Price: $349.99 | Website: www.corsair.com
If you presently believe you have a big computer case, you’d best think again. At CES earlier this year CORSAIR released the 800D’s successor, aptly named the 900D or Godzilla if you will. If anything warrants the “bigger” number it would have to be the size of the case. It’s massive, certainly the biggest case I have ever seen to date. The proportions almost look ridiculous, but then again – this is a $350 case so tiny isn’t what I was expecting.
My current favorite right now is the COOLER MASTER COSMOS 2. Does the 900D look anywhere near as cool? No, Most certainly not. Don’t’ get me wrong, the 900D isn’t an ugly case, it’s just that it’s not designed in the same way that the COSMOS 2 is. There are no curves, no lines, essentially it’s just a box. That however does not mean it isn’t an exquisite chassis . Think of it in the same way you would a Rolls Royce Ghost. (At $350 USD yes it’s the Rolls-Royce of the PC DIY Market).
That will better help you understand what the 900D is. The finish is impressive, there are no edges to cut yourself on, all the buttons feel solid and the aluminum front makes for one of the best front panels I’ve ever seen. This case grows on you despite its somewhat mundane aesthetics the first time you see it.
There are a ton of features I could mention here but that’s in the features break down and besides, you could easily read that on the website. What I’d rather tell you is that if you’re planning on building the ultimate gaming or power machine. You’ve little choice but to consider at the 900D. Just in real-estate it trumps everything else there is, while housing most of the features that are present in all other CORSAIR cases. It’s the culmination of size and features presented to you, you’re in some ways forced to like it.
I didn’t have any XL-ATX boards to install into this case, but suffice to say the standard ATX board I did install looked ridiculously small inside. Much like how a micro-ATX case would look inside the 800D. So reserve this case for those new generation X79 boards from the tier one vendors. Throw a couple or more GeForce Titans in there and you’ll still have more than enough space, to deck out the case with several radiators and fans. When you’re done it’ll weigh a ton but then again this isn’t a LAN box, this is for the Man pad.
The only thing I would suggest
for the 900D is four USB 3.0 ports and not just two because all the high end motherboards will have at least two headers for USB3.0. Other than that, I’ve no complaints and in fact, as I was writing this I realized just how much this case impressed me. The looks could have been better, but hey with a case of this quality and price I can forgive the absence of aesthetic
inspiration as it’s in near perfect in every other way.
1. Push a button at the top and the side panel comes of easily.
2. This panel comes off to reveal a dust filter and another place where you can install a triple radiator should you so wish.
3. Push this button above and you can get to your PSU or two, radiator and such without having to open up the entire case. Pretty useful actually.
4. Front panel with a total of six USB ports. As I said before, I wish four of these were USB3.0 and only two were traditional USB2.0 alas six is still better than four in total on most cases.
5. Most vendors claim a tool and screw less drive mechanism, then go on to have you mounting your drives on trays using screws. There’s none of that nonsense here. These are the real deal.
6. It may not look like it, but there is plenty of space here, as this case fits every single enthusiast motherboard on the market today regardless of size. The old GIGABYTE X58A-UD9 would feel right at home here – or the more recent EVGA dual socket boards.
7. Amongst the many places where you can install fans or radiator(s). As stated above, if you deck this case out with the maximum number of radiators and PSUs you’ll likely not be able to carry it anywhere.