Corsair 2500 Series Dual Chamber mATX Case Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Corsair 2500 series launches today, with the 2500D Airflow costing $199.99 excl. tax in the US, or £129.99 inc. tax here in the UK. The 2500X surprisingly costs the same, so it’s really up to you if you want mesh or glass on the front to suit your needs. However, the more premium 2500X RGB which comes with tempered glass on the front, but also two premium Corsair ARGB fans in the iCUE hubs is $259.99 excl. tax in the US or £199.99 inc. tax in the UK.

Furthermore, there is a range of accessories that’ll be available from Corsair, however, I do not have pricing for these at this time, but they are as follows:

• 2500 Series ELITE Panel Kit
• RapidRoute RetroFit Kit
• Vertical Mount Kit
• 2500 SEries Glass Conversion Kit
• 2500 Series Motherboard Cable Cover

Overview

Corsair has a long history of making some of the highest quality, most feature-packed and best-looking PC cases on the market, and looking at their new 2500 series, that legacy still holds true today. This is a truly fantastic case and offers a huge range of flexibility for a wide range of PC build types.

If you’re going for a purely airflow-focused build, the 2500D Airflow is the way to go, with fan mounts in the front, bottom, side, top and rear. This version will hold two 120mm/140mm fans in the front, three 120mm or two 140mm fans in the top, two 120mm fans in the side, three 120mm or two 140mm in the bottom, and one 120mm fan in the back; up to 11 fans in total.

However, if you want the added visibility of the tempered glass front, the front fan mounts are obviously removed, but otherwise, the rest of the case remains the same, meaning it’ll hold up to 9 fans. The 2500X comes with two fans pre-installed. There are daisy chain fans too, and they are quite expensive, but you get what you pay for. A single fan can cost around £35, but a triple pack is usually around £100 and includes an additional hub.

For liquid-cooled builds, you can get a 240/280/360mm radiator on the top, 240mm in the side, 240/280/320mm in the bottom, a 120mm in the rear and depending on which version of the case you have, a 240/280mm in the front too.

The ELITE panels are cool too, as they allow you to swap out some external panels with wood panels, giving it a bit more of a Scandinavian furniture store look that seems to be proving very popular with PC builders these days. Of course, I reviewed the white version of this case, but there is a black version too, which comes with all-black fittings, and black fans on the 2500X RGB too.

There are a lot of other cool features built-in, such as extensive cable management options as standard, with routing holes and three large angled grommets, as well as additional routing holes to deal with the extensive fan and radiator mounting options. However, the case also supports a motherboard with rear-mounted/hidden power connectors, but be sure to check the motherboard product pages to ensure compatibility first.

Should I Buy One?

This is a case built for smaller micro-ATX motherboards, but keep in mind that it’s not really a small case. It’s got the length of a mid-tower, allowing it to support the largest graphics cards on the market, and further width and height to allow for larger and thicker radiators. So while the motherboard may be smaller, there’s really no compromise elsewhere in the case. If you’re looking for a compact build, this isn’t it, but if you’re looking to cram a massive amount of gaming performance and cooling into something reasonably mid-sized, then it fits the bill.