- Date:
- Monday , January 07, 2013
- Author:
- Steve Lynch
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Compact ATX Case Review
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and Corsair looks to remedy that with its Carbide Series 200R; or something like that. Outside of the motherboard installation, no tools required is the message Corsair is looking to get across about this compact size "mid-tower" case.
Interior
Given the fact that the Corsair Carbide Series 200R is a "compact" mid-tower ATX case, the lack of space inside the case should come as no surprise. Despite being designated a compact case, there are seven expansion slots that should allow for 3-Way SLI and Tri-Fire systems but, as you can imagine, things will definitely be tight.
There are only four cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray for cable management, none are rubber lined but the edges are rolled to prevent damage to your cables. There is also a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area to facilitate in heatsink changes without removing the motherboard.
There are three 5.25" internal drive bays and four 3.5" drive bays. There are no removable HDD caddies but the 200R does have a built in drive bays for 2.5" SSDs. All the drive bays are all tool-less but, if you choose to do so, you may also secure your drives with screws.
The hard drive cage is made of plastic and can be removed from the case completely to accommodate larger graphics cards or other components. The hard drive cage is designed in such a way that a total of eight hard drives can be installed at the same time (four 2.5" SSD sit on top of the four 3.5" drives). The down side to this configuration is, if you remove the hard drive cage for any reason, an adapter must be used to mount your 2.5" and 3.5" drives in one of the open 5.25" drive bays. Also, when more than one graphics card is installed in the system (particularly triple card configurations) it is impossible to add or remove a SSD in the drive rack.
The 200R comes with one 120mm intake fan installed just behind the front bezel and a single 120mm exhaust fan located in the rear of the case over the CPU socket area. Overall, the case supports up to eight fans, seven if you leave the hard drive cage in place.
As we mentioned already, there isn't a lot of room in the 200R. The area between the uppermost edge of the motherboard and the top of the case is very limited. Depending on your choice of motherboard, there could be clearance issues when exhaust fans are installed in this location. As with most cases with tight space constraints, you should connect the eight pin 12v power cable to the motherboard first if you plan on installing a large heatsink.
As always, we installed everything from a small 500W power supply all the way up to larger units like the Tt Toughpower 1350 and the Corsair AX1200 to make sure they fit. For the most part, everything fit fine but, if you do choose to use a larger PSU, you will no longer be able to use the fan mounting location in the bottom of the case.
Cooling
As always, we are breaking down the cooling section of this evaluation into several parts so that we may adequately cover each section separately. We looked at stock fan cooling, all-in-one water cooling solutions, DIY enthusiast water cooling, and the ins and outs of each along with any issues we encountered along the way.
Fan & Air Cooling
Our "smoke test" is used to demonstrate the amount of air a case is capable of drawing in and from how far away. If the design of a case restricts its ability to draw in the cooler outside air, thermal performance can suffer as a result. So consider this a basic flow test of sorts.
It will be interesting to see if the combination of the front mounted 120mm intake fan feeding the top mounted 120mm exhaust fan has what it takes to keep positive air flow moving through the case.
With all fans dialed down to low, the 200R pulled air from a distance of 16" from the case and 24" with the fans set on high. So, despite our initial reservations, we are seeing a lot of CFM movement.
Although this is a "compact" case, the Corsair 200R was able to accommodate some of the largest coolers on the market with a little work. What kind of work are we talking about? In order to make some coolers fit, you will not be able to install a fan in the uppermost mounting location on the side panel or in the top of the case over the CPU socket area. Even then, large coolers, such as the enormous Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E, still came extremely close to making contact with the side panel, even without a fan installed in that location.




















