Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis Review (Page 1)

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Fresh from the floor at CES, Corsair has sent over another chassis for us to have a look at. Straight off the product page, we are told that this a clean and minimalist design, but to be fair, we have seen many similar cases as of late, and this is what Corsair came up with to address that part of the market.

It is not all that rare that we see a chassis with tempered glass, an open internal layout with hidden storage drives, or that come with solid bezels which draw air in from the sides. To be blunt, there is only one new addition to the world of cases that Corsair has opted to employ in this chassis, but we will save that tasty bit for later.

In no way do we blame Corsair for jumping on the wagon here. Many people are brand loyal, and up until this point, Corsair offered nothing precisely like this chassis. We also know, since we see about every trend to hit cases, what is offered in their latest chassis is what the buyers have been gravitation to.

It only makes sense to ensure that no matter what side of the coin you are coming from, that there is an option to get the same thing from them, and of course, making money where they otherwise would not have. It is standard business practices, but is Corsair too late to the game to get a foot in the door, with so many others like this already widely available.

We have been addressing things found within the newest Corsair chassis, the Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Chassis. With a chassis that offers up all of the standard options the market expects to see in a chassis, color options of black or white, use of tempered glass on the left side, all while ignoring the RGB fad which has some up in arms with no vision of usefulness to the feature.

That is not to say it cannot be added for those who like it, but as shipped, the chassis delivers only a small LED worth of light under the front bezel. Even though the layout is nothing new, we do still have much to cover as we show off the latest Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis from Corsair.

The chart we are looking at is from the press kit, and we would assume once released, a more thorough list of the specifications can be had on site. What we are shown is the dimensions first of all. The 275R stands 460mm tall, it is 455mm from front to back, and is 225mm in width. There are no accommodations for external bays of any kind, but there are six locations for storage drives inside of the chassis. Four drives have to be 2.5" as the tray hanging on the back of the motherboard tray will not house larger drives.

For 3.5" drives, there are two bays, inside of a cage, which uses plastic trays to mount the drives to. In the back of the chassis, there are seven standard expansion slots, but Corsair also adds two more slots vertically so that a GPU can be mounted there. You will, however, need to purchase the riser as one is not shipped with the chassis. At the top of the chassis, within the I/O panel, there is a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a power and reset button, along with a pair of 3.5mm jacks for audio.

Cooling of the case is accomplished with a pair of fans out of the box. Both fans are black, both fans require a 3-pin connection to power them, and both are SP120 fans from Corsair. One fan is found in the front of the chassis, while the other is in the back exhausting hot air. As for what can fit, the front of the chassis will house three 120mm fans or a pair of 140mm fans.

The rear of the case is built for 120mm fans only, and the top of the chassis will accept a pair of 120mm fans, with no option for 140mm fans there. Radiator space is the same as the fan support. You can put a 280mm or 360mm radiator in the front, and possibly one in the top as well. The issue here is that you need low profile RAM, and quite possibly, motherboard heat sinks could play a factor on fitment as well.

Clearances inside of the chassis are quite good, and will accommodate many standard size products. If you are looking to use an air cooler on the CPU, you have 170mm of space inside to fit it. The PSU is somewhat limited to 180mm of room, but the HDD cage is removable, which opens things up to 225mm of room for the PSU and wires. Video cards can be up to 370mm in length, but this can be reduced by the size of the radiator used in the front of the chassis.

While at first, we assumed that color was the only option when buying the 275R, but this chart delivers pricing for both the tempered glass version, as well as a more affordable acrylic option. The MSRP for the tempered glass option, in black or white, should be found near the $79.99 mark. The acrylic versions should be ten dollars cheaper when they arrive at Newegg and Amazon that is. As of this moment, there are no listings to go by for reference, so we can only assume release pricing will be fair, and close to the cost that Corsair feels it is worth.

Chad's Chassis Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IX Code Z270 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 (buy from Amazon)
• Memory: Team T-Force Night Hawk RGB TF1D48G3000HC16CBK
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (buy from Amazon)
• Storage: Samsung XP941 256GB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: SilverStone SST-ST85F-G (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit (buy from Amazon)