Corsair 900D Enthusiast Gaming Case Hands-On at CES 2013

During the madness of the pre-show CES 2013 events, we were able to get a preview of all of Corsair’s upcoming products – Wireless NAS/Storage devices, new Dominator overclocking memory, gaming peripherals, and the behemoth Corsair 900D enthusiast case. Several of you have asked us for more info on the case, and I’m happy to say that we can oblige: Our hands-on preview of Corsair’s 900D at CES 2013 left us impressed, if a bit overwhelmed, and excited for the enthusiast hardware market.

Let’s start with some specs.

Corsair 900D Obsidian Case Specs – CES 2013

Here’s a video we took of the behind-the-scenes press briefing:

Corsair 900D Impressions

George Makris of Corsair stands proud.

And so the first impressions begin. Most immediately noticeable, the 900D is massive. Huge. As we said about the Phantom 820 when we reviewed it, cases like this are really built to cater to very specific system building mindsets; the Phantom 820 and Corsair 900D both far-and-away exceed any amount of realistic requirements from the average gamer or builder, but offer freedom of movement, aesthetic tweaking options, and ease of installation that serious hardware fanatics can appreciate. This one’s bigger than the Phantom 820 (though we don’t have exact dimensions at this time), and rather than trying anything crazy for the appearance, Corsair has stuck with their brushed aluminum exterior and sleek overall design.

The 900D can accommodate HPTX form factor motherboards, dual-CPU boards (server-grade components), “all the motherboards we know about coming out,” up to 15 hard drives, dual PSUs, 15 fan mounts,  radiators in top and bottom positions with quad-fan radiator support for the top, and has 2xUSB3.0 + 2xUSB2.0 + 2x3.5mm jacks on the front panel. The case will be available in February, we were told at a press briefing in the V-Bar at the Venetian on January 8th. Corsair’s spokesperson said:

“We kind of took the case industry by storm [in 2008]. We asked the consumers what they wanted; what we found was enthusiasts – for them, ease of installation and putting the system together is the most important thing. We’ve got a reputation now of our cases having the most buildability, if you will.”

“We’re not making big cases for the sake of making them big, this is all about having the ultimate dream machine.”

Corsair’s display system was their way of showing this off – pictured below, they had a Sabertooth Z77 board equipped with (what we presume was) an i7-3770k, 2xGTX 680s in SLI, 32GB of Dominator Platinum RAM (with complimentary glowy lights), a 1200W i-series PSU, h100i liquid cooler, 2x additional 120mm fans with an existing quad-fan radiator config.

I’m interested in the case, to be honest. I’m sort of terrified of what the price might be – easily over $200, that’s for sure, and I’d wager between $300 and $400, making it out-of-reach for most system builders. This truly is an enthusiast case, and at that point, it’s a matter of whether you think spending that money on a case is truly worth it for your rig (as opposed to, say, buying better internals). That’s where it comes down to the personal style of your rig and building personality. Aesthetics are important, so is functionality, but proportionately-priced components are also important.

I am sort of in love with the 900D’s sleek exterior and well-equipped interior, just beware that the price might not be justifiable based upon your situation. 

- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke, live at CES 2013.