Introduction

Corsair now brings forth the latest series of cases with the newly released Carbide Series to follow the Graphite and Obsidian series cases before this. Looking to Corsair to get a little background information on this new series, I gathered a couple of things that stood out to me. In their videos of the new Carbide cases from Computex 2011, George made two points very clear.

First of course are the looks, aesthetic appeal both inside and out and functionality, but then he goes on to discuss how wallet friendly cases these are to obtain. The lesser of the two chassis' in this series are intended to sell for $100 or less with the more equipped version of the chassis demanding $30 more over the basic model. Pricing seems really on point for the masses of case buyers out there, and from what I saw in the video, they are pretty cool looking cases.

Corsair says the Carbide series cases offer "everything you need, nothing you don't" and also have a secondary tag line of "built for builders" that we need to address. The Carbide series covers both the 400R and the 500R chassis. The 500R has a white and black exterior with sharp body lines and corners, while the 400R is a metallic dark grey color with rounded lines and corners. The 500R also offers a 200mm fan in the door, a multi-channel fan controller and removable and relocateable hard drive bays which the 400R doesn't have. So to some extent, the series may offer "everything you need and nothing you don't", but the 400R may not where the 500R does. As far as the "built for builders" tag line, I completely agree that both of these are exactly that with what I have seen up to this point.

I was shipped the Carbide Series 400R from Corsair to give it my once over and bring it to you as I saw it. I pretty much covered what this version lacks against its larger numbered brother, but don't let that shake you or pass judgment so fast on this chassis. The 400R is fully capable of offering you a good solution to work with as-is, and offers a fair bit of options for additional cooling, including the ability to house the Hydro Series H100 in the top. That isn't it either. I don't want to give too much away before I spell it all out in the specifications section that is just a click away. Hang around and keep reading, I think even for the current low man on Corsair's totem pole of cases, it is still very much worth your time to have a closer look.