Build Process
Motherboard
Here you can see how wide open the interior still is with a motherboard installed (this is a micro-ATX board; a full ATX design would extend about 2.4 inches further down). The space to the right includes three large cable routing openings complete with soft grommets, and there is a space below the motherboard to the left that will facilitate additional routing if needed.
CPU Cooler
The first thing I set out to do once the motherboard (along with processor/memory) was installed was to mount a CPU cooler. Along with an air solution I have a standard 120 mm liquid cooler (Corsair H75) which is used for all benchmarks, but it's still important to see if the enclosure will fit larger designs. The H75's dual-width cousin is one of the larger 240 mm designs available given its thick radiator (38 mm), and it can pose a clearance issue in some enclosures.
The H105 mounted above the motherboard without any problems thanks to the slight offset with the mounting holes above, which allow sufficient distance from the motherboard to make installing the H105 easy in this upper position.
Of course, the front fan mounts are another great option for a longer radiator, and I could have easily mounted the H105 (or any other 240/280 mm cooler) up front as well.
The front mount includes a 140 mm Corsair AF140L fan positioned as intake, with an AF120L on the rear mount for exhaust.
Storage
Storage options begin with 2.5-inch drive support, with a plastic bracket positioned on the back side of the motherboard tray.
This bracket is very well designed for the easy installation of SSDs, which simply slide down and lock into place.
The inclusion of a spring under each of the three mounts makes removing drives very simple, as releasing the catch at the top of each mount causes the SSD to pop back up enough to grasp it.
Two 3.5-inch hard drives are supported below the SSD mounts, via a pair of tool-free plastic drive sleds.
These sleds offer rubber insulation where they contact the drives, helping prevent vibration. Once the drive is attached, the sleds simply slide in and click into place.
Power Supply
The PSU mount offers support for up to a 190 mm depth, but a modular design will take up extra room. My own PSU is compact for a 1000W design at just 160 mm, but with the modular connectors I wouldn't want to use anything larger.
The Carbide 400C is a compact enclosure for a mid-tower design, and as such you shouldn't have any issues with standard-length PSU cables – with the exception of the 8-pin CPU power connector, which I couldn't quite stretch far enough without using an extension (this problem only exists if you want to rout all cables behind the motherboard tray). You might notice the use of extensions on the ATX and PCIe power cables in photos of the completed build, but this is only to help make things look a little nicer from the other side and weren't necessary.
Next I'll cover my test setup and methodology, and then we'll have a look at the finished build and see how it performed.
Can Predator 360 fit in this
Can Predator 360 fit in this case, in front?
Good question. There’s plenty
Good question. There's plenty of clearance up front for a deeper cooler like the Predator 240, but I don't have the 360 mm version of that cooler here to test. The plastic shroud and HDD cage at the bottom might pose a clearance issue, though both are removable.
I have just built a system
I have just built a system with this case and when you install a Radiator on the front, it causes a few problems.
1) The HDD Shroud can be very tight to the Rad so you either have it in place prior to Rad installation or omit it from your build.
2) The screws used to install the Rad to the front panel of the case obviously protrude more than the supplied fan’s almost flush grub screws.
This means that the front filter can not sit flush – it bows in the middle. This kind of defeats the use of the filter as air will get through there unfiltered.
The only option is to mount your Rad elsewhere (which can cause its own clearance problems) or to alter the filter by cutting out the plastic edges where the Rad’s screws are.
This is not a problem if you use a 120mm fan based Rad as the screws miss the outer edge – but if like me you are using a 140mm fan based Rad then you are in for problems.
And to add insult to injury, this could easily have been fixed by various simple design choices – so I’m not happy at this problem.
3) The cases top control panel leads come down at the top of where you would install the Rad. This means that you can not have the Rad to the very top – which means in my 280mm rad that it therefore got in the way of the HDD shroud.
One other thing of note is that taking off the front of the case for me was extremely difficult.
In the manual is says you should grab it from the bottom and pull firmly – No chance of that happening for my case it was rock solid. Even when doing the unclipping method as mentioned in the review the bottom two clips really did not want to release.
I’m hoping my case was just faulty as I’ve built PC’s for decades and never taken 20 minutes to take of a panel undamaged.
This panel must be really easy to remove as you should be cleaning your filters on a regular basis. I’m just hoping that it will become easier over time.
Also the individual bags of screws are great, but they really should be marked, as I can foresee a less experienced builder mixing some of them up and possibly causing damage.
Oh, and I quite agree that cable management in the back can be quite difficult and tight – could have done with a little bit more room.
The enclosure includes
The enclosure includes flush-mount screws to attach a cooler to the front without protruding screws. There were 4 in the pack, so double-width coolers would need more (though I've attached 240 mm AIO coolers with just 4 screws before). The screws that most self-contained liquid coolers ship with are pan head, and protrude even farther if you use the washers that companies like Corsair include. I don't use the washers in situations where there are clearance issues, and I think the flat rad screws are a good addition to the accessory pack.
Would be nice if the bags were labeled, but I'm happy when the screws are at least in their own bags. I guess I've build so many systems at this point that I just 'know' which screws go to what, so perhaps I'm not the best user to judge.
Hello,
Do you know how much
Hello,
Do you know how much space is between the front of the case and the HDD shroud?
I want to install a Fractal Design Kelvin S36 and from what I can see in the pictures, I’m worried that it might not fit in there without removing the HDD shroud (and I don’t want to remove it, since IMO the case looks strange without it)
Thank you in advance.
This is an ATX case, you
This is an ATX case, you could have used an ATX motherboard …
Yes! I could have.
Yes! I could have.
is it worth it to replace my
is it worth it to replace my corsair carbide 300r with this ?
You can clean the front
You can clean the front filter by simply blowing horizontally through the openings, fluff comes right off. I won’t be removing my front panel much, if at all because of that. The RM750i was a tight fit but all panels are in just fine.
Interesting case, I often
Interesting case, I often wonder why any case has doors on the front that MUST be opened to access various components,etc, when it’d be easier to use by simply NOT having the door at all! I don’t mind the “industrial look” where parts are easy to access, also please, NEVER put USB’s, audio/video connectors behind any door or POWER switch on/off,etc…
Also, not a big fan of windows on sides of cases, nice to see the insides/fancy light systems, BUT…doesn’t these window cases tend to all be..louder?
Like quiet PC’s best!
Thanks again for the good review!
What is the CPU cooler. I’m
What is the CPU cooler. I’m going to get this case and a new CPU cooler and this one looks really nice. If you have one could you please link me a PCPartPicker build of this PC. Thanks!
-Zac