Corsair Graphite Series 600T: Cool and Quiet
by Dustin Sklavos on November 26, 2010 2:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- 600T
The 600T Externally
A jaunt around the externals of the Corsair Graphite Series 600T reveals something a little more curvaceous than we've come to expect from modern enclosures. Outside of the Cooler Master Cosmos the 600T seems to take at least one or two design cues from (as good a place as any), most cases tend to have sharp angles and very few curves. The 600T on the other hand features rounded edges around most of the design. By the same token, while most cases tend to be shades of black or silver, the 600T employs a gunmetal coloring that suits it well.
We'll start from the front and work our way around. The 600T features four external 5.25" bays but surprisingly no 3.5"; it's safe to assume Corsair figures you can always adapt a front panel card reader (or your ancient floppy drive) to fit in a 5.25" bay. The entire front of the case is ventilated, and the panel in front of the massive 200mm intake fan pops off, allowing you to clean the grate and dust out of the fan. That 200mm fan (and its brother in the top of the case) is the source of some consternation in other reviews: it's quiet, but it doesn't seem to move that much air, and I know some reviewers found the bright white LED lighting a little obnoxious. That's definitely going to be a matter of taste.
When we crawl up the front to the top of the case, we see one of the major progressions in modern cases: the I/O, power, and reset buttons are at the top front of the 600T. It's a smart move since most of us tend to keep our cases on the floor these days. Corsair offers a healthy selection of I/O here: a generous four USB 2.0 ports, microphone and headphone jacks, a 6-pin Firewire port, and something of a rarity right now: a USB 3.0 port. That USB 3.0 port doesn't use the USB 3.0 header that's been showing up on some recent motherboards, though; it's powered by an extension cable that routs to the back of the case and plugs into the motherboard's I/O cluster. This isn't the most elegant solution in the world, but it gets the job done and it's flexible enough that you can always just plug it into a rear USB 2.0 port if your board doesn't support 3.0 and get a fifth front port. If I had one complaint about the I/O cluster, though, it's the inclusion of Firewire but not eSATA. I use both but if I had to make a choice for the average user, I'd err on the side of eSATA.
Parked in the middle of all these ports is the 600T's integrated fan controller. If you've read any other reviews of the 600T, allow me to reiterate what they said: this thing just doesn't seem to do that much. If you plug in all of the fans in the case (the controller is actually completely independent of the case fans and you can choose to avoid using it entirely), you will find that the difference between the lowest and highest settings is like night and later that night. You'll only hear the difference in a quiet room, and as you'll see later, the highest setting doesn't appreciably improve cooling performance.
Speaking of which, the top of the case has a second removable grate covering the second 200mm fan, this one an exhaust. Again, this grate is easy to remove but also fairly secure.
The rear of the case reveals the exhaust fan, a more standard 120mm affair, along with two important distinctions. First, Corsair outfits the case with eight expansion slots instead of seven. It's a small but noteworthy inclusion that makes the case well-suited to multi-GPU systems. Second is the increasingly common bottom-mounted power supply. The power supply's cooling is essentially completely cut off from the rest of the system, and there's a vent in the bottom of the case (with a removable filter) for the power supply's fan. This isn't a problem either; the case is built on a raised base that keeps all but the shaggiest of carpeting from clogging up the vent.
Finally on the sides we have one of my favorite features of the 600T: as you'll find when we check out the internals, the 600T is a largely tool-less affair, and the side panels are very secure but use latches that pop them right off. It's a nice change of pace from having to slide the side panel back on and then secure it, even with thumbscrews, to the back. These panels make getting into and out of the 600T an absolute breeze.
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Dustin Sklavos - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Seriously? If the USB 2.0 ports bother you, enjoy your uh...fictional case that doesn't actually exist. The case has a USB 3.0 port, how many 3.0 peripherals do you even have?I, on the other hand, enjoy having that many USB ports handy.
semo - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
You talk as if USB 3.0 won't become the defacto peripheral standard in the near future. The standard has been out for a while and cases don't see hardware revisions often, so this case will seem outdated once USB 3.0 drives and peripherals become more common.The_Assimilator - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
How many current motherboard chipsets integrate USB3 controllers? That's right, none. How many upcoming chipsets will integrate USB3? Also none.There's a good reason for this, and it's called Light Peak.
And if you're complaining about PC parts becoming outdated... then you should really stick to consoles. USB ports don't make a case, although I would like to have seen the 60T space the front ones out a bit more to accommodate extra-thick USB flash drives, like Corsair's own Flash Voyager series.
thrust2night - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Looks like you've assimilated your ass with your brain.There are motherboards which have more than one onboard USB 3 ports. And if USB ports don't make a case, neither does Light Peak. And since you are obviously not aware that Intel will be releasing motherboards with their own onboard USB 3 controllers in 2012, you made yourself look more like that idiot you are.
USB 3 is here to stay and there is no point in buying a case that offers only one front USB 3 port. If you are right, why would companies even give you a USB 2 port, they could save money and stick with USB 1.1 coz like you said, Light Peak is coming.
semo - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
I can't believe USB 3.0 is such a taboo subject on IT sites... it just boggles the mind. We should all be looking forward to it rather and not find merrits with USB 2.0...Anyway, @The_Assimilator I think you should look deeper into Light Peak. It is only an interface and not a bus. You can aggregate USB 3.0 traffic onto Light Peak if you want to but for the immidiate future we need USB 3.0 (spare me the "10 MB/s for my USB stick is enough, I can wait" crap)
LancerVI - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
No USB 3.0? No Purchase!The question of USB 3.0 and this cases lack thereof is a valid and good question.
And there are plenty of motherboards with USB 3.0 onboard.
Dear The_Assimilator,
It's better to be thought of as a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Lancer VI
thrust2night - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
So you're saying people should by a case based on the number peripherals they have?And what nerve to contradict your own statement by saying you would enjoy having that many USB ports handy, implying you don't have enough peripherals to use all the USB ports.
He still has a point. If you're paying a high price for a computer case, which you would probably keep for a few years, if not indefinitely, why would you buy one with only one USB 3 port in the front? It's just plain stupid and the worse part is, idiots like you don't even see it.
SandmanWN - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Kinda pointless argument. The only thing that can utilize USB3 to its potential is external SSD enclosures. Most people don't even have one of those around. All mouse/keyboards/printers/etc have not use for it.Even the high end user argument is bunk. It will be years before USB3 devices are even common place and by the an enthusiast should have upgraded already.
philosofa - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Whilst the USB 2.0 connectors themselves are backwards compatible (i.e. you can fit 2.0 devices into 3.0 ports) the USB 3.0 connectors that connect to the mobo are completely different - afaik there's no way of connecting a USB 3.0 cable conenctor to a USB 2.0 mobo header. As a result the reality of the current situation is that any current case will by necessity have a mix of USB 3.0 and 2.0 connectors, given that a (currently tiny) minority of boards have USB 3.0 headers at all. It's a bit unfair to expect Corsair to exclude the majority of their customers.I suppose some kind of switching system would be possible, but TBH that's probably an excessive expectation on our part- thus I have to applaud the fact that Corsair fitted at least a single USB 3.0 front panel connector; as Dustin says realistically how many USB 3.0 devices will you connect to the front panel (for me it'd just be a USB 3.0 pen drive)?
thrust2night - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
But on the same note, how many USB 2 peripherals are you connecting to your computer. I would even go as far as to ask if you are actually using the USB 2 ports on the front panel 24x7. Because if you are not, then just having one USB 2 port and the rest as USB 3 would be better.Or, it would have been good to have 2 USB 2.0 and 3 USB 3.0 ports on the front, since the number of motherboards with onboard USB 3 will actually increase making the case future proof. There are some motherboards like AsRock that provide 2 onboard USB 3 ports.