Corsair Obsidian 450D Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Exterior

The left side panel is held in place with a pair of thumb screws and features a huge side panel window with a mild tint, giving us a great view of the chassis interior that will look stunning if you have any internal lighting installed.

The right side panel is a plain black panel and it is also held in place with a pair of quick release thumb screws.

The front panel certainly looks different to much of the Obsidian range, which often favour a full aluminium panel. There’s the IO panel at the top, two extra wide 5.25″ drive bay covers and the clip-in dust filtered panel that feeds the two 140mm fans; all of which are finished in gorgeous black brushed aluminium.

The IO panel features the power and HDD LEDS at the top centre with the master power switch between them, then you’ll find HD Audio, reset switch on the left and a pair of USB 3.0 ports on the right.

The front panel can be released with two push-click buttons in the corners, this allows it to pull forward and be lifted out for maintenance.

This makes cleaning the dust filter that is build into the frame of the front cover a lot easier, while also making it possible to access the front fan mounts.

Around the back you’ll notice that there is quite a lot of chassis above the motherboard and fan mounts, this should give us plenty of extra internal space for mounting water cooling radiators in the top of the chassis. There is a pre-installed 120mm fan and below that you’ll find three pop-out metal caps for some extra water / cable routing holes. There are 7 expansion bays in total, each of which features ventilated metal covers that are held in place with thumb screws.

The top features loads of ventilation space, and a fine dust filter that is held in place by magnets.

This means you can just lift the cover off quickly to clean it, as well as access the multitude of mounting options on the top of the chassis, you’ll find room for 3 x 120mm / 2 x 140mm fans, and matching radiators.

The underside features yet another magnetic dust filter that covers the entire base of the chassis.

It’s easy to remove for cleaning and helps provide clean airflow to your PSU and any base mounted cooling. Dependant on your internal configuration you can get 2 x 120mm / 2 x 140mm or water cooling radiators in the base of the chassis. This obviously means you can have water cooling radiators in the front, back, top and bottom of the chassis!