REVIEW | Corsair Carbide 175R

Introduction

The Carbide 175R is Corsair’s latest member of the series that offers a minimalist design yet still fully feature packed and it won’t burn through your wallet at the SRP of $60 (around Php3,150).

Quick Specifications

The Carbide 175R has a tinted tempered glass side panel that makes RGB lighting easy on the eyes which is a plus for PC enthusiasts who wants to keep RGB illumination under control. The plastic front panel features a brushed design and an illuminated Corsair logo which lights up from the fan.

Air ventilation is present on the top and bottom of the front panel where intake fans can breathe in. It may give the best airflow but this kind of airflow design is quite common.

On top, you will find the power and reset button, two USB 3.1 ports, and a headphone/mic combo jack.

This case also has a magnetic fan filter on top and a slide out fan filter on the bottom.

Inside you will find a single 120mm RGB fan that is addressable by software using the motherboard’s standard RGB header. There are also rubber grommets for cable management.
This chassis can fit an ATX motherboard and there is enough clearance on top of the case where you can fit up to a 280mm radiator. The height clearance also helps with cable management, especially when trying to plug the CPU power from behind.

You can actually fit up to a total of six (6) 120mm fans on all mounts, or four (4) 140mm fans on both the front and top. There is also space in front for a radiator up to 360mm in size.

On the back you will find a single SSD tray (though we wish there were two), as well as two tool-less 3.5″ hard drive trays. The PSU chamber can fit a standard ATX power supply unit and there is also a lot of room for cable management thanks to the angled side on the rubber grommets area which adds around 2cm depth for cable management.

Front panel RGB lighting

The Corsair logo lights up with the diffused light front panel’s RGB fan. It’s nothing special but it sure does add personality to the chassis.

Conclusion

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The PC building experience in this case is quite good. The front panel comes off easily, the the rubber grommets contributes to the cleanliness of cable management and overall, we had no major issue building a PC using this case.

We liked the fact that it has a lot of room for cable management. We also like that all of the expansion slots have proper covers unlike other cases where you’ll have to break the slot covers before installing a GPU or other expansion cards.

There are only few things that we think Corsair could’ve done better with this case. First is, maybe adding another SSD tray on the back. Then instead of including a single RGB fan just to illuminate the front logo, they could’ve just used a proper addressable LED light on that portion instead.

Aesthetically, we’d say that this chassis is pretty much what most people are looking for: tempered glass side panel for showing off the components yet having that minimalist feel that doesn’t puke “gamer” all over the place.

As for airflow, we don’t see it being much of a problem as there are a lot of fan mounting within the case, and even support for a 360mm cooling radiator.

In conclusion, we won’t hesitate to recommend this case for those looking for an entry-level mid tower PC case that can support all your cooling hardware. We do hope Corsair also makes a white version of this in the future.