Corsair Carbide 270R
Classy chassis comprised of compromise
THERE’S LITTLE WE LOVE more than a case that cuts that fine line between sophisticated and garish. Corsair has long been a master of balancing on that knife point, its chassis beautifully comprised of elegant panels shaped in a manner that would put Apple’s design studios to shame. But they’ve always come at a cost. Literally. Most of the high-end cases pass the $100 mark by a mile, with only the Carbide 400C scraping in just under the margin, and anything else relegated to ITX lovers.
The Carbide 270R bucks that trend. Coming in at a reasonably affordable $70, it’s the first Corsair case that incorporates the look and feel of the more sophisticated 400C but at a more aggressive price point. The front panel curves down into a smooth, brushed aluminum-effect plastic finish, with the front I/O tucked away down the side in a recess. You’re not spoilt for choice there, though, with a single power button, two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone pass-throughs, a hard drive operation indicator, and a single reset button. On either side (once you get past the front I/O), you’ll find a large section of filtered fan intakes, around one inch deep—more than enough to keep your choice of front system fans well fed.
Speaking of cooling, there’s room for a 360mm/280mm radiator in the front (3x 120mm fans or 2x 140mm), a 240mm/280mm radiator in the roof (2x 120mm/140mm), and a single 120mm radiator in the rear. Pretty neat, if water cooling is your thing. The vent on the roof is something of a nuisance, though. It’s really long—at first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking you could mount three 120mm fans there. Unfortunately, it’s just shy of being the right size for that, although with a touch of modding and some seriously secure screws, it wouldn’t be too hard to mount a 360mm radiator in the top, then mount additional fans on to it. However, at that point, it may be worth just buying another chassis. Our biggest gripe with the top fan mount lies with the fact that it’s huge and has zero dust-filtering. If you’re running any setup other than exhaust, you’re going to have a bad time when it comes to keeping the inside of your chassis dust-free, and for a windowed case, that can be a real deal-breaker. CONSPICUOUS BY ABSENCE The rest of the chassis is very spartan. There’s no 5.25-inch drive bay, no hard drive cages in the front, and a simple threequarter-length power supply cover across the bottom of the rig, with a cable cutout to route those pesky front panel connectors. Turn the case around, and you’re greeted by one huge CPU cutout, two 2.5-inch SSD mounts on the back of the motherboard tray, and two 3.5-inch hard drive mounts on the left-most panel closest to the front. Cable tie points are plentiful, but there are no rubber grommets protecting the cable routing holes. Although not hugely important, it can help hide cable mess, and is something we’d have liked to have seen.
We can’t help but go back to that price, too, and compare it to the competition. For $70, you could get NZXT’s S340 case, which looks crisper and cleaner, and has substantially better dust filtration systems than the 270R. It is, however, more limited in its cooling support. But if that’s a problem, you could swap over to the Fractal Define S instead, coming in at $80, which provides you with full unhinged access to up to two 360mm radiators top and front— but with an increase in size, and the lack of a PSU cover. The Corsair Carbide 270R is a happy medium between the two. It’s not perfect, but for the price, it’s damn impressive, and definitely one of our top three mid-range chassis.
VERDICT8Corsair Carbide 270R
CARBON FIBER Stylish; good cooling support; easy to build in; PSU cover; intuitive storage design.
CARBONITE Lack of dust filtering; confusing top cooling mounts; lack of rubber grommets.
$70, www.corsair.com