Corsair Carbide 330R Review

 

Up Close:  Rear of Motherboard and Strip Down 

With 21mm of room there’s plenty of space on tap for cable management.  Shame then that Corsair have only provided Four cable tie point.  Yes Four as in “two times two”, we counted them twice (it didn’t take long), we even looked for nifty secret hidden ones but alas nothing.  But that’s not the worst of it, the tie points that are present are positioned directly adjacent to the management holes, as opposed to being off-set to one side, which means the cables routed via them will have to pass over the holes and so be clearly visible.

     

 

Where a lot of cases have a trough on the underside of the top case section the 330R has an angled section of steel reflecting downwards, so any thoughts of routing and stashing cables up here are thwarted.  In the picture below right you can also see the small hole you’re expected to cajole your 8pin CPU cable plug through.

    

 

With the front section removed we can see the 330R “au natural” as it were.  made of reassuringly solid steel for the price there’s definite rigidity and quality in evidence here.  Corsair may have come in at a low price point, but they haven’t scrimped where it counts and produced a tin foil case

     

 

The front I/O panel stays in place when the front is removed.  It’s screw on so although it’s unlikely this case will find itself in a modder’s hands it’s good to know you can whip it off should the desire take you.  The front 140mm fan sits anterior to the area inside that is clear of drive bays maximising through case airflow.  A second 140mm fan can be fitted underneath, or indeed 2×120 as an alternative, and although the area is somewhat obscured by the drive cage behind the area is at least heavily slotted and drilled to maximise the through put of air. 

       

 

Despite being made from ABS plastic the front panel is rigid and quite heavy, being secured as it is with six metal as opposed to plastic clips, which are a lot less likely to break.  The 5.25″ bay covers are also plastic and again are heavily vented with fine mesh filters.