Corsair Obsidian 450D Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Peter Donnell / 11 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

For £91.99 the 450D isn’t cheap, but a quick look at the specifications quickly justifies the cost. Extensive cooling and component support, mixed with high quality construction and a premium finish don’t come cheap, but at a little over £90 the Corsair Obsidian 450D is very competitive when compared to the rest of the Obsidian range, as well as rival products from the likes of Cooler Master and NZXT.

Overview

There is a lot to love about this case and very little I can find fault with. Actually, if I’m honest there isn’t anything I found fault with, the whole thing is pretty perfect! It’s not often I come across a product where there isn’t at least one small detail that I wasn’t happy with, but Corsair have managed it with the 450D.

The Obsidian series does seem to get better and better with each new model and while I still have a soft spot for the 750D, I do think this is the sweet spot in terms of size, price and features for the whole range. Having this much cooling support from a mid-tower is rather impressive, Corsair cases have proven very popular with custom-loop water cooling users many times before and it is easy to see why. Cooling is obviously a big focus for the 450D and having room for lot of fans in both 120mm and 140mm sizes makes it easy to get some serious airflow going. The addition of three high quality dust filters that are easy to remove and maintain is a big win, no one likes cleaning out their dust filters all the time, so the easier the job, the better.

The front panel breaks from the flat clean looks that much of the Obsidian series is known for, cutting the ventilation right into the aluminium front looks gorgeous and adds a nice extra touch of style, preventing the case from looking too much like its bigger brothers. Of course it does still look a lot like the rest of the range, but that’s the point, when you buy into the Obsidian series you know you’re going to get that same bold design, and the build quality that goes with it.

There is no doubt that this case can be used to build a very impressive gaming rig, there is more than enough room for a multi GPU setup and even the longest graphics cards on the market will fit with ease. If you’re really desperate for space you can always strip out the hard drive bays, but it’s really unlike that you’ll need to short of wanting to put radiators in the front / bottom of the case. It would have been nice to have an extra three hard drive bays in the front, but given that most users these days are unlikely to saturate the 5 hard drive bays that are available (3 front, 2 back), it hardly seems fair to mark Corsair down for this. The added benefit is that without the hard drive bay, the graphics cards to have more room to breath and the front fans can give them direct airflow.

So there we have it! great build quality, extensive range of air filters, fan mounts and radiator mounts, plenty of room for cable management and all the style of the Obsidian series that we’ve come to know and love. Easily worthy of our editors choice award and by far one of the best chassis I’ve ever worked with.

Pros

Extensive air cooling options
Can hold up to four water cooling radiators
Dust filters
Stylish aluminium front panel
Huge side panel window
Lots of cable management space
Modular front storage
2 x 2.5″ SSD mounts behind motherboard

Cons

None

Neutral

It is expensive and that may put off new comers to the Obsidian range, but you do get a lot in return for your investment
Extra hard drive bays in the front would have been nice, but it’s unlikely that most users will need them and you can buy an extra bay from Corsair should you need it

eTeknix says: “The Obsidian series has long been one of the best chassis ranges on the market and their latest addition doesn’t disappoint. The 450D may sit near the middle of the Obsidian range, but it’s by far one of my favourites so far. There are a lot of great options on the market for around this price tag, but if you’re looking to spend around £90 on a new chassis, you would be mad to not at least consider this case for your build.”