Corsair Obsidian 450D Review

Performance Analysis

Corsair seems to be on the warpath with heat with it's latest cases and the two 140mm AF140L fans used up front in the 450D do shift a lot of air at a small expense of keeping the system quiet. Instead it's not particularly noisy, but not what we'd call quiet either. Judging by the thermals, though, there's clearly a case for investing in a fan controller and tuning them down because the Obsidian 450D has plenty of headroom. It's CPU delta T of 49°C is a top ten result and matches the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2, Corsair Obsidian 750D and Fractal Design Define R4.


However, the GPU delta T was fantastic, no doubt due to the unimpeded airflow between the two 140mm fans and the GPU. At 45°C, it's equal second best, matching the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 and Chieftec DX-02B with only the SilverStone Fortress FT04 managing a better result.

Conclusion

Clearly even with a modest air cooler, the Obsidian 450D makes for a great air-cooled case but add in an all-in-one liquid cooler or even custom water cooling and the sky is the limit. The fact the case is so water cooling-friendly yet boasts very solid cooling on its own means Corsair should be proud of its efforts - all that money spent on R&D has been well worth it. The interior is perhaps a little spartan and a fan controller is probably the first thing we'd buy if we were investing in an Obsidian 450D ourselves (the fans do a great job but knocking them down to 7V would likely yield similar results but far less noise too).

The competition comes mainly from the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 and NZXT Source 530, both of which are cheaper and offer similar features with the Arc Midi R2 matching the Obsidian 450D on cooling and the Source 530 also being good for water cooling. However, they're both far less well-rounded; the Source 530 is inferior in cooling while the Arc Midi R2 isn't as great for cramming full of water-cooling hardware. The Obsidian 450D also looks better than both cases but whether these benefits are worth paying an extra £20-25 will largely depend on your budget. If you can stretch a little further, though, the Obsidian 450D is worth every penny.