Unboxing
The 900D came in a strong cardboard box with plenty of packaging, in addition it also had reinforcing strips on every corner and was further wrapped in plastic to keep it all together. Overall the box arrived in extremely good shape which is reassuring when something is this large and heavy:
The case itself is has a strong defined style that is neither too immature, nor too boring. It also very much fits the Obisidian name:
The look of the front is imposing and it means business. There is a flip down panel at the top which hides the headphone/mic jacks, two USB3 and four USB2 ports:
The center top of the flip down panel that remains is a combo power switch with two white LED lights, one for power and one for the HDD access as normal. In normal use the lights are subtle and classy but still useful:
The reset button is hidden behind the panel but is still easy to push when needed. It is worth noting that the cheaper Obsidian cases (350D and 750D) do not use the flip down panel and instead the I/O is always on display. The 900D therefore looks better when the IO is hidden away, but perhaps worse when they are in use. Of the two I’d prefer the 900D design.
Underneath the flip down panel are four 5 1/4″ drive bays. These are not standard drive bays as you may notice they appear too wide. The drive bay covers can be removed by pushing them out from inside the case. Once removed optical drives or bay reservoirs or fan controllers could easily be fitted, however the smooth flush look of the panel becomes very disrupted:
Again like the flipdown panel, the aesthetic is great when not used. However once used the overall look is severely hurt. If an optical drive is required it’s suggested that the front cover panel is modded to attach to the front of the optical drive so that it is stealthily hidden. I would suggest the same for fan controllers and as usual I would recommend a cylinder reservoir if possible. This case is so large that unless you are running a HPTX board then you should be able to fit a cylinder reservoir.
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Great review. I have been looking for a long term review for the 900D. I have heard problems with production quality, like bits snapping off. But you give no mention of that so I’m assuming these are isolated incidents.
Hey Terry – Yes I haven’t seen problems in the long run with anything failing. Most complaints I’ve seen were things being delivered with something broken. There’s definitely improvements that can be made and corners that were cut to save costs, but for the non-msrp price it’s a great deal!
Like the 900D. But – 480 rads can be obstructing to the upper bay as the rad will intrude on optical drive lengths / area. For this reason I swapped over to a 420 up top. Plenty of room all round and leaving many other options open, so I would disagree on the 480 recommendation up top.
Had to remove the lower intake fan as well to accommodate the 480 which is 60mm deep as the rear chamber just impinged on the fan mounts – using Alphacool nexus 480 x 60 unit with the 420 x 60 up top. Also a 140mm below as well. This aside, a joy to work in but still not the same as my lianLi 2120 workstation unit. may well look at the boutique brigade next time..
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