Corsair Carbide Series 330R Quiet Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Overall the Corsair has really impressed me, its delivered the performance, features and quality that I’ve come to expect from Corsair, but it’s just a small bit short of perfect in the end. There are no major things wrong with this chassis, but when you have nothing major you have to pick on the minor issues.

The small cut-out for the motherboard 8pin power cable is small and routing fan cables, power cables and cables for our water cooler proved tricky here, there was more than enough room to provide a bigger hole or more than one hole near the top and for a chassis that can handle top and rear mounted cooling, this cable routing option is essential in my opinion.

The front HDD bays could be more expansive also and while the large gap there provides great clearance for our GPU and the front cooling I would have liked the option for more hard drives, it feels like wasted space. Lastly the 5.25″ bay clips feel a little cheap.

Minor issues aside there is a lot to praise about the 330R and this is still one fantastic chassis. Firstly it’s nice to see a chassis that isn’t all flashy lights, big windows and all over the top, the 330R is understated, bold and stealthy, it looks fantastic but it’s designed so you hardly notice it. This continues with the sound proofing and the extensive padding inside means you should hardly hear it also.

A pair of dust filters will keep things running smoothly and should help keep system maintenance at a minimum, and so will the durable chassis and it should last you many years without falter. I didn’t find a single panel that didn’t fit perfectly, there are no rough edges and the overall finish is pristine.

While I feel the minor issues such as only having four storage bays keeps the chassis from having our editors choice award, I don’t want to diminish the product as I would happily own one of these myself, but I think there is room for a few minor tweaks to its design that would turn this from a great product to something incredible.

Pros

• Clean looking
• Great dampening
• Durable
• Well equipped

Cons

• More storage space would be nice

eTeknix says: “Corsair have done it again, creating a product that is well-built, that looks great and performs even better. It’s perfect for those who don’t want to see or hear their system when working, but still want something that looks bold and stylish regardless.”