Review: Corsair Carbide Series 400R

In our experience, Corsair has certainly made a habit of releasing awesome hardware. None of this awesome factor is lost even when they make an “affordable” product. Case in point: the Carbide 400R mid-tower chassis.

My first impression taking it out of the box was that this is a solid and sturdy case. It’s not much to look at – a plus in many peoples’ books – with a simple all-black finish inside and out. The only design features that stop it from being a plain old box are mesh filters front, back and side along with a carry handle on top.

Opening the side panel reveals a cavernous interior with large gaps around the motherboard in all dimensions allowing for discrete cable management and good airflow. There is space for graphics cards up to 316mm in length as well as 240mm radiators (with 15mm spacing).

The only snag for me was that the 120mm fans that attach to my Corsair Hydro H100 CPU cooler blocked access to my motherboard’s CPU power connector – a tad frustrating as it could have been avoided by moving the motherboard holes down by 10mm or so (there is ample room to do this). Admittedly that’s only a problem if your CPU power connector is located right at the top of your motherboard like mine is.

Tool-less drive bays were the icing on the cake and the 400R accommodated my i7-based system with ease. Highly recommended.