It’s a joy to build inside this case, but
its cooling is off the pace
The Corsair Carbide 200R eschews the mesh sported
by many of its competitors, with a minimalist and smooth front fascia, shifting
the ventilation holes to the sides. It boasts plenty of fan mounts, with a pair
of 120/140mm mounts in the roof cleverly placed to allow the installation of
Corsair’s H100 liquid cooler without clashing with motherboard heatsinks.
Corsair
Carbide 200r
There are also rear and front 120mm mounts,
both equipped with Corsair’s fans, as well as a 120/140mm mount in the floor
and a pair of 120mm mounts in the left side panel. The front fascia is equipped
with a dust filter too, as is the PSU, courtesy of a filter that slides out
from the underside of the case for easy cleaning.
Inside, the 200R has a great layout, with a
modern drive bay allocation boasting four 2.5in mounts and four 3.5in mounts,
all of which are tool-free. The three 5.25in drives are tool-free too, with a
gap left between the two cages to allow uninterrupted airflow from the front
intake fan to the hardware inside. Cable-routeing holes are placed all around
the motherboard tray, including a very useful hole at the top through which to
route the 8-pin EPS12V cable.
Inside,
the 200R has a great layout, with a modern drive bay allocation boasting four
2.5in mounts and four 3.5in mounts, all of which are tool-free.
Meanwhile, the 15mm of clearance behind the
motherboard tray is enough for even fat cables such as the 24-pin ATX snake,
and the front panel connectors are all long enough to be comfortably routed
behind the motherboard tray to the bottom-left corner of the motherboard. All
of this made the Carbide 200R one of the easiest chassis into which to build
our test system.
The
front fascia is equipped with a dust filter too, as is the PSU, courtesy of a
filter that slides out from the underside of the case for easy cleaning.
Sadly, the 200R trips up a little when it
comes to cooling, though, with its flat front fascia limiting its airflow. Its
stock CPU delta T of 54°C is a mid-table result, while the GPU delta T of 42°C
was 8°C hotter than the coolest cases on test.
Adding a pair of 120mm cooling fans as a
roof exhaust and side panel intake helped considerably, though, with the CPU
delta T dropping to a cool 47°C and the GPU delta T dipping to 35°C. While its
stock performance wasn’t close to overheating our hardware, it’s clear that
adding a pair of extras fans makes the 200R much more competitive when it comes
to cooling. The pair of bundled fans are at least quiet, though, producing a
nondescript gentle noise.
Adding
a pair of 120mm cooling fans as a roof exhaust and side panel intake helped
considerably, though, with the CPU delta T dropping to a cool 47°C and the GPU
delta T dipping to 35°C
Conclusion
There’s a lot to like about the Corsair
200R; it’s well laid out, it’s easy to build a system inside it and it has a healthy
array of features, including a number of extra fan mounts. However, this can
also be said of the Fractal Design Core 3000 (see p68) and Xigmatek Midgard II
(see p74), both of which offer superior stock cooling and are better choices as
a result.
