Corsair Obsidian 500D Mid-Tower Chassis Review

A Closer Look – Exterior

The Obsidian series of chassis has always been packed with amazing looking products. The 500D is clearly one of the finest looking to date. It manages to look professional and sleek, but rather ominous and robust at the same time. Not an easy look to pull off. A lot of this comes down to the materials. Sure it’s chunky and robust, but the brushed aluminium, sweeping folds and curves, and the smoked tempered glass break up the design nicely.

I love how they’ve folded in the front panel, with curved wings wrapping around the corners. This provides all the air intakes required but gives them a somewhat hidden and less intrusive appearance. Given the number of fans and radiators it supports, you’ll be glad for all that airflow to keep your system nice and cool.

Tempered Glass

The window design is fantastic, offering full coverage of the side of the chassis. It’s tinted, which means it hides all the black hardware within the chassis easily enough. Of course, once you throw on any RGB/LED lighting within the case, those details should shine through easily enough. The windows are mounted on hinges, and lock shut thanks to some strong magnets. To open it up, just give it a pull, no need for tools here. Then if you want even more room, you simply lift the glass up off of the hinge and put it to one side. This will be very handy when it comes to building the system.

Double The Windows, Double The Fun

On the right side, you’ll find another window with the exact same design. The tint will hide the cable routing, but you’ll still want to keep it tidy as some will be on show. There’s also some HDD mounts behind the glass, so you can show them off if you choose to.

Stylish

I love the design of the top of the chassis, with stylish holes cut into the aluminium allowing for airflow. There’s a dust filter under there too, and another for the front panel. Of course, I’ll show you those shortly. It’s a super clean and stylish look and the way it kicks up at the edges looks absolutely fantastic.

Towards the front, you’ll find the I/O panel. It’s got all the basics covered with dual USB 3 ports, audio, and power controls. However, they’ve also thrown in a handy USB type-C connection too.

Around the Back

Around the back of the chassis, you can see those robust hinge mounts for the tempered glass panels. There’s a height adjustable 120mm mount too. Furthermore, it comes with a 120mm fan pre-installed, although you could swap this out for your own, or a compatible radiator/AIO. There are seven expansion slots, as you would expect for ATX. However, you also get two vertical mounts for those using a riser cable for a side mounted GPU. Finally, we have the PSU mount, all pretty standard stuff, as you would expect.