws leftover from a HAF 932 build and mounted it.

The plastic piece covering the hot swap sata ports serves the function of only be aesthetically more pleasing than seeing the cables. It however doesn’t secure very easily and still tends to be loose even when “locked in.” The Corsair branded plastic piece covering the fan for the hotswap bays is the same situation: doesn’t feel secure and falls out of place easily. This is a major issue as it ruins the illusion that this is a sturdy case. It feels flimsy, plastic, and cheap. Extremely disappointing.

I test mounted a drive in the lower hdd cages, and found it be obviously more difficult than the hotswap bays, but still not very difficult. A plastic cover hides the harddrive cables very effectively which is a nice touch. This one however is secured by two rails and feels incredibly secure; a welcome change.

With everything essentially in the case, I began to connect the front panel/usb/1394/etc, which was neatly organized. The front panel connectors were, like the case fans, covered in a black plastic rather than being sleeved. Again, this would just be a feature I’d like to see on a case like this. What was incredibly odd was the method of connecting the usb 3.0 ports. The front panel has two normal usb cables that you connect with a provided cable that gives you the header for the motherboard. It just seems odd to me to go about it in that way. I would think that the only way those ports would be connected would be to directly hook them into a header, but this seems to be more of secondary option. How else would you connect them? The cable management options are phenomenal and thus almost make up for this oddity as I simply strapped them in place and forgot about them. As a note though, while first building I closed the back case door without some of the wires being tied down. The back case door buldged out as it is thin and there is nothing in the middle section (only secured at top and bottom) to hold it closed. It was just disconcerning.

I will fully admit that currently I’m not taking full advantage of the watercooling capabilities that the 800D has to offer, but I successfully mounted my RX360 into the top of the case with ease. The holes for watercooling tube grommets going out of the case leave me a little baffled though. Everyone that I know of internally mounts the radiators. It would seem that externally mounting them would be the exception to the rule. Maybe this is just too nitpicky, but I found it odd.

With everyone ready to go in the case, I pressed the power button…kind of. The button was stuck in place and didn’t really move. The fans started to spinup but quickly turned off. I figured I had somehow misaligned the front of the case so I took it off. The button pressed in fine so I put it back on and the same thing happened; the front panel is misaligned with the button. I took it off again to find that not only is it misaligned but the black plastic “spring” that you press for a power button was broken. A quick google search informed me that I wasn’t the only one with this issue. The solution: open an RMA ticket and Corsair would send me a new front panel free of charge. I opened the ticket at around noon and hope to hear back soon. This just seems to be a really terrible job of quality assurance checks with a known issue. The test: press the power button once. Apparently it just wasn’t done, because mine never once worked. I had thought it was a touch button feature that I hadn’t read about yet, but I was wrong. It’s a manual button that just doesn’t work. We will see how Corsair responds, but I’m not very happy with the obvious lack of quality control. Corsair's website says that they guarantee a response within 24hrs. Let's see if they actually do.

Update: After 36 hours without a response from Corsair's RMA/support, I messaged CorsairGeorge (aka Redbeard) for help. He responded within two hours saying to email him directly at his corsair address. I did this and didn't receive a response for several days. In the meantime, Corsair responded after two days with a few questions. Corsair very boldly claims that they will respond in less than 24 hours, but the failed to do this. The solution given by tech support was a coupon code for me to essentially purchase the replacement part from their website and get it for free. It's a little bit different than most RMAs but that's fine. I'll update further when it shows up.

Update 2: I received the new front panel today (9 days after the original RMA request), and guess what? The door covering the usb ports and mic/speaker ports doesn't close properly. Are you kidding me? The reason that it won't close properly is that Corsair used a flimsy plastic grabbing mechanism that simply pushes out of the way without grabbing onto the latch. At least the power button now works, but this is simply unacceptable for a $280 case with an RMA already. I'll be sending in yet another RMA request and waiting another 9 days for a new front panel.

Conclusions:
The case is for the most part of mediocre build quality. You can tell that someone spent a long time trying to find ways to implement features but not enough time to really make them work. They failed miserably on the toolless optical drives, front panel, and plastic covers around the hotswap bays. I would have expected to see things like a manual, screws for a SSD, and sleeved fan cables/front panel connectors. The 360 radiator mounting was easy, most of the parts installed easily, the motherboard standoffs were already in place, and cable management was superb. The hotswap harddrive bays are a nice feature, but I can't use it due to windows crashing everytime I try it making it an absolutely useless feature.
What is interesting is how well loved this case is by many people in the watercooling and case modding communities. Some of the most common mods are actually for watercooling including cutting the top to allow for a 480 rad and removing the lower HDD trays to allow for a 240 rad in the bottom. I honestly think that if Corsair had created an 800D-EW (Extreme Watercooling), with these changes that they would sell well and be more respected as a company.

The obvious and serious failings of this case have made it impossible to recommend.

Build Quality 3
There were major issues that seem to be known. I wasn’t impressed by receiving a faulty front panels. Toolless optical drive just didn’t work and this is either a design problem or a build quality problem.
Functionality 7
The case supports internal watercooling, hotswap hdds, E-ATX motherboards, and mounts them easily. Very little more could have been asked for. However, the lack of build quality in things like toolless optical bays makes them unusable and an annoyance.
Aesthetics 10
If you like hot this case looks, then you love its look. It’s a beautiful and classy thing to look at.

Subjective Score 3

For the steep $280 pricetag, I expected a lot out of this case and it failed to deliver. What was implemented correctly was done superbly, but several things seem to be half-assed and didn’t work. I was pretty disappointed in it because of the continuous letdowns. I want to love this case because of its beauty, but there needs to be a new revision to address all of these things and more.

44%

This chassis is almost perfect. Many people say this chassis is too expensive, the sheer size and build quality justify this cost in my opinion. The cable management capabilities are absolutely fantastic, the inside layout of the chassis is simply superb, with the hotswap bays and mounted fans, 360mm support for a radiator on top, the construction is incredibly sturdy, and the finish on the front bezel just has a feeling of quality. This review is going to sound like I despise this case, which is absolutely not true. I have owned many cases in my computer building days, ranging from Lian Li, to Coolermaster and Thermaltake, and this, bar none, has been the best one to work with.

My criticisms lie in the ability to water cool mainly. The front bays dont have support for a 2 bay 5.25" Reservoir without hacking off the inside bay supports, considering this case is marketed towards Water Cooling enthusiasts, I feel this as a bit of a dissapointment.

I also feel that the bottom should have been more adaptable to a 240mm radiator, with the lower drive cage being held in place by easily accessible screws rather than several hard-to-get-to rivets. They obviously intended this not to be modded in such a way, but since not many people would want to house more than 4 hard drives in their system, the accessible hot-swap bay at the front should have been sufficient in this respect.

The plastic shrouds covering the rear of the hotswap bays, albeit being incredibly effective at hiding cables and clutter, could have been better executed. The sata bay cover should lock in place, and the fan shroud is very awkward to get on, and the plastic they're made from also feels cheap, but fortunately doesn't look it.

This cage really is bigger than you imagine if you're used to mid towers like I was. The first thing you have to do is make sure there is room under your desk for this monster.

The overall quality of this build is good, but not amazing. It is lacking in some of the small areas such as the cheaply made power button. Also the design on the hinges when taking off the panel gives some small inconveniences. I wish there was less plastic in the build for the price paid but overall it is a nice unit.

The cable management is out of this world, they have it setup very nice it looks great and doesn't stick out. If you're into water cooling then this case will work good for you also. A lot of people do mod these to put the radiators at the bottom but the top can also be used for the radiator if you're not much of a modder.

The cooling in this case is also good, the only downside I see is at stock the only air getting into the case is from the bottom of the case. If you aren't using a radiator at the top then you could have fans blowing out the top of the case and flip the fan on the backside of the case for the best airflow. Also some people suggest if you don't use all the 5" bays to put fans in them blowing into the case.

Overall if you have the money to spend on a nice case that will last you for quite a while I would defiantly go with this. Granted its not the flashiest case, but it is a very functional machine and is great at what it does.