Corsair Obsidian 550D Review

Corsair Obsidian 550D - Interior

The matte black interior is neat and spacious, with numerous cable routing holes and a large CPU area cut-out, so you shouldn’t need to remove the motherboard if you need to install or replace a CPU cooler backing plate. There’s ample space at the rear of the motherboard tray to allow large cables to be hidden from view, and further cut outs above the PSU mount and top of the motherboard tray means you’ll have no excuse for having a messy build inside this case.

All the steel edges have been rolled to make it easy on your hands when installing a system. We’ve come to expect an easy ride when building a system into a Corsair case, and thankfully the Obsidian 550D doesn’t disappoint.


The front intake fans pull air over two internal drive cages, which contain six tool-free 3.5in disk trays. Each one has mounting holes for 2.5in drives if you’re planning on using an SSD. Above these are four tool-free 5.25in bays, which gripped our optical drive firmly without needing a screw on the rear side of the case.

A single 120mm fan at the rear is the only pre-installed exhaust, and although it can be replaced with a larger 140mm fan. There’s also a final fan mount on the bottom of the case next to the floor-mounted PSU mount, with room for either one 120mm or 140mm fan.

A removable panel in the case roof hides two fan mounts that can hold either 120mm or 140mm fans for extra cooling. The panel itself is lined with more sound-isolating foam to reduce noise levels, as well as a dust filter held in place with magnetic strips. Unfortunately, the gap between the motherboard tray and the roof fan mounts isn’t enough to allow you to install a full-height radiator, but half-height radiators such as Corsair’s own H100 all-in-one liquid cooler will still fit comfortably. Despite this limit, there are still two sets of pre-drilled holes next to the rear expansion bays for a custom water-cooling loop.