Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Case Review

By Meng Vang

Manufacturer: Corsair Components, Inc.
Product Name: Carbide Series 275R Tempered Glass Mid-Tower Gaming Case – White
Model Number: CC-9011133-WW
UPC: 843591064330
Price As Tested: $79.99 (Newegg | Amazon)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Corsair.

As the successor to the Corsair Carbide 270R, the Carbide 275R brings a few new improvements to the table. It comes in four variants: black or white enclosure with an acrylic side panel, and black or white enclosure with a tempered glass panel. The plastic front panel is very simple with its brushed aluminum look, and the side panel provides a great view of the interior components. Unlike its predecessor, the Carbide 275R has its power supply chamber extend all the way towards the front with a cutout to fit up to a 360 mm radiator at the front. Benchmark Reviews has in hand the Carbide 275R in white with the tempered glass side panel.

• Beautiful tempered glass side panel shows off your system in style
• Clean and minimalist styling with soft accent lighting.
• Builder-friendly with simple and intuitive internal layout.
• Versatile cooling options with space for multiple radiator configurations.
• Rugged-construction steel drive trays provide expansive storage space.
• Built-in cable routing compartments enables clean builds.
• Direct Airflow Path provides airflow to the hottest components

The Carbide 275R currently sells online for $79.99 (Newegg | Amazon). In the accessories box, it comes with a quick start guide, warranty information, a few zip ties, and mounting screws. It also comes with an Allen wrench for removing the tempered glass side panel.

Modern computer cases have adopted a minimalist approach, and the Carbide 275R is no exception. We see only the company logo towards the bottom of the case.

There is a 120 mm exhaust fan at the rear of the case, which can slide up or down thanks to the adjustable fan mounts. Unfortunately, the case does not support a 140 mm fan at the rear of the case. The power supply mounts at the very bottom and is protected by a removable dust filter from underneath the case.

The main side panel includes a reflective tempered glass window to show off the internal components of the system. Finger prints and dust will show on the surface of the window but can be easily cleaned off with a microfiber cloth.

The top of the case features a large magnetic dust filter for preventing dust buildup inside the case. Towards the front of the case are the front I/O ports. These include a power button, reset switch, standard headphone/microphone jacks, and two USB 3.0 ports.

With four tall rubberized feet, the Carbide 275R should not have any problems keeping the power supply unit well ventilated. We can also see the bottom removable dust filter where the power supply sits.

Now that we have seen a quick overview of the Carbide 275R, let’s take a look at the features this case has to offer.

Removing the tempered glass side panel reveals a very spacious interior. We can see there are rubberized grommets for passing cables through to the other side of the motherboard tray. The power supply chamber extends all the way across the bottom of the case, which makes it easier to hide those nasty cables from the power supply unit. Towards the front, there are two more mounting locations for two SSDs.

Although the Carbide 275R does not come with velcro cable straps, it does come with a great number of cable tie-down points. With this many cable tie-down points, there is no excuse for having bad cable management. Two more SSD brackets sit behind the motherboard tray and are removable via thumbscrews.

Like the top, the front includes a large dust filter as well. When removed, we can see there is a pre-installed 120 mm fan for air intake. There is also enough room to install a 360 mm radiator here at the front.

The Carbide 275R has a power supply chamber with extra ventilation holes to provide cooling to the power supply unit. At the corner near the expansion slots is a small cutout for the front panel audio cable. There is also a cutout towards the middle of the power supply chamber for routing other cables, like a power cable to the graphics card.

At the front of the case, there is an LED strip towards the bottom of the front panel. This strip aims the light beam down to provide a bit of under glow when the system is powered on. It only glows white and is not RGB capable.

Let’s go into the next section and take a look at some more features.

The top of the Carbide 275R does not have radiator support as this is a smaller mid-tower case. Instead, it does support two 120 mm fans or one 140 mm fan.

You may have noticed the two vertical graphics card mounts from an earlier section of this article. These vertical brackets have to be broken off the case in order to install a graphics card. But if you have extra brackets laying around, those can replace the original ones no problem.

The front panel of the Carbide 275R is made from plastic, but it does look somewhat like brushed aluminum when looking at it closely.

On all four corners, there are rubberized grommets to prevent the glass side panel from touching the metal surface of the case.

Corsair has decided to replace the standard thumbscrews with these flatter screws. These screws require the included Allen wrench for removal, and do make the case look a bit better since they do not stick out like normal thumbscrews. This design focuses on reducing the amount of finger prints on the glass panel while removing it.

Now that we have seen what the Carbide 275R has to offer, let’s go ahead and build a system with this case.

• Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer
• System Memory: 2x4GB 1600MHz DDR3
• Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 945 @ 3GHz
• Audio: Onboard RealTek HD Audio
• Video: Gigabyte R9 270X 2GB GDDR5 Windforce Edition
• Disk Drive 1: Toshiba Q Series 128GB SSD
• Enclosure: Corsair Carbide 275R
• PSU: Thermaltake 430W TR2
• Monitor: HP 23bw 23″ IPS display
• Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit

The build experience went well with the Carbide 275R even though it was a smaller mid-tower case. It reminded me of the NZXT S340 Elite and the Phanteks P400 as all of these cases were about the same size. There was room at the top for more fans, but it did not support a radiator with fans due to clearance. The front could have easily accommodated a 360 mm radiator with fans, but I decided to leave the stock fans in the case to see how they performed when cooling the system.

Although no velcro straps were present for cable management, the large number of cable tie-down points really made it easier to tie down loose cables. At almost every corner, there was a tie-down point, which made it easy to organize cables that would normally hang there in another case. The motherboard tray also had a huge CPU cutout, which gave plenty of access to the CPU cooler mount should I ever plan to change coolers.

One thing to note, it may be a good idea to route the CPU power cable through the motherboard tray before mounting the motherboard. As shown in the picture, the clearance to pass an eight-pin CPU cable was very small, but I was able to pass the cable through anyway with a bit of squeezing. This was a great thing to see compared to other computer cases in this price category.

With the system fully enclosed, the system ran fairly quiet with the stock 120 mm fans. Internal temperatures were a bit warmer than normal, but the system did run cooler with the front panel off. The air ventilation gaps at the front of the case was not the best, and could be better for cooler temperatures. Installing a few more fans at the top of the case could reduce system temperature, but not by much.

During the build process, I could not find a good reason why anyone using a modern computer case should upgrade to the Carbide 275R. But it does make a great case for someone who is building their first computer. I also did not like the screws holding down the glass side panel, as using the included Allen wrench to remove the four screws took longer than it should. I did have one of them strip the threads when putting it back, so I will have to rethread that hole. However, they do look better on the side panel as the screws do not stick out like on a standard tempered glass case.

Let’s go ahead and finish up with my final thoughts and conclusion.

The Carbide 275R is a very simple case with no extra bells or whistles. Actually, it almost seems too simple when compared to the NZXT S340 Elite or Phanteks P400. It is just a computer case with a spacious interior, two pre-installed 120 mm fans, tempered glass, and vertical GPU brackets; that is pretty much it. But the screws used to mount the glass side panel are one of the worst designs I have seen. If Corsair stuck to normal thumbscrews, many computer users would not associate the Carbide 275R as the case with terrible side panel screws.

But despite the weird side panel mounting design, computer users would be very thankful for the spacious interior and the many cable tie-down points on the back of the motherboard tray. A large 360 mm radiator is mountable at the front with enough room for a long graphics card. Larger CPU air coolers, like the Noctua NH-D15 and Phanteks PH-TC14PE, may not fit due to their taller size. But there are plenty of storage options to choose from, which gives plenty of flexibility to computer users who utilize a handful of HDDs or SSDs.

As for a basic gaming computer, the Carbide 275R does provide a fair amount of airflow to the internal components. With a few more fans at the top, system temperature should improve, but not drastically. System noise is not too bad considering the large open top ventilation surface. The front panel does sacrifice cooling performance for appearance, which is a disappointingly common trend in today’s modern computer case designs.

The Carbide 275R does come in two colors; black or white. I personally like a white painted case as it reflects light better than black. With a few RGB LED fans and light strips, the light would distribute more effectively inside of the white case. Even without LEDs, the clean glass side panel and the minimalist exterior design gives the Carbide 275R a very elegant appearance.

In terms of construction, the frame feels fairly sturdy without the tempered glass side panel, and the opposite side panel feels rather flexible. The vertical GPU brackets are one-time use, meaning if you snap them off the case, you will have to replace them with new brackets. I find the screws holding the glass side panel very inconvenient, and they have the tendency to strip the threads very easily. If you are handy with tools, a tap and die set and a few high quality screws does make an interesting DIY project to improve the way the side panel mounts onto the case.

Functionality wise, the Carbide 275R can house a variety of radiators and multiple storage devices, which does make for easy upgrades in the future. The case does fit large graphics cards, but graphics cards are so power efficient nowadays that they are much shorter than cards from a few years ago. Do note, if you own a case that is only a year or two old, like the Phanteks P300 or the NZXT S340 Elite, stick with it. You will not gain anything by jumping to the Carbide 275R, except if maybe you want to mount your graphics card vertically.

As of April 2018, the Corsair Carbide 275R Tempered Glass edition in white sells online for $79.99 (Newegg | Amazon). This case is aimed towards the entry-level market, which does include a surprisingly good cable management system and a few other features compared to the competition. However, the glass side panel mounting design may turn away some buyers as there are better implementations from NZXT, Phanteks, and Fractal Design. The Carbide 275R does not have a special selling point, but it does improve on the Carbide 270R making it a recommended product for the first time system builder.

+ Good cable management system
+ Modern and simple exterior design
+ Removable dust filters for easy cleaning
+ Support for a 360 mm radiators at the front

– Very little airflow through the front panel
– Allen hex screws are frustrating to remove and replace

• Performance: 8.00
• Appearance: 9.75
• Construction: 8.00
• Functionality: 9.00
• Value: 8.75

Recommended: Benchmark Reviews Seal of Approval.