Has Corsair had to cut corners to hit a
sub-$80 price?
The 200R is Corsair's latest and cheapest
entry into its Carbide series of cases. With a price of just $80, it rests
firmly at the budget end of the market, alongside competition from the likes of
the Antec One, for example. Although you won't find any aluminium on the 200R,
the steel and plastic used feel far from cheap or tacky. The chassis and the
side panels are rigid rather than flexible under pressure, and the plastic
front panel, which is fully detachable, is likewise tightly secured and solid.
Corsair
Carbide 200R
The front panel connections are a little
simplistic, but the essentials are there. Alongside the power, reset and two
audio jacks, Corsair has included a pair of USB 3.0 ports, which is definitely
a bonus, especially as they come equipped with an internal header for direct
connection to your motherboard.
As it's a rather small case, water coolers
will naturally want to look elsewhere, but the 200R has a plethora of options
for air cooling. Out of the box, the 200R has a single 120mm front intake fan
as well as one in the rear exhaust position. However, an extra 120mm fan can be
added to the front if desired, and 120mm or 140mm fans can be fitted in any of
the two roof mounts, two side mounts or single floor mount. A nice touch is
that each of these extra mounts comes with pre-attached rubber washers for
vibration reduction.
Out
of the box, the 200R has a single 120mm front intake fan as well as one in the
rear exhaust position.
The front intake is slightly shielded by
dust filtering material that lines the small slits in the sides of the front
panel from where it draws its air. Elsewhere, a slide-out PSU dust filter
ensure protection for your PSU if mounted with the fan facing downwards, but
the filter is hard to access thanks to the case's small feet and lack of
clearance from the ground. Worryingly, that's the extent of the dust
protection, with the rest of the mounts left unguarded by blanking plates or
dust filters, making the 200R very prone to letting dust in and noise out.
Getting inside the case is problem-free
thanks to the side panel thumbscrews. Once there, you'll find a tidy,
well-designed chassis. The plastic drive mount is quite impressive, since it's
completely tool-free, small enough so as to not block the front intake, but also
able to hold four hard drives and four SSDs at the same time. There are also
tool-free optical drive mounts, thumbscrews for PCI covers, and pre-mounted
motherboard mounts, making the 200R extremely quick and easy to work with when
building a system.
Getting
inside the case is problem-free thanks to the side panel thumbscrews.
SSDs are given a very secure mount in their
slide-in caddies, but the latches that hold optical drives and hard drives in
place are less secure, although thankfully Corsair includes screws for those
concerned about loose hardware. The ability to remove the drive cage as well is
always a bonus, but in this instance doing so will remove every internal drive
mount, which is a questionable decision on Corsair's part.
Tidying away cables is simple enough with
the 200R but could certainly be improved. Three large holes enable you to push
cables through behind the motherboard tray, but they're not covered by rubber
grommets, which doesn't provide a very tidy effect. The flat side panel also
means there's a relative lack of space for cables compared to the Antec One,
for example, which features more spacious extruded panels.
The cooling performance is very
disappointing with the 200R. GPU temperatures are frankly terrible, and CPU
temperatures are not much better. The problem is the front panel, as it almost
completely blocks the front intake fan and thus severely restricts the cool air
entering the case. Removing the panel and giving the front fan a clear airflow
path reduces temperatures massively. It's also possible to feel air escaping
through the empty fan mounts, suggesting it's not being channelled very
effectively.
The
cooling performance is very disappointing with the 200R. GPU temperatures are
frankly terrible, and CPU temperatures are not much better
Noise levels, too, though not terrible,
were certainly louder than we'd have liked. Although we're sure that adding
more fans would improve the 200R's cooling performance (while making noise
levels louder), people in the market for a budget case aren't looking to spend
extra fixing their case's flaws. The 200R actually has an edge over the Antec
One in terms of build quality and ease of use, but the Antec One is no slacker
in these areas either. The Antec case is also slightly cheaper, and with far
superior cooling, it strikes a much better balance between price, performance
and design.
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Details
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Price: $80
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Manufacturer: Corsair
·
Website: www.corsair.com
·
Required spec: ATX or micro-ATX motherboard
·
Quality: 6
·
Value: 8
·
Overall: 7
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