Corsair Carbide Spec-Alpha Case Review: Solid looks, feature packed, great value

Steve

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The ATX Mid-Tower has always been a favorite of PC builders. It can be transported with relative ease, while still managing to hold a respectable amount of very high-end hardware.

For a long time, one of my favourite mid-towers has been the Silverstone Kublai KL05, a mid-range case that offers quite a lot at just $75. Hoping to better that option with a more gaming-oriented case, Silverstone released the Raven X (RVX01) late last year with an $80 price tag. It was a solid offering, despite a few annoying flaws such as the awkward cable management and mediocre CPU and PSU support.

Now Corsair has announced another $80 Mid-Tower that has gamers squarely in its sights, and is by no means drab. Dubbed the Spec-Alpha, this is a case that we very much expect to be a dominant force for a few reasons.

Read the complete review.

 
What's with that Thermaltake CPU cooler? Couldn't you of used something Corsair to match the rest of the build?
 
What's with that Thermaltake CPU cooler? Couldn't you of used something Corsair to match the rest of the build?

Not sure that had much of an impact on the case review but I did use the Corsair cooler on the GPU. I didn't have a second one handy for the review.
 
It's a good value in that it's essentially a stripped down 750d, which is great from people who don't need the extra bells and whistles.

The fan at the top front of the case is pretty much worthless. Air is cooler closer to the ground. It's intaking air slightly cooler than what's inside and half of it is probably floating up the vent right before the radiator or colliding with the water cooling tubes. It's much better to have the hard drives mounted at the top of the case or separated. The way they are in this case the hot air is being blown right onto the graphics card and CPU. If they were mounted at the top the hot air they generate would simply go out the top vent.

The holes in the back of the motherboard tray are more plentiful than on the 750d. It looks like they are there simply to reduce costs. This makes the case flimsier and cable management looks poor. Even with all black cables it's obvious people are going to struggle to find places to hide their cables in this case.

In my opinion they should have just stuck to a minimal front bezel and no top at all.
 
The metal chassis looks fine but the style of all that plastic makes it look like someone crossed a sand crawler with a dansette record player. I normally like corsair cases which is why I have an air 540 but I don't think I will ever buy this one.
 
The dimensions of the Spec-Alpha are fairly typical for a mid-tower, measuring 474mm tall, 518mm deep and 220mm wide - giving it a 54L capacity.

What is 54L capacity?

Mid-tower, measuring 474mm tall (18.66 inches), 518mm deep (20.39 inches) and 220mm wide (8.66 inches). That is for all you US readers like me that need to know if it's gonna fit in your desk. Wish I could do the conversions on the fly when I read an article like this, but alas had to use a conversion webpage. OK it fits, but it is ugly IMO.
 
The dimensions of the Spec-Alpha are fairly typical for a mid-tower, measuring 474mm tall, 518mm deep and 220mm wide - giving it a 54L capacity.

What is 54L capacity?

Mid-tower, measuring 474mm tall (18.66 inches), 518mm deep (20.39 inches) and 220mm wide (8.66 inches). That is for all you US readers like me that need to know if it's gonna fit in your desk. Wish I could do the conversions on the fly when I read an article like this, but alas had to use a conversion webpage. OK it fits, but it is ugly IMO.

Sheldon Cooper: This table. It's in square centimeters. I read it as square meters. Do you know what that means?
Amy Farrah Fowler: That Americans can't handle the metric system?
 
What's with that Thermaltake CPU cooler? Couldn't you of used something Corsair to match the rest of the build?

Not sure that had much of an impact on the case review but I did use the Corsair cooler on the GPU. I didn't have a second one handy for the review.
Could.you tell me if a H100i v2 would fit in the top of this case? (the same place that you put the Thermaltake watercooler)
 
I need an information, please.
You said the space if you put a radiator on top is very small. Does this mean I can't use some high profile RAM sticks? Will a set of 4 Ripjaws 4 fit?
Thanks.
 
I personally disliked building in this case. No PSU shroud making it difficult to cable manage in. The holes to put the cables through do not even have rubber grommets and I also personally dislike how the glass window is raised compared to the rest of the left side panel.
 
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