Corsair Carbide Series 400R Review

Corsair Carbide Series 400R Internals

The 400R's interior sticks to a formula that Corsair knows well. The large, rubber-lined cable routeing holes, for example, are a common feature across all Corsair cases and we were glad to see them present. The rubber used to line the holes is reassuringly thick, and grips the motherboard tray tightly, meaning it won’t come off when you push cables through the holes.

A quick glance at the front of the case reveals that the 400R sports four external 5.25in bays, each of which has tool-less fittings, and six tool-less internal 3.5in bays. Each of these 3.5in bays can also take a 2.5in drive. However, the hard disk cage is orientated at 90° to the two front intake fans. While this makes it easy to remove drives, it also impedes airflow. Given that you’re likely to be adding or removing drives once in a blue moon, the case would be better served by a hard disk cage that runs in line with the intake fans, as this leads to less interrupted airflow.


Nosing around inside the 400R also reveals that the case plays home to a borderline ludicrous count of ten fan mounts. Four of these are located at the front of the case, with two in the traditional intake position and two on the inner edge of the hard disk cage. There are then two further mounts in the roof of the case (which can take either 120mm or 140mm fans), which also double as a two-120mm or two-140mm radiator mount.

The left hand side panel also plays home to two 120m/140mm mounts, which are aimed directly at the graphics card and CPU cooler. There's also a single 129/140mm mount on the rear of the case in the traditional exhaust position and, finally, one in the floor of the case. We were impressed to see that many of the mounts (roof, side panel and rear) come with pre-fitted rubber grommets to reduce vibration and noise; a nice touch that it would be good to see on more cases.

Where the 400R loses out, though, is in the fact that only the two front mounts and single floor mount are fitted with dust filters. This means that the case is still likely to clog up with dust, thanks to the open roof and side vents. We’re not expecting a case at this price to come with all its intakes fitted with filters, of course, but the similarly priced Fractal Design R3 comes with blanking plates for its unused fan mounts, which stop both the ingress of dust and the escaping of sound.